Tweet
This is a long post – so if you don’t want to read it all, then don’t respond.
After reading a plethora of thoughtless posts that suggest Mayweather is the one to blame for not fighting an “elite” level fighter in over four years (The last being against Castillo).
Since then, Floyd has fought: Victoriano Sosa, Phillip N’dou, DeMarcus Corely, Henry Bruseles, Arturo Gatti, Sharmba Mitchell and Zab Judah. Which I agree isn’t the strongest list of fighters, but you have to examine the situations and circumstances, which lead to these fights. People just look at the names and just point all the blame on Floyd.
So let’s examine, shall we?
After the Castillo fights, Floyd made title defenses against a couple #1 challengers, pretty much cleaning up the Lightweight division, and had his sights set on 140. The only people he didn’t beat were Casamayor and Freitas. Casamayor turned Floyd down and opted to stay at Super Featherweight and fight Diego Corrales, and Arcelino didn’t want to fight Floyd at that time either, and fought Ramirez instead.
Fast forward to May, 2005. Floyd makes his 140lb debut by fighting a tune-up in Corely, who had just given Judah a very, very tough fight. Floyd also took this fight so he could look good in it, in hopes of setting up a huge PPV fight with Arturo Gatti, which would then set up a fight with Kostya Tszyu. The problem is, Gatti didn’t want to fight Floyd and defend his WBC belt. So Floyd had to do it the hard way, and force Gatti to defend against him, by becoming the #1 challenger (becoming Gatti’s mandatory). In order to do this he has to fight Bruseles in a WBC Title Eliminator fight.
A month before the Gatti fight, Ricky Hatton bursts onto the global boxing scene with a massive upset over Kostya Tszyu, and now talks were that of a potiental Hatton-Mayweather fight instead of a fight with Kostya. To help build up the fight, Hatton to went the Gatti-Mayweather fight and sat ringside.
Needless to say we all saw what happened to Gatti, including Hatton. After that fight Ricky or even Cotto, wanted absolutely nothing to do with Mayweather. Hatton started with his “I need tune-ups before facing Mayweather” and fought Maussa instead and Cotto fought Abdulaev.
Instead of Mayweather staying at 140 and picking his ass, waiting for Hatton to decide when “he’s ready”, he moves up to 147 and schedules to fight UNDISPUTED champ Zab Judah, in what he hopes to be a “mega fight.” Both fighters take a fight to look good in, to help build up the fight. Mayweather chose Sharmba Mitchell (a slick southpaw, like Judah is) and Zab decided to fight his mandatory Baldomir. The problem is JUDAH LOST! That screwed everything up. However, since they were already scheduled to fight, and after some renegotiations they fought anyway.
Which leaves us to today, and we don’t know who Floyd is fighting next… it could very well be Margarito, we don’t know. Just stop with this “Floyd has ducked people his entire career”, when most of you have no idea what you’re talking about.
After reading a plethora of thoughtless posts that suggest Mayweather is the one to blame for not fighting an “elite” level fighter in over four years (The last being against Castillo).
Since then, Floyd has fought: Victoriano Sosa, Phillip N’dou, DeMarcus Corely, Henry Bruseles, Arturo Gatti, Sharmba Mitchell and Zab Judah. Which I agree isn’t the strongest list of fighters, but you have to examine the situations and circumstances, which lead to these fights. People just look at the names and just point all the blame on Floyd.
So let’s examine, shall we?
After the Castillo fights, Floyd made title defenses against a couple #1 challengers, pretty much cleaning up the Lightweight division, and had his sights set on 140. The only people he didn’t beat were Casamayor and Freitas. Casamayor turned Floyd down and opted to stay at Super Featherweight and fight Diego Corrales, and Arcelino didn’t want to fight Floyd at that time either, and fought Ramirez instead.
Fast forward to May, 2005. Floyd makes his 140lb debut by fighting a tune-up in Corely, who had just given Judah a very, very tough fight. Floyd also took this fight so he could look good in it, in hopes of setting up a huge PPV fight with Arturo Gatti, which would then set up a fight with Kostya Tszyu. The problem is, Gatti didn’t want to fight Floyd and defend his WBC belt. So Floyd had to do it the hard way, and force Gatti to defend against him, by becoming the #1 challenger (becoming Gatti’s mandatory). In order to do this he has to fight Bruseles in a WBC Title Eliminator fight.
A month before the Gatti fight, Ricky Hatton bursts onto the global boxing scene with a massive upset over Kostya Tszyu, and now talks were that of a potiental Hatton-Mayweather fight instead of a fight with Kostya. To help build up the fight, Hatton to went the Gatti-Mayweather fight and sat ringside.
Needless to say we all saw what happened to Gatti, including Hatton. After that fight Ricky or even Cotto, wanted absolutely nothing to do with Mayweather. Hatton started with his “I need tune-ups before facing Mayweather” and fought Maussa instead and Cotto fought Abdulaev.
Instead of Mayweather staying at 140 and picking his ass, waiting for Hatton to decide when “he’s ready”, he moves up to 147 and schedules to fight UNDISPUTED champ Zab Judah, in what he hopes to be a “mega fight.” Both fighters take a fight to look good in, to help build up the fight. Mayweather chose Sharmba Mitchell (a slick southpaw, like Judah is) and Zab decided to fight his mandatory Baldomir. The problem is JUDAH LOST! That screwed everything up. However, since they were already scheduled to fight, and after some renegotiations they fought anyway.
Which leaves us to today, and we don’t know who Floyd is fighting next… it could very well be Margarito, we don’t know. Just stop with this “Floyd has ducked people his entire career”, when most of you have no idea what you’re talking about.
Comment