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By Scott Heritage
The latest from the Mayweather vs. Mosley bout is that Floyd is apparently not all that eager to put his perfect record on the line for the $10 million or so he will make from the fight. Sources within Floyd’s camp are saying that he is a little underwhelmed at the prospect of fighting for a quarter of what he would have made against Manny Pacquiao.
Far from being the proverbial carrot on a stick, Shane Mosley doesn’t fit in with any of Floyd’s usual recent criteria for an opponent. He’s the bigger and stronger man, he’s still at the peak of his powers, and perhaps most annoyingly he doesn’t have a recklessly aggressive style Floyd can counter easily.
It might even be the case that Mosley can take Mayweather’s best punches and keep coming forward, throwing his timing off and trapping him against the ropes and corners.
By his own terms though he got the better end of the fallout between himself and Pacquiao, Mosley is ranked higher and a bigger pay per view draw in the United States than Manny’s next opponent. Joshua Clottey is relatively unknown outside most boxing circles, and Ghana is hardly prime pay per view country.
Mosley himself isn’t a huge draw, but hes certainly a lot bigger than Clottey. Mayweather claims to be a bigger star than Pacquiao anyway (which is debatable, but not outside the realms of possibility) , so opponents shouldn’t matter anyway.
The delays over the Mosley fight seem to be Floyd wanting it both ways, an easy opponent and massive pay per view sales. He might have pulled that little trick against Juan Manuel Marquez, who was undersized from the start, but he can’t do the same thing here.
He either has to bite the bullet and face someone difficult and who presents a challenge to him and make the bigger money, or take an easier fight and settle for less.
Mayweather not being satisfied with the selling power of Mosley is a little redundant anyway because at this weight and this time, Mosley is probably the best fight Mayweather could have gotten.
Hatton and De La Hoya were both huge sellers but have now retired, many of the emerging stars are still unknown and others have retired or moved over. Cotto is now up in super middleweight, Berto is busy in Haiti for the next few months and after them comes Clottey, who is already fighting.
Barring another light welterweight moving up, there is simply no-one better for Mayweather to fight. Ricky Hatton came up to fight Floyd because he was dominant at light welter, but with him now semi retired, the division is suddenly alive with stars who can get by well enough without facing a bigger opponent like Mayweather.
A major concern for Mayweather aside from the difficulty of the fight is probably the fact that if he sells less pay per views than Pacquiao and Clottey for his next fight, whoever the opponent is, he will lose bargaining power for a fight against Pacquiao in the future.
Pacquiao and Clottey should sell well given the national press attention the fight has received. The fact that the Cowboys stadium is being used will also boost this, particularly in the United States.
Mayweather alone can sell over a million, and with Mosley as his opponent, he can realistically expect even more than this. Whether this will be enough to counter ‘the show’ though will probably be a major factor in whether Manny and Floyd will ever meet in the ring.
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