Like it or not, Floyd Mayweather Jnr is showing his slips (pun intended). Yes, Floyd Jnr needs to keep mentioning Manny Pacquiao’s name to keep himself in the limelight, even if many are now convinced he does not intend to ever fight the Filipino boxing icon.
While he already is penciled to fight Shane Mosley, Floyd cannot but keep kicking himself for letting a potential US$40 million or more payday slip away because deep in his mind he does not have the conviction that he will be able to blow past Manny.
Forget about the crap that he is the bigger draw and the better fighter. Floyd simply is not and won’t ever be unless he defeats the man who dislodged him from the top of boxing’s pound for pound list.
Mayweather is relevant today because of Manny Pacquiao. No diatribes against Manny will ever change that. No self-righteous claims will ever overcome that fact. Mayweather will never be in the same league as Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran.
True, he was the best boxer at the turn of the new millennium but only because he fought at weight limits where competition was limited.
He wants to be installed as the best welterweight of all times but he has never fought the likes of Antonio Margarito, Miguel Cotto and even Shane Mosley at the peak of their careers.
Floyd is unlike Ali who, despite being the bigger mouth, has fought the best in an era when anyone could have dominated the heavyweight division except that there is The Greatest.
George Foreman, Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, Ron Lyle and Ernie Shaver had the misfortune of fighting during Ali’s time.
That cannot be said of Floyd, though, whose only locked up future boxing Hall of Famers victims are Oscar de la Hoya and Juan Manuel Marquez, one in a closely contested fight and the other, older and smaller.
Floyd will keep hitting Manny where he cannot do so physically because he cannot find another guy to insult and still keep his name in the mix of things.
He needs Manny more outside the ring than in to fool everybody into thinking that he is willing to mix it up. In reality he is not and keeps that cash register ringing fighting lesser foes.
He needs to convince everyone that Manny ran away from him to regain that lofty pound for pound ranking that was bequeathed to the Filipino southpaw by virtue of taking all comers – bigger and more dangerous than Floyd ever fought.
Floyd will never fight Manny. He just wants to stoke the fire to keep himself relevant.
Source: asiancorrespondent.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment