OFFICIAL: Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs ?????? / March 13, 2010 @ MGM

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/news/story?id=4837075

Good luck to Andre Berto, his family, and the people of Haiti. As unfortunate as this is, it now opens up Sugar Shane Mosley for the Pretty Boy. I will be be shaking my head if somehow the Mosley-Mayweather fight doesn't happen. Floyd now has a chance to redeem his career and fight a top welterweight, otherwise he'll always be known as a talented fighter who ducked the top fighters.

Originally posted by NinerDudeBrah:
http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/news/story?id=4837075

Good luck to Andre Berto, his family, and the people of Haiti. As unfortunate as this is, it now opens up Sugar Shane Mosley for the Pretty Boy. I will be be shaking my head if somehow the Mosley-Mayweather fight doesn't happen. Floyd now has a chance to redeem his career and fight a top welterweight, otherwise he'll always be known as a talented fighter who ducked the top fighters.

Wow...... in a sport full of promotions and possibly staged dramas, you couldn't have predicted that the Haiti quake was going to happen, let alone jeopardize the fight of Berto's life. Amazing how this would clear way for a Mayweather/Mosley fight. I'd be interested to see if Floyd does take it.

Originally posted by NinerDudeBrah:
http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/news/story?id=4837075

Good luck to Andre Berto, his family, and the people of Haiti. As unfortunate as this is, it now opens up Sugar Shane Mosley for the Pretty Boy. I will be be shaking my head if somehow the Mosley-Mayweather fight doesn't happen. Floyd now has a chance to redeem his career and fight a top welterweight, otherwise he'll always be known as a talented fighter who ducked the top fighters.

I agree, there's really no excuse for this fight not to happen.


AND if both Pac and Mayweather are successful, it may remove some of the stench left from their failed negotiations, and make their fight even bigger.

Even though I've said it all along that most of these welters made a name for themselves and started knocking on Mayweather's door AFTER he retired the first time, there's no reason for Mayweather not to fight Mosley now.

Although it's a big risk fight, it will do better numbers than Pac-Clottey, it may give him a leg up in negotiations vs Pac, and it will shed some of the misperceptions of him as a ducker.

[ Edited by silkyjohnson on Jan 18, 2010 at 15:04:09 ]

I hope boxing fans don't support either one of these fights. Send a message to these guys and boxing as a whole. If boxing wants to be legitimate right now, they need this fight to happen. But as it looks right now, punk a55 Mayweather is going to fight another fighter that the fans don't want him to fight. He is scared of Cotto and Moseley. Whoever he fights, it'll be a boring fight. I hope his pay per view buys are embarrassing. He is a great defensive fighter, but boring as hell and scared to fight a lot of guys. Most fans have never heard of this potential opponents. You really have to be a hardcore boxing connoisseur to know these guys.

Styles make fights I understand mayweather is a defensive fighter who likes to counter I just see myself dropping money on another one of his ppvs unless it's good oponent.

Originally posted by mutt_pinoy:
Styles make fights I understand mayweather is a defensive fighter who likes to counter I just see myself dropping money on another one of his ppvs unless it's good oponent.

the internet's buzzing that it'll be mosley vs mayweather, most likely may 1st. if that's the case, i'm definitely dropping some cash to watch.

Originally posted by MoistButtCheeks:

Originally posted by NinerDudeBrah:

Originally posted by phiLthyphiL:

Originally posted by silkyjohnson:

Originally posted by bayarealuv:

Originally posted by silkyjohnson:

Originally posted by bayarealuv:
boOooOOOO.. if it ain't pac.. it's not worth watching

Blame Arum... and Pac to an extent.

why blame them? (actual question)

to be honest i haven't read any articles regarding the subject in the past couple of weeks.. because i don't want to get caught up in the hype

in my heart i blame both parties.. if they really wanted to they could make this happen

Because both parties came in with a set of demands. When Floyd laid down his demand for olympic style testing, team Pac started making all sorts of lame excuses. From Pac's scared of needles (even though he has tattoos) to draining blood from Pac weakens him to he's superstitious about that s**t.

Floyd demanded random tests up until fight night. Now I could see how Pacquiao would oppose that. Roach, the guy that knows Manny better than anyone else(besides Manny himself), said Pac would need at least 5 days to recuperate. But either way, team Pac said no, no blood test.

Floyd demanded that the drug tests be done by USADA, the firm that takes care of Olympic testing. Team Pac wanted none of that. Then Floyd said fine, the NSAC (Nevada State Athletic something) can take care of the blood tests.

