Floyd Mayweather Jr.: Planning His Next Exit Route

Floyd Mayweather Jr.: Planning His Next Exit Route Jayson Charpied December 22, 2010 Remember when Floyd Mayweather Jr. was a dominant junior lightweight champion that would fight anybody you put in front of him? Yes, I’m talking about the same Floyd Mayweather that went into “retirement” just so he would have a valid excuse to not fight either Miguel Cotto or Antonio Margarito just a few years ago. Yes, the same Floyd Mayweather that invented his own “drug-testing” rulebook just so he wouldn’t have to fight Manny Pacquiao. And before you ask; yes, the same Floyd Mayweather who most recently beat up his baby mama in front of their kids, and has been laying his hands on security guards instead of professional fighters as of late. Yeah that guy. That guy was once a fearless competitor who won fighter of the year back in 1998 at the age of 21, when he went 7-0, including a boxing lesson he gave to Genero Hernandez to win the WBC 130 pound title, and then followed it up with a two round destruction of a prime Angel Manfredy. Floyd Mayweather, believe it or not, was actually once a fighter with balls. In 2001, Diego Corrales was 33-0 (28) and was considered the best fighter at 130, along with Floyd, and both were ranked in Ring magazines top ten pound-for-pound. Many observers felt that Corrales was too big and hit too hard for any fighter at 130, including Mayweather, but Floyd proved us all very wrong. Corrales, who had never been down in his previous 33 fights, was knocked down five times, and eventually stopped in the tenth round. It was, and still is, Floyds best performance to date. That guy was an amazing boxer who wasn’t intimidated by any fighter, and would put a hurtin on anyone that dared step in the same ring with him. Floyd always had confidence back then, and confidence is not as easy to obtain as you might think. It takes hard work to become truly confident. You have to know that you are great at what you do, and that nobody can beat you if you fight your fight. That’s confidence, and that’s what Floyd had. Key word is “had”, meaning no longer “has”, and that’s what happens when doubt sets in. As confident as any fighter can possibly be, there is always that time when doubt inevitably shows its ugly face. Sometimes it doesn’t happen until age takes over and your body just won’t allow that kind of assurance anymore because of its increasing limitations, but most of the time something happens unexpectedly that makes doubt introduce itself. For Floyd, it didn’t take much. As a matter of fact, it took a win, a victory for the lightweight championship of the world. After Floyd got tired of beating up everyone at 130, he decided to move up to 135 and fight the champion Jose Luis Castillo in April of 2002. Castillo was a typical Mexican face-first brawler type with a big punch, but little defense, and besides having a punchers chance, he was tailor made for Maweather. Floyd went into the fight as confident as ever, but when it was over, and the scorecards were being read, he was anything but confident. At the end of the day Floyd won by a unanimous decision, but still to this day you’ll find more people who felt that Castillo won that fight than you will people who felt Floyd won. Either way, it would be the last time that, that version of Floyd Mayweather would ever be seen again. Even when the rematch was fought later that year, and Floyd actually won the fight more convincingly, it was a different fighter who did it. It was a fighter who no longer was willing to exchange, not willing to let his hands go, and most noticeably, not willing to fight. He was content on winning a boring decision that night, and he never looked back. After the Castillo fights, his quality of opposition went down dramatically and so the cherry-picking set in. In 2003 he fought just twice, against Victoriano Sosa and Philip N’dou. In 2004 he fought just once, against the steppingstone DeMarcus “Chop-Chop” Corley. In 2005 he moved up to 140 where Kostya Tszyu reigned supreme. A lot of people forget that Tszyu was actually the first fighter Floyd ever really ducked, a distinction that Floyd would eventually become notorious for. There was a time when Mayweather and Tszyu were possibly the two best pound-for-pound fighters in the sport, and Tszyu probably had the single hardest punch in boxing, his straight right. Instead of fighting Tszyu, Mayweather looked for his first “exit route” and fought good-old dependable Arturo Gatti instead, for Gatti’s WBC 140 pound title. Since then, Mayweather has done exactly that; look for exit routes, and it worked for a long time. When Mayweather moved up to welterweight, everyone was excited about possible fights with Miguel Cotto, whom was undefeated at the time, or Antonio Margarito, whom was beating everyone at the time, or the giant Paul Williams, or at the very least he’d fight Shane Mosley who still had a little something left to offer. Instead he fought Sharmba Mitchell, Zab Judah, whom was coming off a loss, and fought Carlos Baldomir whom has 9 losses, all along being called out daily by Margarito, Williams and Cotto. He even moved up to 154 to fight a lesser version of Oscar De La Hoya, and then came back down to 147 to fight Ricky Hatton whom looked very beatable in his only other welterweight fight, instead of fighting Margarito, Williams or Cotto. When all other exit routes were gone, Floyd “retired”. Basically what he did was wait for another exit route to present itself. He would sit out nearly two years and allow the welterweight division to clear itself out. Cotto went on to lose to Margarito, and Williams left welterweight and Margarito went on to lose to Shane Mosley. And so Floyd came back, but to fight the lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez who had to jump up two weight classes to fight him at a catch-weight of 145. And Floyd being Floyd, didn’t even come in at the agreed upon weight, and came in at 147 and had to pay a $600,000 fine for coming in overweight. Floyd’s only fight this year was finally against Shane Mosley, which was a legitimate fight, but in reality, Shane hadn’t fought in a year and a half, and as further proven in his last fight against Sergio Mora, is a shell of his former self. So now, with no exit routes in site, Mayweather has mentioned that he won’t be fighting again for at least another year, and when he finally does fight again, you better believe it will not be against Manny Pacquaio. And of that I’m very confident. http://myboxing.com/2010/12/22/floyd-mayweather-jr-planning-his-next-exit-route/