Floyd Mayweather in the Fight of His Life ... with the UFC

On September 19, Floyd Mayweather will make his return to boxing after almost a two-year absence. He’ll be fighting two hungry and motivated opponents that night – Juan Manuel Marquez in the ring, and the Ultimate Fighting Championship in the ratings. And though no one in boxing would dare to challenge the skills of the great Marquez, given the fact that he’ll be fighting a good three weight classes above his natural weight, well, the UFC just may prove to be Floyd’s more formidable foe.

Mayweather’s fight with Marquez was supposed to go off at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on July 20, but Mayweather postponed the bout due to what remains a mysterious rib injury. Many boxing pundits opined that Floyd might have manufactured the injury in order to push the bout back due to sluggish ticket sales and the overall malaise that has surrounded Vegas during this recession summer.

So the bout was rescheduled at the MGM Grand for September 19, when it will be broadcast live on HBO pay-per-view. Of course, there will be another big-time PPV fight card that same night, UFC 103, which is taking place at the American Airlines Center in Dallas and headlined by Rich Franklin vs. Dan Henderson.

It’s the first time in history that a major mixed martial arts card will be competing with a big-time boxing match on pay-per-view. Granted, neither event is gigundous. It’s not as if you have UFC 100 going up against De La Hoya/Mayweather. But the fact of the coinciding pay-per-view cards will still garner a lot of media investigation, especially because the plotlines involved are thick, and all center on that enigmatic, tempestuous braggart known as Money May.

After a dubious stab at retirement, Mayweather is returning to boxing purportedly to reclaim his status as the sport’s pound-for-pound king from the upstart Manny Pacquiao, who is currently boxing’s consensus pound-for-pound best. Since the announcement of Mayweather/Marquez, which came at a press conference on the morning of Pacquiao’s stunning knockout of Ricky Hatton in May, even casual boxing fans have been electrified at the eventual possibility of a winner-take-all pound-for-pound showdown between Pacquiao and Mayweather.

To this point, there have been no formal negotiations between the two camps about making this fight (none reported anyway), but the informal negotiations that have taken place via the media have been hot and heavy, with both sides insisting that their man is the best fighter and biggest draw in the sport and therefore should command the lion’s share of the money when and if a Pacquiao/Mayweather fight goes down.

In terms of the actual boxing, each has a compelling claim to top dog status, but when it comes to the question of drawing power, right now Floyd would seem to have the better argument. After all, Pacquiao and Mayweather share two prior opponents – Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton. Each fought them back-to-back, respectively – Mayweather in 2007 and Pacquiao in December of ’08 and then May of this year. All four bouts were broadcast on HBO PPV, and a comparison of the numbers gives a decided advantage to Mayweather. His bout with Oscar did a record 2.4 million PPV buys (making it the biggest boxing match of all time) while Pacquiao’s did 1.25 million, and his bout with Hatton did 915,000 buys while Pacquiao’s did 850,000.

Of course, even more than most things, boxing is a “what have you done for me lately?” universe, and while Mayweather has sat out his dance card since December of 2007, Pacquiao has turned himself into a marquee pay-per-view draw. Once could even argue that Pacquiao’s 850K against Hatton is more impressive than Floyd’s 915K when you adjust the scale for the down economy.

Either way, it goes without saying that the numbers for their next fights are going to be very significant to any negotiations that might take place between them. And on that front, Floyd appears to be skating on thin ice. Pacquiao’s next fight was announced this past week – he’ll face Miguel Cotto on November 14, also at the MGM Grand in Vegas. This news was greeted with almost universal exhilaration from the boxing community and the fight is already a hot topic of debate all over the internet.

Meanwhile, Mayweather/Marquez has failed to capture the imagination of even the hardcore boxing audience. While no one connected with boxing in any way would ever disrespect the skills of Marquez, the fact that he is facing such an oppressive weight disadvantage in the fight makes it a less than compelling narrative. Granted, there are nearly two months left until fight night, but still, this event is simply not generating the kind of buzz that presages a massive PPV bonanza. HBO’s Mayweather/Marquez 24/7 likely will help with that, and no doubt Floyd has some crazy antics up his sleeve to draw attention to the fight, but nevertheless, if I were to wager on the pay-per-view over/unders right now, I’d put Pacquiao/Cotto at a mill and Mayweather Marquez at 500K, with the caveat that 500K is a very generous number.