Then Pac team said, fine, we'll do it, but only up to 30 days before fight night. Team Mayweather stood their ground and said no. Then they went to a mediator and some how team Pacquiao and the mediator came up with 24 days. Floyd decided to meet them half way from their original date and said 14 days, a more than reasonable amount of days to recuperate from A TABLESPOON OF BLOOD.

Team Pac passed up the $40 million megafight for a very reasonable concession from Floyd.

Floyd didn't throw hissy fits over the glove size, or the ridiculous $10 million fine for every pound he comes overweight over 147. And he conceded quite a bit on his blood testing demands. He dropped USADA, he gave them 2 weeks without blood testing before fight night.

At the end, it was team Pac that didn't want the fight. Evidenced by their unwillingness to negotiate any further, and having a fight and a venue set up by the next day.

As knowledgeable and unbiased as you say you are, you're a Flomo and hater at best.

This

In defense of silk you phil seem to have gone off the deep end from enjoying both fighters to getting obsessed with supporting Pac.

So explain the next day fight with Clottey? Explain his blatant disreguard for the public on the ROID issue. Explain your need to call Floyd childish names. Whats with the hate on his family? What you dont have family that is crazy? Haha Duckweather, Chicken and all that.

This is totally on Pacs ass. Sorry even if you think PBF is a punk he is not ducking this fight. I know phil you read the boxing news on the net. YOU SEE IT IN YO FACE. Manny ran like a b***h. PBF publicly commented on it. What was Pacs response. NOTHING! Thats bulls**t to me.


All you got is "We not gonna bow to the evil Floyd camp". Please than you boy got real gay wanting to sue for someone talking s**t about him.

Thanks for reading.

Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy watching both fighters even though they stylistically represent different ends of the spectrum. The very last Floyd fight that I myself paid for was YEARS ago, the Judah fight to be exact. I streamed the DLH fight and I crashed the Marquez bout.

The only thing I can think about the "next day fight" with Clottey announcement is that all along they had a Plan B, C, D etc. which is why they threw out names of Foreman and Malignaggi out there (or at least the media threw out Malignaggi). The whole family thing...I've got family that is straight f**ked up, but we're talking about his family that is preaching about what is right, what should be, and how integrity should be upheld. They're not exactly poster family for upholding what is right.

I don't think for one bit Manny ducked at all. And as much as I dislike Floyd outside of the ring, I don't think he ducked it either. They both wanted it. Apparently their piece of s**t promoters and teams didn't want it more than the fans.

The Clottey fight is a valid fight for Pacquiao. Not for one minute am I underestimating him as a fighter and I fully expect it to go 12 rounds and I expect a hard, hard fight.

Manny hasn't said much since the fight was called off because let's not forget what he does. He doesn't talk much. It's to the point where Roach, Ariza, Arum..they do all the s**t talking for him. Roach carried the war of words against Floyd Sr. in the Hatton bout. Roach fired back at Santiago during the Cotto 24/7. He's (Pac) never really resorted to badmouthing or putting down his opponents. That is until this whole steroid fiasco came about, and you could basically call his words a self-defense, but I digress.

Silk continually says, "He doesn't want the fight because he didn't want to take a blood test." I have no idea why for the life of me people, more than likely Pac haters continue to say it. Willing to take blood tests, regardless of a disagreement on a cutoff still stands as "willing to take a blood test." A tablespoon of blood means what exactly? Like I've said before, USADA, WADA, doesn't matter what olympic-sanctioning body it is; random is random. There's no guarantee they wouldn't come 7x in 7 days before the cutoff.

As for the Duckweather, Chicken names, they're all names that have been said before I even thought he was ducking anybody. They date back to when I was defending him back through the Judah days. But when you look at the resume, more importantly his more recent bouts, he's been exactly what his name suggets, more concerned about the "Money". Take the easier fights that garner you the most money. At the end of the day, that's what it's all about. I don't fault him for the hustle, but that's exactly what it is.

Floyd fought Judah which was a great f**king fight. Then he fights Baldomir who had racked up double digit losses. But there was no excuse for retiring after ODLH. He just broke the PPV record with the PPV king and beat him for a belt. He would've had throngs of fighters lining up to fight him.

Last two fights, he brought Hatton up from Junior Welter, and JMM after his lone fight from lightweight. So if he fights yet another lightweight or junior welterweight, please excuse me if I happen to use the Duckweather and Chicken references. I'm only repeating what's been said for the last half decade. I just take strong offense in claiming that you're the best fighter that's ever laced on the gloves, but you haven't fought anybody to solidify that claim. Ali said he was the best and he fought the best. Tyson called himself the greatest and he went out and ate people alive. My dislike for Floyd only originates from the way he carries himself outside of the boxing ring. Fight Mosley. Fight Paul. Fight Pacquiao. Do it the way you've been doing it the last decade. If you truly want boxing to be a clean sport, petition the NSAC for olympic-style testing in all fights including your own, not just against one boxer for suspicions your father initiated.

