I picked Juan Manuel Marquez to beat Floyd Mayweather the moment the fight was announced at the beginning of May. I never wavered or dissented from that position. One minute into the fight Saturday night, I regretted that pick.
Floyd Mayweather picked up an easy unanimous decision victory to move to 40-0 in what was considered the best performance of his career. I would have to agree with this sentiment. The fight could be seen as another Mayweather boxing exhibition that had no business going the distance. More than that, the fight was more symbolic than any previous Floyd Mayweather fight because it was about proving to people that he was still the pound-for-pound king, not reaffirming that position.
Despite the beauty of Mayweather’s performance on this night, it was all tainted to a certain degree with the post-fight interview, an interview that was put under siege by Shane Mosley. The prospect of a Mosley/Mayweather fight is music to any fight fans’ ears, and with Mosley in the audience with the other big names of Golden Boy—De La Hoya and Bernard Hopkins—it likely entered every fans’ minds at least once about whether that challenge would be issued on this night; it was. Mosley issued the challenge to Mayweather in the middle of Mayweather’s post-fight interview when the topic of future opponents came up and Mosley’s name was mentioned. Mosley’s challenge came just before Mayweather was going to respond to the notion of a fight with Manny Pacquiao and we never got an answer about Pacquiao. The challenge quickly degenerated into arguing and shoving amongst Mayweather’s camp and Mosley’s people that nearly evolved into violence, but eventually calmed as Max Kellerman quickly ended the interview.
In this case, most people will use this as their reason to badmouth Mayweather despite another win, but I blame Mosley on this one 100%. It was obvious by the look on Mayweather’s face and his demeanor at the beginning of the interview that this was his moment and he wanted to enjoy it. There wasn’t the same kind of bravado we’re used to from Floyd in this interview, he just wanted to talk about the fight and how great he did in it. There’s nothing that indicated he doesn’t want to fight Mosley or Pacquiao (again we didn’t get an answer from Mayweather on Pacquiao), but the way the interview degenerated the way it did does indicate that he didn’t want to be put on the spot like that.
I can remember the Roy Jones/Bernard Hopkins back-and-forth years back, and that would be the parallel for what happened in the ring after Saturday night’s fight. Another time, another place, I’m sure Mayweather would’ve given a direct answer to Mosley about a potential future fight between them. This was an example of bad timing by Mosley in issuing the challenge right then, and poor judgment in pushing the issue despite the fact that Mayweather was noticeably flustered by the fact that Mosley made the challenge at that moment.
The fight itself wasn’t close by any margin, as Mayweather looked as if he had fought five months ago and not twenty-one. Marquez didn’t even land 100 punches in the entire fight landing only 69 despite throwing 583 punches—70 more than Mayweather threw. Mayweather on the other hand was incredible landing 59% of his jabs, power punches, and total punches (290 in the fight) while keeping Marquez off balance throughout and frustrating him at various moments with his ability to get away from Marquez. Even the smiles he would flash the Mexican after Marquez’s few big shots hit their mark.
The fight was Marquez’s first above 135 pounds. While this is not an excuse for the loss or a way of trying to demean Mayweather’s performance, it is telling that both Juan Manuel Marquez and Kelly Pavlik both suffered humiliating defeats in fights where they moved ten pounds up from their regular fight weights. To go along with that point, Marquez and Pavlik’s opponents in the previously mentioned fights—Floyd Mayweather and Bernard Hopkins respectively—were men with at least three fights at that weight class and were more seasoned and used to fighting at that weight.
As for what comes next for Marquez, a rematch with Juan Diaz seems likely. Their fight back in February where Marquez TKO’d Diaz in round nine is still my pick for fight of the year. The fact that Diaz got back on track with his controversial decision win over Paulie Malignaggi leaves the door wide open for the rematch. Depending on how the Pacquiao/Cotto fight goes, maybe the trilogy between Pacquiao and Marquez can be completed. Or maybe Marquez will give 145-lbs. another try, he does still have the options (like Pavlik) despite the fact that he’ll be coming off a high profile loss.
As for Mayweather, it really does come down to two options: Manny Pacquiao or Shane Mosley. Floyd more than likely won’t make a decision until Nov. 15 when Pacquiao/Cotto has come and gone, but maybe he will hijack that fight weekend with an announcement about his future the same way he announced his return bout the day before Pacquiao/Hatton. The Pacquiao fight would have the best shot to break the PPV buys record for a fight, and would allow Mayweather to fight another little man, even if that little man has hand speed that could match his. The Mosley fight would have more press coverage, overall hype, and anticipation attached to it because in that case both fighters would be American.
We don’t know when or if Floyd Mayweather’s next fight will take place. In the mean time, I think it would be good for the boxing world to just revel in the events of September 19, 2009. It was the night that the sports biggest draw returned and proved that maybe he didn’t come back to retake his throne, maybe he came back because that throne was getting cold.
Mayweather 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 120
Marquez 9 8 9 9 9 10 9 9 9 9 9 9 108