Especially when you factor in the x-factor of UFC 103. September 19 promises to be a watershed night for both boxing and MMA, because it’s a night that will provide some hard numbers toward an investigation of whether the two sports are directly competing for fans or not. There’s been some low-level, ill-defined war of words between boxing and MMA for years now concerning who’s tougher, who would beat who in what, which is more popular, etc. And it’s fitting that Mayweather should be at the center of the upcoming storm, because he has a long history of shooting off his mouth about the UFC, questioning the skills of its combatants, likening them to “animals,” and most recently making this bizarre racial argument for the entire existence of mixed martial arts:

“In boxing, we know who's dominating. Black fighters and Hispanic fighters is dominating in this sport. And this is not a racial statement but no white fighters in boxing that's dominating, so they had to go to something else and start something new."

I’m not going to go into the reasons that this is a ridiculous, ignorant and offensive thing to say (and Floyd, if that’s not “a racial statement,” then what the hell is?). It’s not worth wasting my precious typing energy refuting something so plainly stupid. I only bring it up to illustrate the ways in which Floyd has shown himself to be more than willing to hit below the belt where mixed martial arts is concerned.

But now, MMA has a chance to hit him back, and hit him where he lives. Maybe it will turn out that there is no relative impact on the pay-per-view numbers of Mayweather/Marquez and UFC 103, and we can all conclude that the much ballyhooed competition between boxing and MMA for the fight fan’s dollar is a red herring. Or maybe not – maybe each event will take a perceived hit at the box office, or one more than the other. Or maybe, as has been suggested on the blogs for a few weeks now, the UFC will move UFC 103 to Spike and really mess with Floyd’s world.

As it stands right now, the UFC 103 card is relatively weak, and it’s hard to imagine many boxing fans that generally would buy Mayweather/Marquez deciding to jump ship to the UFC for such a lukewarm roster of fights. But if it were free? If fans can save 50 bucks in this economy, still get a good Saturday night of bloodlust, and then check out the May/Marquez replay on free HBO the following week? That seems like a situation that definitely could negatively impact the PPV numbers for Mayweather/Marquez.

And those numbers aren’t shaping up to be that good to begin with. The fact is that if Floyd/Marquez does somewhere in the neighborhood of 200-300K in PPV buys, it’s a tremendous embarrassment to Mayweather win, lose or draw, and a huge obstacle to his future success at the negotiating table. On that score, Marquez is only one of the fights Floyd will be waging come September. The other is with those “animals” in the cage, and right now, I got that fight at even money.

Source

Cotto's strap up for grabs by Manny Pacquiao

Francisco “Paco” Valcarcel, lawyer and president of the World Boxing Organization, is not tone deaf.

Valcarcel has heard the cry from the millions of Manny Pacquiao fans and those who devoutly follow the fistic fortunes of Boricua Bomber Miguel Angel Cotto.

As I reported, Cotto has thought he could hold the WBO welterweight title hostage and use it as a blackjack on the head of the Pacquiao-Cotto Nov. 14 promoter Bob Arum.

I caught up with Valcarcel as he was going through airport security somewhere and we had a brief conversation Friday afternoon.

Whatever happens in Cotto’s money play with Top Rank’s top dog, Valcarcel said that Pacquiao fans, Cotto fans and fight fans in general can relax.

“I know that Manny is looking to make boxing history. I can appreciate that as he goes after the very tough Cotto for a seventh weight division world title,” Valcarcel said.

“You can tell all the people right now, the WBO title will be on the line. You’ve got a highly respected champion fighting the Number One contender. It would be ridiculous for this not to be for the title.

“No matter what happens, I assure you that this will be a WBO welterweight title fight. End of story.”

Yes, you can say, well Paco is a boxing politician. That much is true.

But, unlike many politicians, he has his finger on the pulse of the people.