If Ellerbe ain't bulls**ttin and Floyd fights Mosley AND asks for random blood testing in all of his future fights, then it'll give them more leverage if they happen to try to set up a Pac/Floyd fall bonanza.

I'd pay to see Floyd vs Mose

Originally posted by TonyStarks:
I'd pay to see Floyd vs Mose

I'd throw it on the DVR and stream it on my phone while I'm at the Pac fight!!!

Originally posted by phiLthyphiL:

Silk continually says, "He doesn't want the fight because he didn't want to take a blood test." I have no idea why for the life of me people, more than likely Pac haters continue to say it. Willing to take blood tests, regardless of a disagreement on a cutoff still stands as "willing to take a blood test." A tablespoon of blood means what exactly? Like I've said before, USADA, WADA, doesn't matter what olympic-sanctioning body it is; random is random. There's no guarantee they wouldn't come 7x in 7 days before the cutoff.

As for the Duckweather, Chicken names, they're all names that have been said before I even thought he was ducking anybody. They date back to when I was defending him back through the Judah days. But when you look at the resume, more importantly his more recent bouts, he's been exactly what his name suggets, more concerned about the "Money". Take the easier fights that garner you the most money. At the end of the day, that's what it's all about. I don't fault him for the hustle, but that's exactly what it is.

Floyd fought Judah which was a great f**king fight. Then he fights Baldomir who had racked up double digit losses. But there was no excuse for retiring after ODLH. He just broke the PPV record with the PPV king and beat him for a belt. He would've had throngs of fighters lining up to fight him.

Last two fights, he brought Hatton up from Junior Welter, and JMM after his lone fight from lightweight. So if he fights yet another lightweight or junior welterweight, please excuse me if I happen to use the Duckweather and Chicken references. I'm only repeating what's been said for the last half decade. I just take strong offense in claiming that you're the best fighter that's ever laced on the gloves, but you haven't fought anybody to solidify that claim. Ali said he was the best and he fought the best. Tyson called himself the greatest and he went out and ate people alive. My dislike for Floyd only originates from the way he carries himself outside of the boxing ring. Fight Mosley. Fight Paul. Fight Pacquiao. Do it the way you've been doing it the last decade. If you truly want boxing to be a clean sport, petition the NSAC for olympic-style testing in all fights including your own, not just against one boxer for suspicions your father initiated.

The thing is Floyd wants random blood tests because if they're not random then what's the point? The current system is beatable. Especially if you know the dates of tests.

From what I've been reading, it looks like he's gonna ask Mosley for the same request of random testing that he asked Pac. So looks like you'll get your wish.

I don't care if it was Manny that requested random testing, or Cotto or JCC Jr. or Matthew Hatton. I would be behind the idea. Of course, it wouldn't be taken as seriously if anyone other than Money or Manny brought it up.

And I say blame Manny for not wanting the fight because at the end of the night, it's him that's getting in the ring. Not Arum, not Roach, but Manny. As the fighter that's gonna enter the ring that night, he should have the final say. But like you said, he didn't say s**t, he just went along and let Arum f**k things up for everybody, fans mostly.

All those nicknames are made up by Floyd haters who can't stand his arrogance and want badly to discredit his perfect record. All of it is really unwarranted and seriously he's been getting s**t for no reason since who knows when.

You say you only say what's been repeated during the last half-decade? OK buddy, here's a little something from 2005:

Quote:
That kind of cult-like, indomitable fan loyalty does not seem to be in the cards for Floyd Mayweather. He talks a game that he may never be able to play. And accordingly, his only recourse is to take big fights, one after another, and continuously assert his dominance, if he can, or at least test himself more sternly. The sham that he is about to engage in against a threadbare, battleworn Sharmba Mitchell does not fall in line with what I am suggesting. If Floyd continues his campaign at welterweight he needs to fight Zab Judah or meet the controversially bulked up Jose Luis Castillo for a fight at 147-pounds. . If he moves up to junior middleweight he should first attempt to bait Winky Wright back into the 154-pound division with the promise of a big-payday, or seek a battle with the crafty, tough-as-nails—and shockingly fresh-looking—Roman Karmazin. If he moves back down to junior welterweight it should only be to tangle with The Hitman, that is, assuming Hatton gets by upset artist Carlos Maussa.

http://www.eastsideboxing.com/news.php?p=5282&more=1

And of course, who does he fight next? Oh look, Zab Judah.

