09.11.06 – By Marcelles (Quenton) Brown: Photos by Naoki Fukuda – Last weekend’s WBC Welterweight Championship fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. (37-0, 24 KOs) and Carlos Baldomir (43-10-6, 13 KOs) is still the talk of the town. Everybody from Nelly, Denzel Washington, Suge Knight, Boys II Men, Bone Thugs & Harmony, Mike P, Tyler Perry, to my man Fareed Samad was ringside as Floyd fought one of the most surprising and disappointing fights of his career. The entire fight card was packed with impressive and very competitive fighters promoted by Goossen Tutor and HBO Pay-Per-View.
By the time the main fight came to the ring, the crowd was ready for some action and to see Floyd take him out quickly, but that wasn’t the case. The fight surprisingly went the full twelve rounds, leaving everyone near disappointed. Everybody knows that Floyd won by unanimous decision, but we still want to know what’s really going on? Floyd hurt his hand in about the fifth or sixth round, maybe that’s what slowed him down, right? Some might say that this is not one of Floyd’s better fights, maybe the worse.
At the press conference after the fight Floyd announced that he might be retiring after maybe one more fight. Now boxing fans all over the world wants to know why. Is he afraid, is it the injured hand and fear of permanent damage or is he just tired of fighting and want to run his record label (Filthy Rich Records) full time? He said he want De La Hoya, will it happen? I’m sure if the money is right, which we know it will be, it’s going down.
The disappointment of last weeks fight was obvious and many are not afraid to say how they feel about it. “It was a terrible fight,” said boxing trainer and manager House of Gold’s Gym-East in Las Vegas. “I wouldn’t have mind them going the distance but when he (Floyd) tried to compare himself to Ray Robinson and Sugar Ray Leonard, I have a problem with that. They would have eaten this guy (Baldomir) for breakfast. It wouldn’t have taken them 12 rounds to take him out, he wouldn’t have even lasted 3 rounds with Robinson or Leonard. Broke hand and all. Plus Baldomir was only hitting him at 7%; we came to see a fight. That boy got skills but this fight was terrible.”
When asked if he thinks Floyd was claiming to retire because of his injury to the hand and afraid of loosing or sacred his hand would eventually give out on him forcing him to retire House said, “maybe but a lot of fighters want to retire being undefeated.” Only time can tell now what Floyd is going to do, many fighters say they want to retire and return to the ring to cash in on a fat paycheck or to keep their reputation alive. He may retire, but at his age and the rate he spends money, he may return. One minute it’s on with De La Hoya, the next it’s off, we’ll see May 5 who’s willing to put up or shut up. De La Hoya slapped Floyd in the face with a $1 Million offer; let’s see if Floyd keeps laughing him off or up the bid to $10 or even $15 Million.
It was great to see Chuck Giampa, Paul Smith, Dave Moretti, Patricia Morse Jarman, Carol Casellano, CJ Ross and Dick Houck doing what they do best, judging championship history in the making. And who could forget some of the sharpest referee’s in the game Jay Nady, Robert Byrd, Joe Cortez and Kenny Bayless? A fight in Vegas isn’t top notch if they aren’t in the ring calling the shots. I miss Richard Steele, though, the last fight he called for Floyd was when the big brawl broke out because of a low blow and sucker (rabbit) punch from Zab Judah and everyone involved had to go before the commission to sift through the mess.
House has a female boxer, Shelley Burton who is fighting Leilah Ali this weekend on the Brock vs Klitschko fight card at the “Mecca of Boxing” Madison Square Gardens in New York. Shelley is fighting out of Montana, but has been training in Las Vegas for the fight. House is secure that Shelley is going to take Leilah down. He knows a thing or two about boxing, but you never know until they get in the ring on fight night. House was recently called to help Floyd out; they want to see his doctor. “I can get his hand fixed and healed without surgery,” said House.