Source

Who needs Floyd when you've got Nate Campbell?

Nate Campbell, who helped Tampa, Fla., police chase down a couple of suspected purse snatchers last month, stole the show Thursday.

Campbell knocked the mundane out of a conference call and talked Timothy Bradley into a freewheeling exchange, which is something the favored Bradley promises won't happen when they meet for the World Boxing Organization's version of the 140-pound title in a Showtime-televised bout on Aug. 1 at Agua Caliente Casino in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

Campbell livens up the proceedings. (Getty Images)

The junior welterweights were still talking -- or at least Campbell was -- when promoter Gary Shaw said goodbye to a long-distance preliminary that could get interesting at opening bell in a ring about 10 miles from where Bradley grew up in the California desert east of Los Angeles.

The entertaining give-and-take erupted just when the call seemed to be ending. That's when Campbell, who had said he was sick of talking about the fight, talked a lot, stirring up placid waters with a rhetorical lure that got the businesslike Bradley to drop his usual cool.

"I'm going to bust his ass," said Campbell, who went on to say a few more things, including "I'm going to take you to the abyss," and "I'm going to stop you."

Who needs Floyd Mayweather Jr. when Campbell is on the line?

Actually, Campbell's trash talk is a lot more likable than the variety delivered by Mayweather, who is defensive in the ring and out of it when confronted by a threat. In the irreverent tone of a Bernard Hopkins, Campbell seemed to be having some fun and it sounded as if even Bradley enjoyed at least some of it.

Bradley laughed when Campbell recounted a chase on June 26 when he and advisor Terry Trekas followed a couple of alleged purse snatchers from a Tampa supermarket to an apartment, where the suspects were eventually arrested.

"What if they had a pistol?" Bradley asked Campbell.

No problem, Campbell said. No hesitation either.

"I had one too," Campbell said.

Campbell's timing -- bada boom, bada bing -- was perfect. But whether the former lightweight champ will have all the right counters on Aug. 1 might simply be a question of too much time. Campbell, 37, is more than a decade older than the unbeaten Bradley (24-0, 11 KOs), who at 25 looked like he had the durability to be a star when he got up from two knockdowns to win a decision in April over Kendall Holt.

It's no surprise that Campbell dismisses the age issue, which he also has predictably turned into a source of personal motivation.

"I really don't understand why media people make all of these God-awful statements about my age," said Campbell, who said he didn't begin to pursue a fight career until he was 25. "Hey you know, fighters are fighting longer and better than ever these days."

On that one, at least, there was no counter from Bradley, who was at ringside in Cancun for Campbell's stunning split decision against Juan Diaz in March 2008.

"I couldn't believe it," Bradley said. "When I was sitting there in Cancun, I really just couldn't believe it. I actually lost money on it. What was it, five pesos? That's why I'm taking this fight. I want to fight the best."

Bradley went on to issue a warning of sorts. He told the conference-call audience and Campbell not to confuse him with Diaz, or at least the Diaz who showed up in Cancun on that fateful night.

"I'm not Juan Diaz," said Bradley, who argues he is more versatile. "I'm not one dimensional."

But it is Campbell who is convinced he has a superior mix of skills. It is a versatility, he suggests, acquired through experience that also has resulted in valuable frustration.

"I'm an angry guy when I realize over the last few years how people did me dirty in the fight game," said Campbell, who took the IBF, WBA and WBO 135-pound title in his victory over Diaz. "... I couldn't get fights. How in the world can I hold three lightweight titles and not get fights. Now, I just want to ruin the fighters they put in front of me."

Bradley sympathizes. Kind of.

"At 135, I thought he [Campbell] was the best," said Bradley, who says he was drawn out of his fight plan by a trash-talking Holt in a dangerous mistake that he says he won't repeat against Campbell. "Nate just didn't get a chance to fight Manny Pacquiao. Yeah, Manny Pacquiao is the best. He's the poster boy in this business. But now he's catching guys as they're getting weak, dropping down in weight."