Oh no wait, there's more to the story though...

See, in between the signing of the fight and the actual bout, Zab decided to take on a tune-up fight with none other than Carlos Baldomir. Things didn't go according to plan for Zab and he lost to Baldomir.

So after that turn of events, people gave Mayweather s**t for going ahead with fighting Zab, because he just came off a loss with Baldomir. Ok, so if he shouldn't take a fight with Zab, who's the most logical opponent? Oh that's right... Baldomir. You know, the guy that just beat Zab.

Guess what, he took on both, one after the other. Seriously, how can you give Mayweather s**t for fighting the guy who beat the guy who everybody wanted Floyd to fight in the first place???

He then proceeded to fight DLH, and he became a huge attraction, and that seems fine with everybody, so let's move on.

So after setting all kinds of PPV records, who should he take on now?

[Now before you say Cotto and Mosley, Mayweather had previously called out Mosley MANY times from 135 up to welter before but Mosley just showed no interest, Floyd was even willing to move up in weight. Floyd was trying to get a match with Mosley before DLH but said he had to see the dentist and wanted to take a break, spend time with his family. Instead Floyd ended up fighting the lineal champ Baldomir. Cotto, and Arum for that matter, wanted no piece of him at that point in time, in fact Cotto never challenged or called out Floyd. But if you say Margarito, that gets a little complicated, I'll try and make it short and sweet, first off Margarito challenged him before the DLH fight while Floyd had his sights set on Mosley and DLH. At that time DLH did not deal with Arum and Top Rank. The only way for Floyd to get a fight on with DLH was to drop Top Rank. But Arum being the con man that he is had to try and get Floyd to stay with Top Rank and jeopardize the DLH fight by making Floyd a "1 time offer" of 8 million bucks to fight Margo, and probably agree to some terms to stay with Top Rank. So really, Margo being the most avoided man, was just a ploy by Arum to try and keep Floyd around, and since it didn't work out Arum at least got to say that Floyd ducked Margo, .]

Anyway, back to who Mayweather should fight next...

Hmm... how about that UNDEFEATED guy with the HUGE FANBASE from England? You know, the guy that's 43-0, packs a nice punch, and just three fights ago happened to fight and beat WELTERWEIGHT champion Luis Collazo, and just last fight DESTROYED the guy that gave Mayweather one of his hardest fights in his career in Jose Luis Castillo. Yep, the guy who's fame is at an all-time high. Hmm... I dunno, makes sense, don't it?

After making a ton of cash and 11 straight years of participating in one of the most demanding and brutal sports in the world, the dude decides to take a break from the sport to rest up and heal his body a bit and enjoy his nice earnings and spend time with his kids. What's wrong with that exactly?

So after Mayweather retires, some guy named Margarito beats some undefeated guy named Cotto (whom Mayweather wanted to fight, but Arum said no way, he wasn't ready). This Margarito guy becomes a nice name in boxing, and of course Cotto was undefeated prior to the fight, and has a Puerto Rican fan base, so he's a pretty decent name as well. And oh look, this one guy named Paul Williams beat Antonio Margarito not too long ago, so now you have a stacked Welterweight class. Then Mosley, a guy nobody's talked about in a while, whoops Margarito and the Welterweight class is still stacked.

Pacquiao fights Oscar and Hatton and he becomes a huge megastar as well.

So then Mayweather comes back, most likely to get a piece of Pacquiao. Then he lays out his plans that he's gonna take a tune-up. About a month later we find out that his tune-up fight is gonna be against Juan Manuel Marquez, the guy that Manny just doesn't want to finish his trilogy with, the guy that has also lacked that big paycheck, who coincidentally also happens to be promoted by Golden Boy, the company that's done Mayweather's recent bouts.

So DLH decides to take care of his fighters and give one of the legends in the sport a nice payday near the end of his career that he can retire on and set him up for life. You can tell there was great admiration between Floyd and Marquez. Can you blame Floyd and DLH for giving into Marquez' request?

Mayweather does what he does best and sells the fight. You can't blame the casual fan for giving Marquez a chance in this fight. He's a gritty Mexican that gave the current P4P King Manny Pacquiao hell for 23 rounds.

I, myself, and most people that have a clue about boxing, saw that they were two fighters with similar styles, one just happened to be bigger, quicker and younger than the other. So of course, two fighters with similar styles, who do you expect to win? To be honest I never thought it would break the 1 million buys barrier, I thought it'd do 600K at best, but boy was I pleasantly surprised at the numbers.

