No excuses For Floyd Mayweather

 

It’s a pretty brave stance to take by labelling yourself #TBE when you still haven’t fought the 2 guys that the masses think are most likely to beat you.

Floyd Mayweather is not short of charisma, confidence or arrogance.

The self-proclaimed ‘Money Man’ of boxing has 47 straight professional wins. Just two fights short of the great Rocky Marciano. Whilst Floyd fights around the 147 to 154lbs divisions he is more often compared to the one who is publicly accepted as the greatest fighter of all time ‘Sugar’ Ray Robinson.

In my humble opinion they cannot even be compared.

Floyd hasn’t left Las Vegas to fight in years while Sugar Ray Robinson travelled the globe searching out and defeating all the different national champions and continental champions who would fight him. He also often had fights week after week.

Whilst he didn’t retire unbeaten he did fight and beat the very best around in his era and even avenged some of his losses including his shocking loss to ‘The Raging Bull’ Jake LaMotta in his 41st fight by beating him 5 times throughout his 200 fight pro career.

Since Manny Pacquiao became the second man to beat and stop Ricky Hatton (Floyd being the first), there has been a huge demand from the boxing world for Floyd to take on Manny and prove who is the best fighter on the planet.

Of course as we all know the fight hasn’t materialised due to many disagreements about random drug testing and purse splits but many believe the real reason the fight hasn’t occurred is Floyd does not want to risk losing his undefeated status and his hand picking opponents who he believes have no chance of taking his ‘0’.

 

Pacquiao has already lost 5 times and drawn twice. But he has shown that he is willing to take on anyone and has become the first ever 8 weight world champion in the process.

His most recent wins over Brandon Rios, Chris Algieri and his avenging of his loss to Timothy Bradley have reignited the calls for the ‘super-fight’.

There are rumours of an offer of a $200m purse if they hold the fight in the Middle-East.

Last Friday on ShowTime Floyd was asked on air if he wanted the fight and he said, “Of course, I would love to fight Manny Pacquiao”.

He then went on to explain how he has tried to make the fight several times and even offered Manny $40m dollars which would be more than he would offer now due to Manny’s recent losses against Marquez and Bradley. He also said that the only reason the fight hasn’t materialised is Bob Arum and that Arum is solely to blame.

Talks are believed to be in place for the fight to now occur in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand Casino/Hotel where Floyd has made his boxing home over the last few years.

 

 

Another possible fight between Floyd and British Olympian and former 2 time light-welterweight world champion Amir Khan also got bigger last weekend as Amir had his most impressive performance in recent years winning a shut out points decision at the MGM himself over Devon Alexander.

One judge gave the fight to Khan by 12 rounds!

Floyd had stated in 2013 that he wanted a fight with Amir and talks were in place at this time last year before Floyd pulled out of the fight and chose to fight Khan’s former victim Marcos Maidana. Strangely in the build up to choose who he would fight, Floyd posted a poll to let fans decide who they wanted to see him fight and Khan won the poll quite convincingly.

But he still chose to fight Maidana. Floyd told Khan that he would fight him in the future if he won some fights at welterweight and pointed to Adrian Broner and suggested Khan couldn’t beat him first.

12 months down the line and 2 convincing welterweight victories for Khan have left many pundits and fans thinking that Amir Khan has ‘The fastest hands in boxing’ and would give Mayweather his biggest test.  Some even tip Khan to win should that fight happen next.

So now it’s waiting time again whilst all the talk is of who Mayweather will fight next. But Floyd has said publicly that he doesn’t consider Khan a big enough name, and that he wouldn’t give Pacquiao anywhere near the $40m he originally offered now which would likely stop that fight from happening as the purses are likely to be as high as $100m each.

There is no way that Pacquiao’s team would settle for as little as 5-10% of the split from such a massive purse.

So let’s see who he picks and what the excuses will be should he pick anyone but the two credible opponents currently out there for him.

I’m pretty sure that any one of Maidana’s stature would likely turn off fans and see Floyds lowest PPV numbers in years.

On social media I have read many comments simply stating there are ‘No excuses’ this time and i think by not fighting Manny or Khan in his next fight Floyd will permanently damage his legacy.