Even if you subtract Pacquiao from the equation, Campbell and Bradley look around and all the way to the UK, where the World Boxing Association's newly minted light-welterweight champ Amir Khan completed a comeback from his September loss to Breidis Prescott with a decision over Adriy Kotelnik. In Kahn, they see another reason to wonder whether they aren't getting their share of respect, if not money. Khan rhymes with con, and Campbell will tell you they mean same thing, too.

"Is Khan spelled with a C?" Campbell asked. "He took that boy's [Kotelnik] lunch money."

Campbell figures he can take a lot more than just that. But be ready for a long lunch and a longer listen.

Source

For Pacquiao, the list has gotten really short

Jim Lampley once remarked during a fight, "Manny Pacquiao is a storm!"

That was years ago. Lampley nor anybody else knew just how devastating the Pacquiao storm would become in the following years. Here we are in 2009, and the former flyweight champion of the world currently sits on the 140-pound throne, has retired Oscar de la Hoya, been involved in two straight "Event of the Year" fights, demolished a game Ricky Hatton in under two rounds, and overall done things that would've been unthinkable even a few years ago.

On November 14, he'll go up to a 145-pound catchweight to try and capture Miguel Cotto's WBA welterweight title. I've said already that Cotto is a seriously dangerous opponent, no matter what anyone else might think, and he should be treated as such. A Pacquiao steamroll job would be jaw-dropping in this fight.

I also remarked at the end of the article that to some, it seems like all that would be acceptable is a time-traveling Pacquiao that battles Sugar Ray Robinson for all-time supremacy. In some ways, it's understandable that Pacquiao's opponents will be downplayed. There are precious few fighters that present a great danger to him these days. He's become that good. Sure, welterweight is legitimately the highest he could possibly go (I mean it has to be, right?), and bigger guys than that could have their way with him simply on size. I joked after the Hatton fight that if Pacquiao challenged 6'2" middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik, I'd pick Manny. But realistically Pavlik would take his head off at some point (he'd have to, right?).

Manny has also given the impression that he won't be staying in boxing forever. He has political aspirations in the Philippines, is going to make another boat load of money to fight Cotto, and there are a lot of other things he can now do with his life. You never know until it's truly over, but Manny might not be here more than a few more fights.

There are good and even great challenges out there for him, though. Let's take a look at five guys that I think could give Manny a serious run for his money in the ring.

5. Edwin Valero

I'll say right now I'm not listing Juan Manuel Marquez among my five most dangerous Pacquiao opponents, and it's not because I don't think he's a better fighter than at least four of the guys on this list in a pound-for-pound sense. But Marquez is getting older and with the roll Pacquiao's on and the fact that it'd have to be at at least 140 pounds, I just don't think the matchup is good for JMM anymore. He's surprised me before, but I think the weight is bad for him against a younger, faster guy that has knocked him down four times in two fights at lower weights.

Valero (25-0, 25 KO) likely gets mowed down in five or so rounds by Pacquiao. That's my gut feeling. But Valero is 27 years old, a fellow southpaw, seriously hungry, and has wicked power. Nasty, one-shot, out on your ass and you don't know what happend-style power. A guy that hits like Valero can stop anyone within size reason, and he's taller than Pacquiao and has a two-inch reach advantage. He could probably handle 140 as a weight just as well as he has 130 and 135 so far. Valero, of course, wants the fight, and Top Rank has made some hints that they'd like to get it done in the future. Bob Arum promotes both men, so it'd be win-win and money all around for him, but it's not a superfight, and there's still the matter of licensing Valero anywhere in the U.S. that isn't Texas.

4. Miguel Cotto

Pacquiao's next opponent will get his chance to dethrone the P4P king, though it probably wouldn't make him the P4P king, so "dethrone" isn't really the right word -- he would more serve as a hitman for the Mayweather-Marquez winner to firmly move into the No. 1 slot.

I do understand a few of the concerns about Cotto and his alleged decline. He didn't attack the body against Clottey the way he's known to do, but I think he had the mindset going in that Clottey wasn't going to get hurt. Fighters know how hard they hit, and they know who's vulnerable to what. Clottey is an excellent defensive fighter and a tough son of a gun, and Cotto came out to box him. When he didn't have that same idea against Michael Jennings, he still attacked with righteous fury. I get the feeling he's not going to see Manny the way he did the bigger, physically stronger Clottey. I think Miguel's going to attack Pacquiao and test him out quickly.