I think part of the reason Floyd gets so much flack for this fight is because this tune-up fight was built up to be soooo much more. But in the end, it didn't live up to false expectations.

Hell you could even say Pac had a hand on building up the fight. After all, Pac was the P4P King at the moment, and who gave Pac his last real challenge? Marquez.

Plus, it was just smart for Floyd to take this match. Whoop the guy that gave Manny his last true challenge, outdo their PPV numbers and get a leg up in negotiations.

Again, I wanna reiterate that Mayweather took a tune-up fight with Marquez after a two-year layoff, before eventually trying to negotiate a fight with Pacquiao. This was well known months in advance before rumors of negotiations with Marquez even took place.

So tell me again, who exactly did Mayweather duck?


--------
It's fine if you hate his style, his cockiness, his arrogance, how he behaves outside of the ring. But just because hindsight is 20/20 does not take away from the fact that most of his fights in the last half decade actually meant something prior to the fight. It's not his fault he made his opponents look silly, it's not his fault he tried to get better fights but got ducked himself.

If things had gone the way he wanted, and he had it his way, he would have had Tszyu or a light welter Hatton (while Floyd was a light welterweight himself), Cotto, and Mosley under his belt. Cotto and Mosley ducked him and Tszyu, who held down the lightwelter division for nearly a decade, had a very unexpected loss against Hatton and called it quits right after. It was believed that had Tszyu gotten past Hatton, a Mayweather-Tszyu fight would be next. Floyd went for the next logical fight and called out Hatton twice, but he got shut down twice.

Anyway, had things gone his way, all this ducking business would be a moot point. Really, it should be a moot point but haters seem to look the other way and conveniently forget or dismiss facts, or not bother to check them at all. I guess it's more convenient to parakeet what every other hater is saying, as long as it supports your disdain for the guy and it makes your favorite fighter look good.

Originally posted by silkyjohnson:

Originally posted by mutt_pinoy:
Styles make fights I understand mayweather is a defensive fighter who likes to counter I just see myself dropping money on another one of his ppvs unless it's good oponent.

the internet's buzzing that it'll be mosley vs mayweather, most likely may 1st. if that's the case, i'm definitely dropping some cash to watch.

same here... might even try to get tickets... i hope they will have it at staples center... highly doubt it tho- oh well, vegas is just a few hours away~

Originally posted by HaiGuise:

Originally posted by NinerDudeBrah:
http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/news/story?id=4837075

Good luck to Andre Berto, his family, and the people of Haiti. As unfortunate as this is, it now opens up Sugar Shane Mosley for the Pretty Boy. I will be be shaking my head if somehow the Mosley-Mayweather fight doesn't happen. Floyd now has a chance to redeem his career and fight a top welterweight, otherwise he'll always be known as a talented fighter who ducked the top fighters.

Wow...... in a sport full of promotions and possibly staged dramas, you couldn't have predicted that the Haiti quake was going to happen, let alone jeopardize the fight of Berto's life. Amazing how this would clear way for a Mayweather/Mosley fight. I'd be interested to see if Floyd does take it.

Finally, something Mayweather can't duck...a natural disaster.

Originally posted by silkyjohnson:

Originally posted by phiLthyphiL:

Silk continually says, "He doesn't want the fight because he didn't want to take a blood test." I have no idea why for the life of me people, more than likely Pac haters continue to say it. Willing to take blood tests, regardless of a disagreement on a cutoff still stands as "willing to take a blood test." A tablespoon of blood means what exactly? Like I've said before, USADA, WADA, doesn't matter what olympic-sanctioning body it is; random is random. There's no guarantee they wouldn't come 7x in 7 days before the cutoff.

As for the Duckweather, Chicken names, they're all names that have been said before I even thought he was ducking anybody. They date back to when I was defending him back through the Judah days. But when you look at the resume, more importantly his more recent bouts, he's been exactly what his name suggets, more concerned about the "Money". Take the easier fights that garner you the most money. At the end of the day, that's what it's all about. I don't fault him for the hustle, but that's exactly what it is.

Floyd fought Judah which was a great f**king fight. Then he fights Baldomir who had racked up double digit losses. But there was no excuse for retiring after ODLH. He just broke the PPV record with the PPV king and beat him for a belt. He would've had throngs of fighters lining up to fight him.

