By Orgil B. Martin – Floyd Money Mayweather dominated and outclassed the pound-for-pound frontrunner for twelve rounds on Saturday night. As I was one of the first to predict a Marquez victory I must admit that I made an erroneous analysis by underestimating the size difference of the fighters and the skill level of the victor.
Nevertheless, the fight showed that Floyd Mayweather is truly the Money in boxing. He still is the best fighter in the world. Manny Pacquiao might have stolen the pound-for-pound crown from Mayweather during his absence, but the victory last night showed that Mayweather is the rightful owner of the pound-for-pound throne..
The recent brutal knockout victories of Manny Pacquiao may have made the fans and the public wonder that if the Filipino superstar may be better than Floyd Mayweather, but the near flawless victory by Mayweather last night swayed the public opinion back towards the 32-year old defensive and charismatic pugilist. Mayweather now holds a very good position in negotiation if a Super Fight between the two is ever to happen.
The outclassing and outworking of the Mexican cerebral warrior Marquez by Mayweather showed that Mayweather may also be just too big and skilled for Pacquiao. But that question is yet to be answered. A lot depends on the outcome of the upcoming fight between Miguel Cotto and Manny Pacquiao. If Pacquiao prevails, a Super Fight will happen, and boxing analysts will probably be evenly divided in their predictions.
If Pacquiao loses, which is a respectable possibility giving the sheer size of Cotto, then there is not much chance of the fight happening between the current pound-for-pound frontrunners. Rather, we will probably see Mayweather fighting Mosley before taking on Cotto for a very anticipated and hyped fight. Mayweather vs. Cotto will be a tremendous draw, but not a Super Fight, from marketing perspective in my opinion. The reasoning is that a victory over Cotto will give Pacquiao an aura of invincibility, while a Cotto victory will simply mean that the Puerto Rican warrior was just simply too powerful and large for the Pacman.
Last night’s antics during the post-fight interview showed that a Mayweather-Mosley fight is a real possibility. I personally believe that the whole thing was premeditated and staged by Golden Boy Promotions. Golden Boy knows that Mayweather-Mosley will be a big money fight, and that Mayweather might have to take on Mosley to put himself in a superior negotiating position for the fight against the winner of Cotto vs. Pacquiao. Also, they seemed to notice that publicly calling out Mayweather had worked in the past to a certain degree.
Regardless of what happens, we are in for a great year of boxing in 2010. The welterweight and the pound-for-pound crowns will revolve around the aforementioned fighters. Floyd Mayweather is looking at an impressive triangle of fighters in Mosley, Cotto, and Pacquiao for his next fight.