And it's also worth saying that Cotto is a dirty fighter when he feels the need to be. If Pacquiao starts getting the best of him, Miguel is not above a low blow. I mean let's just call a spade a spade here. He takes momentum -- or stops it -- any way he has to. Some people find this despicable. I'm on the fence. It's something you have to take into account going into a fight with Cotto. He's a hot-headed, mean fighter.

The "iceman" Cotto, the guy that stared at Alfonso Gomez like he wanted to eat his liver, that guy can beat Pacquiao, and Pacquiao better believe it.

3. Shane Mosley

Shane Mosley may be older, but until he looks rough at 147 pounds, I see him as a serious problem for Manny Pacquiao or anyone else for that matter. His last two welterweight fights were a great, competitive loss to an on top of his game Cotto and a complete ass-whooping of Antonio Margarito. He doesn't look good at 154, not that he ever looked too great that high in weight, but at 147 he's still among the sport's elite.

Mosley's speed and intensity could be troublesome for Manny, and let's not forget that he's a full three inches taller than Pacquiao. That height did nothing for Oscar de la Hoya, but Oscar didn't look so great against veteran gatekeeper Steve Forbes months prior to that. It's not the same thing. It's not an excuse: Oscar was fairly shot, the weight killed him, and Pacquiao took him to the woodshed. It doesn't diminish what Pacquiao did to him. Freddie Roach said that's exactly what would happen: Oscar wouldn't be good at 147 and wouldn't be able to pull the trigger. That's why they took what was at the time a nearly unthinkable matchup.

Shane's a different beast. He's still got two loaded guns and he fires at will. I also think Manny's speed, his southpaw stance, and his ability to get in and out at tough angles make him very hard for Shane to handle, too. It's a great fight on paper.

2. Paul Williams

I'm kind of copping out putting Williams at No. 2, because of all the guys that could realistically get down to 147 or a couple pounds lower, Paul Williams is by far the hardest matchup for Manny. Williams is a freak of nature, a 6'1" guy that pumps his fists at a hellacious rate and has a longer reach than Vitali Klitschko.

Manny would have a long night ahead of him against "The Punisher." If he wanted to, Williams could fire off his jab and keep Manny at bay all night. It's never really been Williams' strength, even though it should be, but he's also a really good inside fighter for a guy with such massively long arms.

His workrate, stamina, and power at 147 are tough enough to top. When you factor in the gross physical advantages he'd have over Pacquiao (and just about anyone), it's easy to see why he bounces around divisions looking for the best fights. Nobody wants to fight this guy because he's such a unique challenge.

One of the bigger reasons I stuck him at No. 2 instead of No. 1 is that the fight is so unlikely he might as well not even be mentioned, but he deserves to be, so...whatever. I mean, it's not even a guarantee he could make welterweight anymore, even though he says he can.

1. Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Of course. Of course.

Look, even if you "hate" Mayweather, it doesn't take a genius to see where he could give Manny trouble. Floyd is a master counter-puncher with extremely fast hands and pinpoint accuracy. He's not the biggest hitter in the world, but his power has become underrated. There is nobody close to Pacquiao or with a knowledge of style matchups that would say anything less than Floyd is conceivably the toughest fight of Manny Pacquiao's life. Pacquiao has beaten brawlers, boxers, and fighters of all styles, but he has never faced someone as slick and tricky as the "Pretty Boy."

What makes a potential Pacquiao-Mayweather fight so desirable is that style clash. Pacquiao is a better boxer than Mayweather would ever give him credit for, but he's not the sort of pure talent that Floyd is. Floyd's entire life has been boxing, and he's a rare talent. Thousands and thousands of men have stepped into pro rings over the years, and few of them have Mayweather's God-given gifts.