Last two fights, he brought Hatton up from Junior Welter, and JMM after his lone fight from lightweight. So if he fights yet another lightweight or junior welterweight, please excuse me if I happen to use the Duckweather and Chicken references. I'm only repeating what's been said for the last half decade. I just take strong offense in claiming that you're the best fighter that's ever laced on the gloves, but you haven't fought anybody to solidify that claim. Ali said he was the best and he fought the best. Tyson called himself the greatest and he went out and ate people alive. My dislike for Floyd only originates from the way he carries himself outside of the boxing ring. Fight Mosley. Fight Paul. Fight Pacquiao. Do it the way you've been doing it the last decade. If you truly want boxing to be a clean sport, petition the NSAC for olympic-style testing in all fights including your own, not just against one boxer for suspicions your father initiated.

The thing is Floyd wants random blood tests because if they're not random then what's the point? The current system is beatable. Especially if you know the dates of tests.

From what I've been reading, it looks like he's gonna ask Mosley for the same request of random testing that he asked Pac. So looks like you'll get your wish.

I don't care if it was Manny that requested random testing, or Cotto or JCC Jr. or Matthew Hatton. I would be behind the idea. Of course, it wouldn't be taken as seriously if anyone other than Money or Manny brought it up.

And I say blame Manny for not wanting the fight because at the end of the night, it's him that's getting in the ring. Not Arum, not Roach, but Manny. As the fighter that's gonna enter the ring that night, he should have the final say. But like you said, he didn't say s**t, he just went along and let Arum f**k things up for everybody, fans mostly.

All those nicknames are made up by Floyd haters who can't stand his arrogance and want badly to discredit his perfect record. All of it is really unwarranted and seriously he's been getting s**t for no reason since who knows when.

You say you only say what's been repeated during the last half-decade? OK buddy, here's a little something from 2005:

Quote:
That kind of cult-like, indomitable fan loyalty does not seem to be in the cards for Floyd Mayweather. He talks a game that he may never be able to play. And accordingly, his only recourse is to take big fights, one after another, and continuously assert his dominance, if he can, or at least test himself more sternly. The sham that he is about to engage in against a threadbare, battleworn Sharmba Mitchell does not fall in line with what I am suggesting. If Floyd continues his campaign at welterweight he needs to fight Zab Judah or meet the controversially bulked up Jose Luis Castillo for a fight at 147-pounds. . If he moves up to junior middleweight he should first attempt to bait Winky Wright back into the 154-pound division with the promise of a big-payday, or seek a battle with the crafty, tough-as-nails—and shockingly fresh-looking—Roman Karmazin. If he moves back down to junior welterweight it should only be to tangle with The Hitman, that is, assuming Hatton gets by upset artist Carlos Maussa.

http://www.eastsideboxing.com/news.php?p=5282&more=1

And of course, who does he fight next? Oh look, Zab Judah.

Oh no wait, there's more to the story though...

See, in between the signing of the fight and the actual bout, Zab decided to take on a tune-up fight with none other than Carlos Baldomir. Things didn't go according to plan for Zab and he lost to Baldomir.

So after that turn of events, people gave Mayweather s**t for going ahead with fighting Zab, because he just came off a loss with Baldomir. Ok, so if he shouldn't take a fight with Zab, who's the most logical opponent? Oh that's right... Baldomir. You know, the guy that just beat Zab.

Guess what, he took on both, one after the other. Seriously, how can you give Mayweather s**t for fighting the guy who beat the guy who everybody wanted Floyd to fight in the first place???

He then proceeded to fight DLH, and he became a huge attraction, and that seems fine with everybody, so let's move on.

So after setting all kinds of PPV records, who should he take on now?

[Now before you say Cotto and Mosley, Mayweather had previously called out Mosley MANY times from 135 up to welter before but Mosley just showed no interest, Floyd was even willing to move up in weight. Floyd was trying to get a match with Mosley before DLH but said he had to see the dentist and wanted to take a break, spend time with his family. Instead Floyd ended up fighting the lineal champ Baldomir. Cotto, and Arum for that matter, wanted no piece of him at that point in time, in fact Cotto never challenged or called out Floyd. But if you say Margarito, that gets a little complicated, I'll try and make it short and sweet, first off Margarito challenged him before the DLH fight while Floyd had his sights set on Mosley and DLH. At that time DLH did not deal with Arum and Top Rank. The only way for Floyd to get a fight on with DLH was to drop Top Rank. But Arum being the con man that he is had to try and get Floyd to stay with Top Rank and jeopardize the DLH fight by making Floyd a "1 time offer" of 8 million bucks to fight Margo, and probably agree to some terms to stay with Top Rank. So really, Margo being the most avoided man, was just a ploy by Arum to try and keep Floyd around, and since it didn't work out Arum at least got to say that Floyd ducked Margo, .]

Anyway, back to who Mayweather should fight next...

