Brick City Boxing

By: John Martinez, Iron Boxing

Ironboxing.com. The return of Floyd “Money” Mayweather means an influx of revenue and action fights for boxing right?

Surely the once number one fighter on the planet with the undefeated record parlays into a buzz that boxing fans want and need to see.

A fighter whose gift for assaulting his potential foes with crafty, brash one liners which mirrors in delivery to the pain he inflicts upon his victims in the ring with stinging precision and calculated humiliation translates to giving the fans what they want and need, fights with fighters that stand a very honest chance of beating him.

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Certainly this would mean that man that fancies himself as the best fighter since Ray Robinson would want to come out of retirement to fight the likes of people named Manny Pacquiao and Shane Mosley. By fighting these two worthy opponents, Mayweather would give boxing fans what they’ve been craving for, serious competition that would test the limits of the destined Hall of Famer. And in return, Mayweather’s moniker would generate a lot of it, MONEY.

Unfortunately, if you listen to Mayweather, he sounds as though he is Father Christmas to the pauper, Manny Pacquiao, the People’s Champion. The fighter that says he softened the once golden goose (Oscar De La Hoya) of boxing for Manny Pacquiao and annihilated a former “hit man” in Ricky Hatton in advance of the Filipino bomber is also saying that he will leave the current welterweight champion, Shane Mosley for others to feed upon since he sees no worth in Mosley as a money maker.

Here is where the dilemma exists. How can a man, with such amazing prowess in the ring not do what it takes to make these two fights happen?

Instead of making a true effort to force a fight with Pacquaio, he insisted upon raking in most of the profits. This was and is an automatic deal killer from the start. Perhaps he should take a page from Mosley and do whatever it takes to fight boxing’s official top-flight generator in Pacquaio.

Mosley has offered to come down in weight and take the short money in order to secure a date to the prom with Pacquiao. Folks, this means Shane wants the fight. He is making a sincere effort to fight the best. He isn’t just talking about it; he is doing something about it.

On the flip side, we have Floyd.

In lieu of a mega showdown with the People’s Champion, we get a blown up lightweight in Marquez. Even Floyd’s own father doesn’t see this as a pay per view event.

With a sense of dry wit he insisted, “The Marquez fight is going to be nothing more than what you have seen before.”

He then asked me, “Do you remember the Arturo Gatti fight?”

Unfortunately, “yes” I answered.

Floyd replied, “Well then if you can remember the Gatti fight, you’ve already seen the Marquez fight in advance. It is going to be the same thing all over again.”

In the Gatti fight, Mayweather unleashed a barrage of weaponry that made Arturo look like an amateur. That fight was horrendous. Gatti went down in the first round and the super fight that never was finished in the sixth stanza when Gatti’s corner waived the white flag effectively surrendering to Floyd Mayweather Jr.

I told Floyd that I thought this fight was a travesty to the public and that perhaps Oscar’s Golden company should’ve had mercy on its fans that made them so much money. As an alternative to having the fight on PPV, the fight should have been scheduled on one of HBO’s boxing programs that would not require the public to dish out their hard earn money for this attraction.

Surprisingly, he agreed. Floyd was very candid when he told me, “they should not be telling the public to pay up extra money for this fight.”

He said, “It should be on regular HBO instead of PPV. There is a bad economy out there and we all know what is going to happen already.”

I concur. Why ask, no, demand the public to give their extra hard earn cash for this fight?

The only saving grace for selling this pay per view is seeing one of the most elite Mexican fighters of all time try his heart, skill, and will battle the sometimes obnoxious slick boxer.

Floyd declared to me, “Marquez is a Mexican. He doesn’t want to look bad. He is going to come forward and make the fight.”

“Mexicans always come to fight. But when he does, he is going to get clipped. He isn’t going to counter punch. Trust me.”

In an interview with me recently, Mosley told me that Marquez “has a chance to win” against Mayweather. Just how much of a chance are we talking about?

Mosley replied, “It’s a chance.” That doesn’t sound too assuring to me.

I would not buy this fight. I would however buy a Pacquaio/Mosley fight, Pacquiao/Mayweather tussle, and most definitely, a Mosley/Mayweather mega event.

Says Floyd Sr., “Now the Mosley or Pacquiao fight is a totally different story. Those fights are definitely PPV events.”

“Both fighters would give my son trouble. But in the end, lil’ Floyd wins.”

He went on to say the Mosley fight “is a very good fight. Shane fights all comers and gives it his all. This fight would go all 12 rounds with a lot of action in it.”

He even said that should that fight between his son and Shane Mosley happen he’d “become chief trainer for the Mosley fight.”

Well here’s hoping his son comes to his senses and does everything he can to make the Pacquiao or Mosley fight come to fruition. Personally, I am rooting for the Mosley/Mayweather showdown over the Manny vs. Floyd collision.

Until then, we get what Floyd said to me, “This is a tune up fight for my son.”

Yeah, let’s all go out and look forward to July 18, 2009 and watch the return of Floyd “Money” Mayweather get some work in on Juan Manuel Marquez live on HBO PPV.

john@ironboxing.com

Source: John Martinez