But what would he do with one of those Pacquiao charges? You can only avoid so much, only block so much, and Pacquiao also has a style that Mayweather has really never seen. I haven't gone as bananas about this fight as a lot of people have, and I'd still personally rather see Mosley-Pacquiao, and I like Cotto-Pacquiao better as far as the fight goes. But Pacquiao-Mayweather is such an important fight -- if both win this fall, anyway -- that it really should happen. I don't think it has to happen, and part of that is my reluctance to believe it ever really will. But that would be the most important fight in boxing in a long, long, long time, and for good reason.

Source

Bradley takes shot at Pacquiao

Timothy Bradley is undefeated, a two-time titleholder and confident. He also seems to be frustrated about the perception of a particular fighter from the Philippines.

The product of the Southern California desert town of Palm Springs said a victory over Nate Campbell on Aug. 1 in neighboring Rancho Mirage will solidify his position as the top 140-pounder in the world. Then he remembered Manny Pacquiao.

Bradley is rated No. 1 at 140 pounds by THE RING, one notch below champion Pacquiao.

“Manny Pacquiao is the best fighter supposedly … whatever,” he said Thursday on a conference call, which included Campbell. “He’s the poster kid. He’s not fighting the best in the division, though. He’s fighting bigger fighters who are cutting weight and chopping them up because they’re weakened coming down in weight.”

Yes, it sounds like sour grapes. However, no one can say Bradley (24-0, 11 knockouts) is just sitting around complaining; he’s fighting hard to get to the top.

Case in point: He will have fought three of the best 140-pounders in the world in a 14-month period, an extremely impressive feat.

He went to England and narrowly beat Junior Witter in May of last year to win the WBC belt, he survived the only two knockdowns of his career to outpoint Kendall Holt and win the WBO version of the title, and he faces Campbell a week from Saturday.

He has a long way to go before he catches Pacquiao but he’s on the rise.

“To be the best, you have to beat the best,” Bradley said. “He’s one of the best fighters at 140 pounds, including myself. That’s the reason I’m taking the challenge. I want to be the best fighter in the world at 140. I have to beat Nate Campbell to do that.”

The fighters engaged in some spirited trash talking on the conference call but it was good natured. They seem to respect one another.

Bradley was asked what he thought of Campbell’s stunning split-decision upset victory over then-undefeated Juan Diaz last year in Cancun, Mexico. Clearly, he was impressed. And Campbell’s subsequent majority-decision victory over tall, hard-punching South African Ali Funeka? Again, impressive.

So what makes Bradley think he’ll fare any better against the seasoned old (37) veteran?

“Because I’m not Juan Diaz,” he said. “I’m not one dimensional. He’s one dimensional; he can’t move, he can’t box, he can’t adjust in the ring. What makes me confident is that I can pretty much do it all – box, bang, stand and trade. I can move and I can fight too.

“I can make adjustments in the ring. That’s what makes me feel a lot more confidence.”

Meanwhile, Campbell (33-5-1, 25 KOs) will be fighting for the first time in an official 140-pound bout.

He lost the 135-pound titles he took from Diaz when he failed to make weight against Funeka in February. He weighed in at 137½.

He said he was on weight Thursday.

“You’re able to shrink down when you’re young,” he said. “As you get older, you can’t shrink down as much; you lose strength. I’m feeling stronger than when I’ve been at a higher weight. I feel really, really strong. I’ll be here for a while.”

More disrespect: Bradley took a shot at the sport’s pound-for-pound king. Not to be outdone, Campbell took one at another well-known 140-pounder – Amir Khan.

Khan took the WBA’s version of the junior welterweight title when he easily outpointed Andreas Kotelnik last Saturday in the UK, only three fights removed from a first-round knockout loss to Breidis Prescott.

“Is that spelled CON?” Campbell said, purposely misspelling Khan’s name. “I don’t know how that boy got a title shot. That boy there shouldn’t fight for a junior title let alone a world title. Didn’t Prescott take his lunch money a few months ago?”

Bradley showed more respect for the talented Englishman, who is 22.

"He better hold onto the title as long as he can," Bradley said. "That's all I have to say. I don't have much to say ... congrats on winning the world title. He fought a smart fight. Congrats to him. Basically, that's all I can say. I can't say anything bad. He won a world title. He beat a good, seasoned guy. Kotelnik had been in the ring with Witter and so on. Good job. Congrats."