Hmm... how about that UNDEFEATED guy with the HUGE FANBASE from England? You know, the guy that's 43-0, packs a nice punch, and just three fights ago happened to fight and beat WELTERWEIGHT champion Luis Collazo, and just last fight DESTROYED the guy that gave Mayweather one of his hardest fights in his career in Jose Luis Castillo. Yep, the guy who's fame is at an all-time high. Hmm... I dunno, makes sense, don't it?

After making a ton of cash and 11 straight years of participating in one of the most demanding and brutal sports in the world, the dude decides to take a break from the sport to rest up and heal his body a bit and enjoy his nice earnings and spend time with his kids. What's wrong with that exactly?

So after Mayweather retires, some guy named Margarito beats some undefeated guy named Cotto (whom Mayweather wanted to fight, but Arum said no way, he wasn't ready). This Margarito guy becomes a nice name in boxing, and of course Cotto was undefeated prior to the fight, and has a Puerto Rican fan base, so he's a pretty decent name as well. And oh look, this one guy named Paul Williams beat Antonio Margarito not too long ago, so now you have a stacked Welterweight class. Then Mosley, a guy nobody's talked about in a while, whoops Margarito and the Welterweight class is still stacked.

Pacquiao fights Oscar and Hatton and he becomes a huge megastar as well.

So then Mayweather comes back, most likely to get a piece of Pacquiao. Then he lays out his plans that he's gonna take a tune-up. About a month later we find out that his tune-up fight is gonna be against Juan Manuel Marquez, the guy that Manny just doesn't want to finish his trilogy with, the guy that has also lacked that big paycheck, who coincidentally also happens to be promoted by Golden Boy, the company that's done Mayweather's recent bouts.

So DLH decides to take care of his fighters and give one of the legends in the sport a nice payday near the end of his career that he can retire on and set him up for life. You can tell there was great admiration between Floyd and Marquez. Can you blame Floyd and DLH for giving into Marquez' request?

Mayweather does what he does best and sells the fight. You can't blame the casual fan for giving Marquez a chance in this fight. He's a gritty Mexican that gave the current P4P King Manny Pacquiao hell for 23 rounds.

I, myself, and most people that have a clue about boxing, saw that they were two fighters with similar styles, one just happened to be bigger, quicker and younger than the other. So of course, two fighters with similar styles, who do you expect to win? To be honest I never thought it would break the 1 million buys barrier, I thought it'd do 600K at best, but boy was I pleasantly surprised at the numbers.

I think part of the reason Floyd gets so much flack for this fight is because this tune-up fight was built up to be soooo much more. But in the end, it didn't live up to false expectations.

Hell you could even say Pac had a hand on building up the fight. After all, Pac was the P4P King at the moment, and who gave Pac his last real challenge? Marquez.

Plus, it was just smart for Floyd to take this match. Whoop the guy that gave Manny his last true challenge, outdo their PPV numbers and get a leg up in negotiations.

Again, I wanna reiterate that Mayweather took a tune-up fight with Marquez after a two-year layoff, before eventually trying to negotiate a fight with Pacquiao. This was well known months in advance before rumors of negotiations with Marquez even took place.

So tell me again, who exactly did Mayweather duck?


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It's fine if you hate his style, his cockiness, his arrogance, how he behaves outside of the ring. But just because hindsight is 20/20 does not take away from the fact that most of his fights in the last half decade actually meant something prior to the fight. It's not his fault he made his opponents look silly, it's not his fault he tried to get better fights but got ducked himself.

If things had gone the way he wanted, and he had it his way, he would have had Tszyu or a light welter Hatton (while Floyd was a light welterweight himself), Cotto, and Mosley under his belt. Cotto and Mosley ducked him and Tszyu, who held down the lightwelter division for nearly a decade, had a very unexpected loss against Hatton and called it quits right after. It was believed that had Tszyu gotten past Hatton, a Mayweather-Tszyu fight would be next. Floyd went for the next logical fight and called out Hatton twice, but he got shut down twice.

Anyway, had things gone his way, all this ducking business would be a moot point. Really, it should be a moot point but haters seem to look the other way and conveniently forget or dismiss facts, or not bother to check them at all. I guess it's more convenient to parakeet what every other hater is saying, as long as it supports your disdain for the guy and it makes your favorite fighter look good.

You and I both damn well know there was no way in hell Mayweather was NOT going to ask for random blood tests here on out. Was it because he was a Champion for change for integrity in the sport? f**k no, it'd because he'd be viewed as a hypocritical son of a b***h if he didn't ask for the tests. It's a PR move... Ellerbe saying that he's proud of Mayweather standing out championing for this cause. Right. If he came back from retirement and petitioning for a change was his intention all along, then maybe his first fight with Marquez should've been the proper platform to introduce it.

