Floyd Mayweather Jr. made his return to boxing in impressive style Saturday night when he thoroughly dominated Juan Manuel Marquez for twelve frighteningly one-sided rounds.
Fighting in front of a Las Vegas crowd that was unanimously behind his opponent, Mayweather calmly walked back into the sport as though he never left. Shockingly, it could be argued he looked better than ever before.
Mayweather went after Marquez with lead left hooks to start the fight, pushing Mexico’s best fighter off balance early. His jab couldn’t miss, and he even smacked Marquez with two left hooks in a row before Marquez hardly had time to blink near the end of the round. One round in, Mayweather was already in firm control and showing no signs whatsoever of ring rust, despite nearly a two-year layoff.
With the crowd shouting his name, Marquez fought back in round two, catching Mayweather with a hard right hand against the ropes. Always at ease in a prizefight, Mayweather responded with a big smile and a hard left hook. Before Marquez could even react, Mayweather blasted him with another hook, this one dumping Marquez flat on his back for a clean knockdown.
Marquez was up by Referee Tony Weeks’ count of four, showing his warrior’s heart, but he continued to eat some blazing left hooks for the rest of the round. Just to mix it up, Mayweather added in some straight right hands to the head. They were largely unnecessary. Mayweather was outclassing Marquez with his left hand alone.
Marquez continued to hurl flurries at Mayweather in round three with minimal success. After getting their arms tangled, Marquez let his guard down, allowing Mayweather to drill him with a flush one-two to the head. Whenever Marquez tried to get close, Mayweather made him think twice about it with textbook jabs to the face. By the end of the round, Mayweather didn’t even bother raising his hands to defend himself as he avoided a big right from Marquez.
Round four was one of the best of the fight for Marquez, and it would still be a stretch to say he won it. Trapping Mayweather on the ropes late in the round, he scored with a solid straight right to the head, followed by another. And even then, Mayweather had been caught punching after landing a left hook on Marquez. A desperate Marquez hurled such a wild right at one point that he tripped over his own feet and stumbled halfway across the ring. Simply put: Mayweather was making the number three pound-for-pound fighter in the world and a man many believe deserved to beat Manny Pacquiao twice look like an amateur.
With Marquez cut over his right eye, Mayweather put on a masterful performance in round five as he spent the entire last minute pot-shotting with jabs, straight right hands and hard left hooks. Marquez missed every shot on no less than five six-punch combination attempts. Then, a lead right hand wobbled Marquez off balance momentarily in round six. It looked like Mayweather might be thinking knockout later in the round as he busted up the face of Marquez with straight right hands in the corner, for which Marquez had no answer. His cut had worsened, but Marquez was still on his feet and still throwing punches if nothing else.
Marquez tried to unravel Mayweather in the seventh round, firing combinations with both hands. But Mayweather simply pounded his chest with his glove and beckoned Marquez on for more. Marquez had a pretty good round eight – the only round he could be argued to have won all fight – by working Mayweather to the body against the ropes. Mayweather took a right on the chin and smiled before urging Marquez to crack him again. Marquez answered with more body shots before the bell, and Mayweather grinned as he walked away.
Mayweather was hardly breathing heavy at all on his stool. No doubt, he had tougher sparring sessions over the years. At least one recent one with junior welterweight Anthony Peterson was said to have been wildly competitive and evenly fought for the most part. That wasn’t the case at all with Marquez, who, for all his skill, was nowhere near Mayweather’s level.
Round nine was the first time Mayweather really let loose with combinations. He hit Marquez with a slapping right hand, an uppercut and a left hook in sequence. Then, he slammed a big left-right combination across Marquez’ face that immediately busted his nose open. Mayweather stepped up his attack even more in round ten, unleashing his hardest shots of the night, including a monster of a right that nearly took Marquez’ head off. Mayweather added another straight right just before the bell, and Marquez looked like he was ready to answer with something late. Thinking better of it, he walked back to his corner, and Mayweather danced mockingly behind him as though he could go another ten rounds with no problem.
The only thing missing at that point was a knockout. From as early as the third round, it looked like Mayweather could finish the job anytime he wanted. But, just as Mayweather looked back to form with his reflexes and accuracy, he was back to form as well in giving the bare minimum to win rather than reach out and take a fight; that is, until round eleven, which he spent walking Marquez down and laying into him with heavy power shots. There were no boos on this night as Mayweather repeatedly snapped his opponent’s head up with convincing blows.