Source

Oddly, marquee fight’s catch weight still unknown

When it was revealed this week that Miguel Cotto and Manny Pacquiao will fight Nov. 14 at the MGM Grand, it was hard not to notice one particular aspect of the announcement.

Both men agreed to meet at a “catch weight” of 145 pounds, two pounds below the welterweight limit. The 145-pound mark was an acceptable compromise for Cotto, a welterweight for the past three years, and Pacquiao, who has never weighed more than 142 pounds for a fight.

Of course, the weight limit attached to a big boxing match is typically considered a piece of rudimentary information, like the date of the fight, or the venue — or the name of the tequila company that’s sponsoring the event.

Yet the promoters of another major bout scheduled for the second half of the year — Floyd Mayweather Jr. versus Juan Manuel Marquez, Sept. 19 at the MGM Grand — have been unable, or unwilling, to state the weight limit for the fight.

This has created an air of mystery around Mayweather-Marquez that’s either intriguing, troubling or downright bizarre, depending on how you look at it.

Mayweather, returning to the ring after a layoff of nearly two years, made it sound as if he’s planning to push the 147-pound welterweight limit. Training at 149 to 150 pounds, Mayweather dismissed a suggestion that he’ll be required to reach a lighter catch weight.

“I’m not weighing in at 143,” Mayweather said on a teleconference. “It’s a welterweight fight. I’ll weigh what welterweights weigh. Whatever I come in weighing, that’s what I’ll come in weighing. I don’t have to weigh 143.”

A higher weight limit would suit Mayweather’s purposes. Before entering a temporary retirement, Mayweather fought twice in 2007, in title fights against Ricky Hatton at welterweight and Oscar De La Hoya at junior middleweight. Marquez moved up to the lightweight division (135 pounds) only last year.

Underscoring the notion that every pound counts in negotiating a fight’s weight limit, Mayweather took a mild shot at De La Hoya, suggesting he was too skinny in his loss to Pacquiao last year. (Mayweather Promotions and De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions are promoting Mayweather-Marquez.)

“De La Hoya was focused on losing weight instead of focusing on fighting,” Mayweather said. “I think De La Hoya was only training when the camera was on him. You’ve got to take this sport seriously. You can’t train just to lose weight. It can mess your whole career up.”

Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy, took the risky — or perhaps disingenuous — tack of claiming the shroud of secrecy was designed to build interest in the weigh-in for the fight.

“It will be the most covered weigh-in ever because everybody wants to know what the weight is,” Schaefer said. “So make sure you don’t miss it. Don’t miss the weigh-in.”

Strange indeed.

Marquez stuck to the party line, saying in Spanish only that the bout will be a welterweight fight. While that might be technically accurate, it leaves open the nontrivial question of whether the limit will be 141 pounds, 147 pounds or somewhere in between.

“There’s an agreement between us and it’s a welterweight fight,” Marquez said. “Anything over 140 is considered a welterweight fight. Everyone’s going to find out come weigh-in day.”

It’s easier to digest the other riddle linked to the fight: a rib injury suffered by Mayweather that forced the bout to be moved from its original July 18 date.

Mayweather, who has refused to divulge details of the injury, can plausibly maintain that doing so could give Marquez an advantage in preparing for the fight.

“It happened in training,” Mayweather said. “It didn’t even come from sparring. Freak accidents happen in training ... When it happened I tried to work through it. I was fine for a while but then it happened again. I can’t try to be a superhero. It was best to take a little time off, let it heal and come back so when I do come back I’ll be able to perform to the best of my ability.”

De La Hoya, who predicted a victory for Marquez and said he believes Mayweather’s injury could play a role in the outcome, was as cryptic as Schaefer in discussing the fight’s weight limit.

“I think the whole world is going to be tuning in to make (the weigh-in) an event in itself,” De La Hoya said.

This is an odd strategy, and one that could backfire. Instead of whetting the appetite of boxing fans this summer, it could make them think the architects of this promotion don’t quite have their act together.

Source

Cotto, Pacquiao pound out their differences

What a difference a couple of pounds can make.

