Both fighters won the fight. They managed to cash in their pride and legacy for one last paycheck.
Us fans are the real losers here.
I'll never watch another Hopkins fight again. Even for free.
Why wasn't Manny fighting the first 2 mins of a lot of rounds? He didn't look tired or anything but simply walked around only to flurry the last min.
This whole thing stinks and I have a feeling everyone in the Pac camp knows whats up. Where was the urgency by Roach to tell Manny to finish him off?
I'd happily watch this fight and root for Cotto. This way, if Cotto wins, he'll be a big money star and get Floyd's attention. Hopefully they can do a dec fight in 2008.
Due to Floyd mouth and hand speed, people simply overlook his greatest attribute: defense. His defense breaks down game plans and destroys the will of the other fighter as the fight goes on.
Cotto already takes too many hits to get inside. Floyd would pick him off all night. Cotto is very suseptible to a KO against Floyd.
There will always be someone else. For many of you, you simply want to see Floyd lose a fight. Nothing more. I'm hoping he really does walk away so you don't get the satisfaction.
If he beats Hatton, Cotto and Margarito should fight and winner takes on Floyd. After that, Floyd can retire have a solid place in history as an all time great.
It'd be way to stupid for him to take 09 off also.
He should take about 8-9 months off in 08 then train in the later months and fight Cotto in December or Novemeber.
Financially it's better for Floyd to take time off and let the others fight it out. Hopefully one of them stay undefeated, gets marketed well so that in a couple of years, Floyd gets an even larger payday on his comeback.
Cotto isn't a big draw (yet) but if he can beat Williams, Margarito and learn some good English (he's getting better!), in 2 years he'll be worth a lot more to Floyd.
Going forward, Floyd fights will solely be business decisions. He honestly has nothing to gain by fighting Cotto at this stage.
They are both doing this posturing. Hatton can say Mayweather turned it down if he rejects this offer, and the other way around is true as well if Mayweather has really offered a fight to Hatton. What if the terms are 90-10 split for PBF or something just outrageous like that? If Hatton doesn't sign, he'll say he doesn't want the fight.
Who knows if this fight gets signed. Color me pessimistic.
If the fight doesn't happen, details of negotiations (with a spin from both sides) will likely be made public and we can judge from that. We'll be left extrapolating the truth from the PR.
For Hatton, winning this fight would have a ridiculous ripple effect for him and boxing in general throughout Europe. He's quite well liked over there and a well promoted fight like Oscar/Floyd could see a large TV turnout. At this point, if Ricky wins the fight, he'll just cash in heavily fight after fight.
If Ricky is confident he can win, taking a bit less money now means a ton more in the future and I'm not counting endorsements either. Ofcourse, winning against Floyd is easier said than done.
For Floyd, this fight needs to be a pay day. If he wins the fight, it'll be "expected" and things will move on as is. If he loses, his market value drops dramatically.
This is very sad. Hatton and crew are simply trying to toss long offers out there to save face so they can come back with something "we were ready to fight but Mayweather turned it down!"
Fact is, Mayweather is at top right now and Hatton is the one with something to prove. So if Hatton really want to fight Mayweather, come to Las Vegas and fight. Don't throw condition after condition out there hoping to catch an out.
There was nothing I saw in the Forbes fight that showed me Oscar is ready for Floyd. Really, this is a fight for Floyd to lose meaning he would have to take Oscar lightly and not train as hard to lose.
Manny is too agresssive and gets hit waaay too much to be able to go against someone as defensive and a great counter puncher like Floyd. This would not be a good fight for Manny at all.
Floyd making himself as marketable and well knows as possible during the FINANCIAL PRIME in his career. It's a smart move on his part. Most of you are either too you young or too ignorant to understand such basic business sense.
What a horrible fight. Hopkins doesn't have the endurance needed to fight constantly which is what you need against Pavlik's non stop output. No way in hell I'd waste money on a PPV of this.
Oscar is a promoter. He's going to sell as many pay per views as possible for this fight.
Next up, if Hatton wins, it benefits him the most. A Hatton beating Floyd stands to make a lot of money for Oscar and Golden Boy if the next fight is with Oscar.
If Hatton loses, then it sucks for Oscar in the long run since Floyd has his own promotional company going forward and will likely take on Cotto managed by Arum (right?)as the next big fight.
Aside for the results, it's clear that Berto isn't on the same level as the better welterweights. His defense is very poor as is his footwork. I'd like to see him fight someone like Jab Zudah to see how well he's does against a 2nd level fighter who used to a Top tier at one point. He'd be easy picking for people like Mayweather/Marg/Mosley/Cotto.
Common sense should tell you that Manny needs to take tests.
It would be nice to see the Nevada (and other) Athletic State Comissions adopt the USADA metric for testing for all title/megafights.
Weight classes exist in boxing for a reason. Going up in class with illegal aids is a huge benefit to a fighter.
I'm not saying that Manny is taking PED's. I'm saying that his refusal and silly proposed timelines leave a sour taste.
If Oscar wants the best FIGHT he needs to fight Margarito. As a fighter, I'd have much more respect for Oscar losing to Margarito than winning again Manny.
If Oscar can somehow beat Margarito, to me, it'd be one of the top 3 upsets in the sport within the past 20years.
I know this will upset a lot of fans but Manny is not very intelligent. Arum has been around a LONG time and learned to hook up with fighters he believe he can control easily.
In case of his biggest slot machine, Manny, he went the extra mile to inject his people into Manny's trusted circle.
Manny will confer with this trusted advisors and they will tell him Bob Arum is the best thing for him. Coupled with Manny's vices and zero fiscal sense, he's not going anywhere. I expect Manny to be struggling for cash a few years after retirement only to come back at an old and washed up age to collect a paycheck.
A fight with Floyd will only happen a few years down the road when Manny needs money badly. By then, hopefully Floyd doesn't answer the call. No one wants to see a repeat of Hopkins vs Jones II. Too little, too late.