As much bulls**t as Arum has spewed, Mayweather and his camp and equally been hypocritical, if not worse.

Zab Judah is the only legitimate Welterweight that Mayweather has ever fought. What's as worse than using Baldomir and the world lineal is Hatton and the world lineal. Those two names and the world lineal should not and do not apply.

Defend him with whatever you want to say about him retiring. Don't call yourself the f**king best and retire. He's not boxing's savior. He didn't have this predisposed plan of allowing the welterweight division to stack up. He saw boxing survive and do well without him and that was a bigger blow to his ego. He saw boxing thrive without him and saw dollar signs again so that's why he came back. Has nothing to do with legacy as he says. None of it. He came back for money. It's no mystery he owed the IRS money and that they had an agreement for a settlement of the purse split for the Marquez fight. "Legacy don't pay bills," says the man who claims he owns everything free and clear. The one thing he don't own is the IRS.

Don't try to validate that Marquez fight as a tuneup one bit. That s**t was a setup if I've ever seen one in boxing. Let's fight the guy who gave the #1 P4P boxer 24 rounds of hell. We beat that guy...we can try to use that as leverage in fighting him. Pacquiao fought JMM at his NATURAL weight. Bringing Marquez 2 1/2 divisions up in weight and have people marvelling at how well he disposed and dismantled JMM? People want to knock on Pac for fighting DLH at 147. As bad as that was, bringing Marquez up super featherweight/ lightweight was worse. He was pudgy, slow, and obviously not a threat.

You say Cotto and Mosley ducked him. If I remember correctly, Mosley had a legitimate gripe about having injured his mouth in one of his bouts and Mayweather called him out on it and Mosley declined citing his injury for not taking any bouts. After the Marquez fight, Floyd set that whole confrontation up. He waves his hands calling Shane in the ring and tries to stage a dispute. If you're going to stage that dispute, why not begin talks for that fight? WTF was it all for?

You saying Cotto ducked him stems more from your predetermined hate for Arum since he promotes Pac. Arum's the piece of s**t lying promoter, yet you back Ellerbe, Haymon and Golden Boy's stable of fighters as if they've never been hypocritical or have been full of s**t.

Margo for $8 million? or Baldomir for $8 million and a title. Yea, I'd take the easier fight for a belt also if I were Floyd. It's no different than Pacquiao choosing Diaz for his lightweight belt. The difference between the two? I don't consider Diaz a signature win for Pac. As much as Pac and his team have cherrypicked his opponents, its no worse than Mayweather's path. His career after the jump to weltwerweight can best be described as "The Road not Taken." As great as Floyd is, he's recently continued to fight the "smaller man." Except you find it so hard to believe why I'd give more merit to Pac coming up and fighting fighters in the higher weight divisions. What's so hard to understand?

You ever listen to the words that comes out of your boy's mouth? As much as I defend Pac on this steroid issue, you straight got earplugs when it comes to Floyd talking. Cause there ain't nothing he won't s**t out, or nothing he won't put out that you won't eat.

"Why am I gonna fight him, he's lost before."

"Why am I gonna fight him, he's on steroids."

"Why am I gonna fight him, he's not a PPV attraction."

You say Pac should man the f**k up, take the test and fight? I say Floyd should shut the f**k up, get in the right and fight.

When you say "I, myself, and most other people who have a clue about boxing," just come out forthright and say you mean just yourself because that's statement really says. Not once have you really admitted that Pacquiao could be clean. Instead your pitchfork and torch have been lit from the moment these steroid accusations came flying and this fight quickly came together and even more quickly fell apart. You're as unbiased as a Golden Boy Press Release.

When negotiations fell apart, why was it that GBP murmured Nate Campbell (LIGHTWEIGHT GBP), Paulie Malignaggi (LIGHTWEIGHT/ JUNIOR LIGHTWEIGHT GBP), Matthew Hatton (no comment) as possible opponents? Why hasn't he fought a legitimate welterweight since Judah? Call yourself the best, then fight the f**king best. Fight Shane. Fight Paul. Fight Margo. Fight Berto. Fight Pac. Fight someone your own f**king size. Then shut all the haters up. Shut me the f**k up. He might be one of the best boxers on the planet today, but it's a gotdamn SHAME to consider himself one of the best welterweights.

If it's Mayweather vs Mosley, Mayweather better ask for the same testing for Mosley that he asked for Pacquiao. Mosley is the known PED user so he should be held to even higher standards than any other boxer. If Mayweather doesn't ask for "Olympic style" testing, well....