Given how the rest of the summer has panned out so far, the boxing world braced for the inevitable — that the fall would be without its biggest fight.

Miguel Cotto couldn't keep up his rough style if he fought at 143 pounds. (Al Bello / Getty Images)

Two pounds almost stood in the way of Miguel Cotto and Manny Pacquiao looking for someone other than each other to fight later in the year. Two pounds threatened to become the latest negative storyline in a summer already flooded with bad news.

In the end, two pounds gives the boxing world something positive to talk about — and for its writers to type about.

The storylines were running thin, other than the same recurring theme — yet another fallout. It was about to become this week's subject, after Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. became the latest to have his name scratched from a summer schedule that reads more like an E.R. log-in sheet. A rib injury forced the oldest son of Mexico's most famous fighting family off Saturday's "Latin Fury 10" pay-per-view telecast, this on the heels of undefeated Yuriorkis Gamboa being scratched last week.

Then came Cotto-Pacquiao — or Pacquiao-Cotto, depending on your viewpoint.

Two pounds is the difference between the fight taking place at the traditional welterweight limit, where Cotto (34-1, 27 KOs) has campaigned full-time since December 2006, and the 145-pound catchweight at which the combatants will meet.

Barring his coming in heavy for the prefight weigh-in, 145 will be the lightest Cotto will officially weigh for a prize fight in more than three years, when he was drying out in order to make the junior welterweight limit. The Puerto Rican boxing superstar has weighed between 146 and the divisional limit of 147 for each of his eight welterweight fights to date.

Money wasn't of concern so much as the demand from Pacquiao that the fight takes place at an even lower limit. It was an issue in which Cotto refused to budge, not out of stubbornness, but for his own medical safety. Let Pacquiao enjoy the favorable end of the purse split; all Cotto asked for was something more in line with what his nutritionist would consider a realistic compromise.

Two pounds.

It is the difference between the fight's contracted weight and the 143-pound mark Pacquiao (49-3-2, 37 KOs) originally pursued.

Some found the request unbecoming of a reigning pound-for-pound king, that the sport's very best should be willing to take on all comers under any and all circumstances. Not to mention that it would become the latest in an already far too long list of catchweight fights that continue to compromise the significance of having weight classes in the first place.

Others sympathized with the Filipino's cause. Having begun his career just north of the strawweight limit 14 years ago, the pending clash with Cotto would be just Pacquiao's fourth fight above 130, all coming in the last year and change.

After having captured the lineal super featherweight crown last March, Pacquiao has since spent one fight each at lightweight, junior welterweight and welterweight. His pit stop at lightweight resulted in an alphabet title winning knockout over David Diaz.

Six months later, he cemented his claim as 2008's Fighter of the Year by forcing Oscar De La Hoya to quit on his stool — and ultimately from the sport altogether — after eight brutally one-sided rounds.

The event was marketed as a welterweight fight, though Pacquiao came in at 142 well below the division limit. It was just two pounds more than the next division in which he would campaign, dropping down to junior welterweight for his super-fight with Ricky Hatton this past May.

Pacquiao came in two pounds below the division limit, but carried heavyweight power in blitzing Hatton in two rounds to make boxing history in becoming the only fighter to capture lineal titles in four weight classes.

The two-pound compromise for the Cotto fight gives Pacquiao a different historical angle in which to pursue. Cotto holds an alphabet title at welterweight, which means a Pacquiao win could make him boxing's first ever to capture hardware in seven weight classes, if in fact a title is at stake.

Those who still lend credence to the alphabet sanctioning bodies will no doubt run with that story line as the fight draws closer. Others will take the fight for what it is — a titanic collision between two of the very best in the sport today — and perhaps draw parallels to other significant pound-for-pound matchups from yesteryear and beyond.

Simply put, the angles on which to cover this fight are endless. All of them figure to be explored between now through Nov. 14, and more than likely beyond if the fight comes anywhere close to living up to the already exceedingly high expectations.

A compromise on two pounds was all it took, to make the fight and save a boxing year that was threatening to become known for all of the wrong reasons.

Source