The twelfth round saw Mayweather give a half-hearted effort to stop Marquez, maybe deciding to let him finish on his feet for hanging in there through eleven punishing rounds. Rather than go after Marquez, Mayweather laid on the ropes and beckoned him on during the last minute. He raised a glove, grinned and danced for the last ten seconds, having put on one of the most impressive comeback performances of all time, given the opponent and the layoff.
Marquez never even landed double digit punches in a single round, according to CompuBox. No doubt, he’s never been that thoroughly beaten and probably won’t ever again. But he’s also never been in with anyone more technically skilled than him. There are great fighters, and there are all-time great fighters, and Marquez should feel no shame in losing to a guy who is just that much better.
Two lenient judges saw Marquez winning a few rounds, turning in scorecards of 119-108 and 118-109 while a third saw it more accurately as the complete shutout that it was, 120-107. The king had reclaimed his throne in the eyes of many.
MORE “MONEY,” MORE CONTROVERSY
Despite pitting two of the best three fighters in the world against one another, it was never a competitive fight. One man couldn’t land a clean punch while the other seemingly couldn’t miss anything he threw.
The only source of criticism for Mayweather is surrounding the weight controversy that raised questions for concern heading into Saturday night.
When the fight was first announced, it was billed as a 144-pound catchweight fight. Marquez is, after all, the Lightweight Champion nine pounds south, while Mayweather has spent the latter part of his career campaigning as a welterweight. So when Marquez weighed in at 142 pounds, no one was surprised to see he was probably sacrificing a little weight to retain some speed against one of boxing’s fastest ever.
But when Mayweather weighed in at 146 pounds, eyebrows were raised.
For all intents and purposes, it appeared he had failed to make weight. Yet when interviewed about his missed weight, Mayweather was the one acting surprised, claiming all along that the bout was a welterweight fight, which meant 147 pounds. Apparently, Mayweather’s contract was drawn up separate from Marquez’ and allowed Mayweather to weigh in heavier than 144 pounds, provided he paid a hefty $300,000 to Marquez per pound over.
Most experts saw Mayweather as being too skilled for Marquez anyway. Combined with the fact that Mayweather had fought at heavier weights longer, it looked like Marquez would be in for a long night. But with Marquez possibly not knowing about Mayweather’s plans to weigh in heavier, he was at an even bigger disadvantage.
It felt like a bait-and-switch tactic. Promoter Oscar De La Hoya harped about how great a fight fans could expect, but fans didn’t even fully realize that Mayweather could weigh in as heavy as he wanted, as long as he paid cash for each pound. It was just one more element that might have made the fight that much more one-sided.
MOSLEY RUINS MAYWEATHER’S MOMENT
Before Mayweather even had a chance to celebrate his victory, WBA Welterweight Champion Shane Mosley interrupted an interview with Max Kellerman to publicly call Mayweather out.
When Kellerman mentioned Mosley as a possible opponent, Mayweather waved Shane – who attends all of Golden Boy Promotions’ big events – over to shake hands, which Mosley accepted. Mayweather firmly stated that he wasn’t afraid of any fighter, so Mosley suggested he was the opponent people wanted to see Mayweather fight. Before Mayweather could respond, Bernard Hopkins, also of Golden Boy Promotions, proceeded to shout at him from over Mosley’s shoulder.
Mayweather took offense and looked to be trying to push Mosley out of the way as Kellerman called for order from all participants. Pointing a finger in his potential opponent’s face, Mayweather had accusing words for Mosley. He demanded that Mosley, who usually shows more reserve in holding his tongue but has grown desperate to land a big fight in recent months, respect his interview time.
Kellerman tried to turn the conversation back to Marquez, but Mayweather seized the microphone himself, saying he was conducting the interview now. With that, Kellerman ended the proceedings, and Mayweather actually came out of the argument looking like the good guy for once in his career.
Golden Boy Promotions has been working hard to get Mosley a big fight, and this may be an attempt to do just that as Hopkins and Mosley both acted uncharacteristically unprofessional in trying to bully Mayweather into accepting a fight by attacking him on a public forum. It would certainly be a popular fight and maybe the best fight to make at welterweight, but given that Mosley twice turned Mayweather down in the last decade, this could be strike number three on Mosley ever getting that fight made as far as Mayweather is concerned.
But one thing is certainly clear. Mayweather is back, and the controversy has come with him.
