Mayweather: Untried, Unproven and Untested at Welterweight

“How can he call himself the best if he hasn’t conquered anyone significant yet?”.

Tungod, Inabanga, Bohol – Fresh from his relatively and expectedly easy conquest of Mexican lightweight champ Juan Manuel “Dinamita” Marquez (50-5-1, 37 KOs), Ring Magazine #2 rated pound for pound “Pretty Boy” Floyd Mayweather, Jr.(40-0-0, 25 KOs) remains untried, unproven, and untested in the welterweight ranks. Time and again, staying true to his fighting style of keeping it safe, the flamboyant American continues to traverse the easy route, staying clear of legitimate threats to his unbeaten status.

While the rest of the boxing world are dumbfounded by the surprisingly high Mayweather-Marquez pay-per-view output of about 1 million buys, one can’t help but wonder whether or not the self-proclaimed best fighter will ever get out of his shell and take on someone who poses a legitimate challenge. It might seem like decades ago when Mayweather last fought someone who falls under that category. He was still a lightweight then and his opponent was Jose Luis Castillo, who, by the way, happens to be reportedly designated as pound-for-pound best Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao’s (49-3-2, 37 KOs) chief sparring mate in preparation for his welterweight clash with Miguel Angel Cotto (34-1-0, 27 KOs) of Puerto Rico this November. As a lightweight, Mayweather was a warrior, a beast, and was rarely criticized with his choice of opponents. The same cannot be said of him north of the 135-lb weight limit.
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One might argue that Mayweather’s gifted physical attributes and uncanny skill set, coupled with superb conditioning and ring smarts, in comparison to his past opponents as the primary basis of all this prejudice. Is he really that good or is he merely just a product of careful matchmaking? Unless proven otherwise, I’m more quite inclined to believe the latter.

Floyd is listed at 5 feet and 8 inches (5’8”) with a 72-inch reach. Why am I mentioning these stats? Try to check Floyd’s list of previous opponents and see if you can find any of them, apart from Oscar De La Hoya, who has both advantages in size and reach over him. If you are successful, then you can stop reading and I will certainly rest my case. If you can’t, then read on and know the facts.

Let’s talk about “effective reach”, which is a factor of both height and reach. It’s not only the reach that determines how far a fist can travel. Effective reach is also directly proportional to height. Throughout his career, Mayweather has enjoyed the effective reach advantage in all but one of his foes.

Now going back to the untried, unproven, and untested argument, let’s try to dissect each of the fighters that Floyd has fought at welterweight, namely; Mitchell, Judah, Baldomir, De La Hoya, Hatton, and just recently, Marquez. No disrespect, but I could care less about Mitchell. Judah gave Floyd fits in the early goings of the fight, but as expected, once again fell prey to his own impatience and undoing. Baldomir became significant only after his shocking upset of Zab Judah, making the erstwhile welterweight champ do the “chicken dance”. Then again, he was tad slow and taylor-made for Mayweather. De La Hoya couldn’t pull the trigger in the later rounds… oh by the way, that fight was at light middleweight so technically, De La Hoya doesn’t count among them. Hatton was undefeated, but unfortunately, it was at 140 lbs and Floyd was just too big, too strong, and too fast for him. In his return after about a two-year hiatus from the sport, Floyd came back and cherry picked a lightweight in Marquez.

An encounter against at least two legitimate threats at welterweight, probably and hopefully against the winner of the Sugar Shane Mosley – Andre Berto and Miguel Angel Cotto – Manny Pacquiao faceoffs could most likely change my impression about Floyd. Well, he can also add Antonio Margarito in the list if he likes. He’ll perhaps take Pacquiao, not just because he’s the most lucrative fight out there for him, but also since the Pinoy idol is literally the smallest among the names mentioned. Well, we might one day see Money Mayweather man up and fight any of these guys. I hope he does… but until he finally steps on the gas and faces someone his size and/or caliber, Mayweather will remain just as he is in my eyes – merely a prospect at welterweight.

Commentary: I believe that even if Floyd Mayweather will fight Miguel Cotto, Shane Mosley, Margarito, etc. he has a big chance of winning. The only problem is that Mayweather is more of a very smart businessman than a legendary boxer. As long as his strategy works, meaning he will earn a lot of money, never expect Floyd to change. So it's up to us fans whether to patronize his fights or look the other way...If you will keep on watching his fight to wait for him to loss then you will have to wait for a long time because as a businessman Floyd will always calculates the risk vs. reward factor to his favor every time...

Source: Mayweather: Untried, Unproven and Untested at Welterweight

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