He may have nothing left to prove, but Floyd Mayweather Jr. still has one more fight left.
This past Saturday night, Floyd Mayweather Jr. got to once again prove why he is as good as he says he is. Mayweather’s unanimous decision win over Shane Mosley in Las Vegas was as easy as any of Mayweather’s recent fights. Mosley had a few brief moments early on, but nothing for an extended period of time. And once Mayweather got going, he stayed going.
Shane Mosley’s welterweight title wasn’t on the line for this fight. For the title to have been on the line, Mayweather would’ve had to have given 3% of his purse to the governing body (in this case the WBA); he refused.
Working the jab and putting some pepper on it was the name of the game for Mayweather on this night. Of the 208 punches Mayweather landed on Mosley, only 17 were to the body (191 to the face). Of those 208 landed, 123 were power punches. In landing near 50% once again, Mayweather’s accuracy along with his speed proved too much for an opponent not fully prepared for such a combination.
Mosley’s movement through much of the fight could be described as jittery or even apprehensive. Mosley did seem to hold back from trying to attack at certain moments; Mayweather did not have such a problem. Mosley no doubt was relying on his power advantage to keep him in this fight, but when you’re not throwing, there is no advantage. Mosley began to throw more as the fight went along, but landing shots became the real issue as Mosley failed to land one hundred punches in the fight. He landed 92. The ninth round was one of the better examples of Mosley’s punching problems as he landed only three of the forty-five punches he threw in the round.
The biggest problem Mosley had in front of him going into this fight was that it was his first fight in 461 days, the longest period of ring inactivity in his career. The fact that Mosley hadn’t fought since his TKO of Margarito back in January 2009 (his fight with Andre Berto in January was called off because of the earthquake in Haiti) is something I believe did effect Mosley in the ring Saturday. Being out of action for that long for a man like Mosley, a man pushing 40, is something that isn’t going to mesh well when you are facing a younger and much faster opponent. The Berto fight would’ve done Mosley a lot of good, the biggest reason being that he would have been exposed to a more complete boxer than Mayorga and Margarito—Mosley’s two latest KO victims—were. I am in no way saying that if Mosley had beaten Berto in January that he would’ve beaten Mayweather this past weekend. I will stand by my notion that if Mosley fought Berto in January, he probably would’ve performed more admirably last Saturday.
Both men paced themselves through the proverbial feeling out process that was the first round. The second round was the most exciting of the fight and the best for Mosley. This was the round where Mosley got Mayweather’s knees buckling moments after rocking Mayweather with an overhand right. Mayweather rebounded by the end of the round, and Mosley was never able to launch a second offensive.
The fight’s hype will more than likely succeed in the buyrate area, as this fight will likely break the top ten ever at least, but also in the massive celebrity turnout with numerous actors, actresses, and athletes in attendance. Boxing’s past was well represented with Oscar De La Hoya, Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns, Mike Tyson, and (in a rare big fight appearance) Muhammad Ali.
Even with the win, and the vindication he received with it, Floyd Mayweather still has one more fight to fight. If he doesn’t, he knows (or should know) that the name of that fighter will follow him for some time: Manny Pacquiao. This fight almost happened earlier this year and I still believe it will happen in 2010. I’ll even specify a date: December 4th. The last few years have seen a trend in boxing with its megafights happening on two different Saturday’s: the first Saturday in May or the first Saturday in December. This one (like Mayweather/De La Hoya & Pacquiao/Hatton) took place in May while that first Saturday in December saw Pacquiao/De La Hoya a few years ago and the Mayweather/Hatton, Pacquiao/Cotto fights occurred around that time of the year as well.
It has been dangled in front of the people once, I say it’s time that this fight happens. In the days following Mayweather/Mosley, two theories have surfaced as to why this fight still hasn’t taken place: Manny Pacquiao is using performance-enhancers and that’s why he won’t take the blood test, or Floyd Mayweather is scared of fighting Pacquiao and the blood test is a smoke-screen so the fight won’t happen. I happen to disagree with both and I’m left with the same answer I had months ago about why this fight hasn’t happened: I don’t know.
Why would Floyd Mayweather be scared of anybody? He’s already proven to be in a class of his own when it comes to boxing talent and following a game plan in the ring. Moving on, I don’t believe that Pacquiao is using because there hasn’t been any issue with any pre-fight or post-fight blood or urine test from Manny all these years, and until we get a Shane Mosley situation where he has to swear under oath that he used, I’m going to side with Manny Pacquiao fighting clean.
I believe this fight is going to happen by reiterating Floyd Mayweather’s reasoning for fighting (repeated several times on the Mayweather/Mosley 24/7 show): money. Why would either man turn down the kind of money they would get for the fight? Why would Floyd turn down such a huge chunk of that pay-per-view money that you know would be flowing in? If you can answer those two questions, then maybe I’ll get on board with the crowd that doesn’t believe this fight will happen. There is too much money and too much of a demand for this fight for me to believe that the two sides can’t come to some sort of an agreement.
And a final word on the whole testing argument: getting the state athletic commission to completely get behind this kind of testing above all other forms is the real key to this changing the game, not one fighter at a time. If as many people are doping as Floyd apparently believes, then stopping one guy from doing it isn’t going to do anything if there are ten others still doing it, or whole camps doing it. The Mosley fight being under these testing guidelines makes perfect sense because not only has Mosley admitted to using, but a fight (Mosley/De La Hoya II) was ruined because of it. But forcing the issue with Pacquiao is almost punishing someone who hasn’t been proven to be guilty. And holding a fight hostage on those grounds is part of what has created such curiosity and confusion on the topic of Mayweather/Pacquiao.
Mayweather 10 9 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 119
Mosley 9 10 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 109
