By Richard McManus

Saturday Night "Pretty Boy" Floyd Mayweather improved his record to 33-0, 22KO's with a 8th Round knockout against Henry Brusles.  It was only Mayweather's second knockout win since 2001 and his second fight in 14 months.

Now Floyd deserves some credit.  He's managed to remain undefeated as a pro while earning some decent wins over good fighters like Diego Corrales, Jose Luis Castillo and Jesus Chavez.

He's also had some pretty lackluster performances against the likes of Victoriano Sosa and Carlos Hernandez.  There was also the fight most recently against Demarcus Corley.  This was a fight which the boxing media hierarchy and the rulers over at HBO tried to persuade the boxing public that Floyd was "auditioning" for the Pound for Pound crown.  In reality, Floyd did to Corley exactly what Zab Judah did to him a few months prior and nobody was ever foolish enough to suggest that Zab Judah even belonged in boxing's mythical Top 50.

Now, with this said it has become painfully obvious that Mayweather is plainly one of the most overrated boxers in the game.  His defining win was more than four years ago against Diego Corrales.  Since then Floyd has done nothing to raise his stock.  The best fighter he's faced has been Jose Luis Castillo, whom he faced twice, and most experts seem to think that the fighter's split their two meetings.

The crew over at HBO, Jim Lampley and the rest of the guys continue to mention Floyd Mayweather as one of the best fighters in the game. They mention him in the same sentence as Bernard Hopkins. Lampley even referred to Bernard and Floyd as 1 and 1A in the Top 10 Pound for Pound.

Based on what?

Floyd Mayweather is probably one of the biggest underachievers in boxing right now.  And I used to like Floyd and even pledged to root for him if he ever fought Naseem Hamed.  Historical perspective now shows me that when compared to Floyd it can be said that at least The Prince brought something to the ring every time out.  He gave every thing he had, he wasn't afraid to get hit, never crawled into a defensive shell and was never booed in his hometown.  Floyd simply chooses to win ugly and/or sloppily every time out.

Much of this can probably be explained with a simple application of the principles of Economics 101 and the idea that investors always look for a return on their investment.  The fact of the matter is that HBO has invested millions of dollars trying to make Floyd a star and to no avail.  Boxing fans don't even look forward to Mayweather fights.  To get him to headline a Pay Per View card they're going to have to match him up against boxing mega-star Arturo Gatti.  Ask yourself this: Who is really the headliner in
that fight?

To apply the economic criteria of the Mayweather situation to baseball you could say that the situation compares to the 1999 Los Angeles Dodgers and the mutually destructive relationship that existed between Starting Pitcher Carlos Perez, General Manager Kevin Malone and a the dugout Gatorade Cooler.

Kevin Malone gave Perez a $6 Million a year contract and Perez promptly went out and put up a record of 2-10 with a 7.43 ERA.  Watching the Dodgers trot Perez out to the mound every fifth day amounted to the infamous Chinese water torture being applied to diehard Dodger fans everywhere.

But having given him such an enormous contract the Dodgers simply could not afford to take him out of the starting rotation no matter how many 8 earned  run pitching lines showed up in the box score the day after he started. There was simply too much money invested to turn back.

It's the same with Floyd.  HBO has to get a return on their investment.

Now you say, well at least he knocked out Henry Brusles on Saturday, that counts for something right?  My response is this: What did you expect, it was a total mismatch going in.  Besides, who the heck is Henry Brusles and did you know he was still fighting 6 and 8 rounders just over 2 years ago? The fact that HBO matched Mayweather with such a non-threat in the lead-up fight to the Gatti PPV may suggest that HBO may be privy to information about Mayweather that the general boxing public may not know.  Why was he put in there against a guy that posed no threat?

One interesting event that took place half way through the fight was an exchange between Jim Lampley and the Pretty Boy.  And truth be told, it probably lends some credence in a strange way to what I'm saying on this page.  Lampley took it upon himself to ask Floyd if the liked the Eagles or the Falcons to win the NFC Championship game.

Now the fact that Floyd picked the Falcons was shocking enough.  But the fact that this exchange was even able to take place says two things.  One, it says that Floyd is only using about 3% of his natural talent at any given time.  His mind always appears to be elsewhere.  Maybe he's thinking about which club his posse is going to hit later that night or whether or not he needs a bigger plasma screen HDTV so his crew can play Knockout Kings 2005.

To make another baseball analogy, if Floyd Mayweather were a baseball player he'd be Manny Ramirez tossing out number two into the crowd and jogging in while the runner on third tags up and jogs home.

Another truth that this exchange reveals is that there is an unusual silence in the arena when Floyd fights, making it possible for him to carry on normal conversations with people in the crowd.

In this writer's opinion Floyd still has lots of work to do to earn a place in the Top 5 of Boxing's mythical Pound for Pound.  A win over Gatti would be a start, but let's see him win some legitimate fights against the likes of Kostya Tszyu, Miguel Cotto or Shane Mosley.  More fights against fighters the caliber of Demarcus Corley, Phillip N'dou or Henry Brusles simply aren't enough.