Mayweather vs. Alvarez

How Great Is Floyd Mayweather? An Open Letter From An Open Mind

06 Last Saturday the world watched as Pound-for-Pound king, Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather faced Mexican warrior, Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez. Fans, media, skeptics, and beyond viewed this as a classic grudge match pairing “old school” vs “new school”. Narrow betting odds across the globe displayed what most viewed to be an inherent danger involved for the aging Mayweather.  By the end of the night that same group of people would have paralleled thoughts yet again; only this time, of a vastly different variety.

When headlines around the world fell off the press, there was only one “shock” to be reported. That “shock” was the incredulous and utterly criminal scoring of female Nevada based judge, C.J. Ross. Many took it upon themselves to condemn her, but the greatest lesson to be taken from this spectacle was the fact that Ross wasn’t alone in error. We all were. Our biggest error as fans coming into the fight was viewing Golden Boy Promotions’ title theme, “THE ONE”, as a question; as opposed to comprehending the fact that it technically served as the answer. What we witnessed for 12 full rounds was a level of mastery demonstrated with ease in a way that few in the history of the sport could display at any point in their respective careers; let alone at the ripe age of 36.

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Bad decisions in boxing: what can be done?

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Leading up to last night’s Floyd Mayweather-Saul Alvarez fight, ESB had an article asking whether or not “The One” could end up being scored as a draw. It didn’t happen, but one individual masquerading as a judge – really a person who deserves no further publicity, even bad publicity – DID manage to score the bout a draw. This after 10, 11 or maybe even 12 master class rounds by the incomparable 36-year-old all-time great known as Money.

The draw was never really close to happening, but the fact that one judge had the fight so badly, so poorly, so disgustingly and so erroneously scored is bad enough. Surely something must be done about last night’s unfathomable 114-114 scorecard and the person who handed it in. There must at least be an investigation, and after such a thing has happened, no way will any conclusion be reached than one that says last night’s judge is woefully incompetent.

Overall, because the right man won, no real harm has been done – some people may say this anyway. But is that really the point? What if three “incompetent” officials are put together at the same time for the same fight one day?

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Floyd Mayweather Interview Transcript

floyd1234Floyd Mayweather – Hey, how are you all doing today? Thanks for having me. Thank you, Kelly, for the kind words. Thank you, Leonard, for doing a tremendous job. You guys have worked day in and day out for me to be in the best position. Mayweather Promotions is going to continue to bring you guys the biggest and the best fights. I just want to thank everybody because without you guys and without the support and without the media outlets I don’t know where my career would be. So I want to thank everybody. That’s on my mind today.

Q – Obviously, your goal is to retire undefeated and have a Hall of Fame career. You’ve also talked about the mark you want to make as a promoter and that you are making as a promoter. When you think about your career being done and your children and your legacy, what do you want to look back on and say you accomplished not only as an undefeated fighter but the mark you left? What kind of things do you want to say?

Also, what do you look forward to in retirement – spending time with your kids, those types of things? Can you just kind of share that with us?

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Mayweather-Canelo reasonably priced at $65 to $75 on PPV

Canelo autographing(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) Golden Boy Promotions has decided to price the upcoming September 14th fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and their fighter Saul “Canelo” Alvarez at $65 for standard definition and $75 for high definition pay per view. This is good news. Golden Boy could have gotten really greedy and priced the fight into the $70s for standard definition and boxing fans likely would have purchased the fight in just as high numbers as they will for the $65 fight card.

The recent tour by Mayweather and Canelo will no doubt make the Mayweather-Canelo fight a lot bigger, as will the All Access episodes that will be televised by Showtime. Whether the fight will break the all-time PPV buys record set by Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya in 2007 is another matter altogether.

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De La Hoya: Mayweather’s showing insecurity with catch-weight for Canelo fight

canelo 02(Photo credit: Alma Montiel) Oscar De La Hoya doesn’t like the idea of Floyd Mayweather Jr. facing Golden Boy Promotions’ fighter WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez at a catch-weight of 152 pounds instead of at the full weight for the junior middleweight division at 154. De La Hoya thinks Mayweather has some worry about the fight because otherwise he’d have agreed to fight the 22-year-old Canelo at the full weight.

De La Hoya said to the Boxingchannel, “I think it’s a little bit of that insecurity factor coming into play. If you fight someone, you don’t need to shave off a couple of pounds because you feel they’re going to come in weak or because it’s going to be an advantage. We have weight classes for that reason. It’s [the catch-weight] going to help Canelo’s speed and help him be a faster fighter.”

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Mayweather, Canelo quotes from Sunday in Mexico City; Photo Galleries from Atlata, Chicago and Miami

Canelo and Mayweather face off(Photo credit: Tom Casino/Showtime) MEXICO CITY (June 30, 2013) – “THE ONE: Mayweather vs. Canelo” press tour continued on a beautiful summer Sunday in Mexico’s capital city where local police estimated that 32,000 excitable fans turned out at Monumento de los Niños Heroes to greet pound-for-pound boxing king Floyd Mayweather and national hero Canelo Alvarez.

Mexican television network Televisa covered the proceedings, which, like the previous six stops on this unprecedented press tour, was part press conference and part fan rally.

A complete replay of Televisa’s presentation is available for viewing. Quotes from Mayweather and Canelo on Sunday in Mexico City:

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Can Canelo beat Mayweather fighting like he did against Trout?

canelo454WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (42-0-1, 30 KO’s) isn’t telling anyone what he plans on doing to beat Floyd Mayweather Jr. (44-0, 26 KO’s) on September 14th, but if it’s anything like how Canelo beat his last opponent former WBA junior middleweight champion Austin Trout last April, then I think Canelo is going to have to come up with a new plan on the drawing board because the Canelo that fought that fight loses to Mayweather.

If you watched Canelo beat Trout, you’ll notice that Canelo incredibly economical with his punches in every round of the fight.

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De La Hoya doesn’t see Mayweather as having changed from 2007

mayweather3423Oscar De La Hoya thinks Floyd Mayweather Jr. is the same fighter now that he was when they fought in 2007. De La Hoya believes Mayweather is still essentially as good as he was back then, but the difference now is he’s fighting who De La Hoya feels is a better fighter than himself in Saul “Canelo” Alvarez on September 14th.

De La Hoya doesn’t know how Mayweather will deal with someone hitting him with six-punch combinations with the kind of power that Canelo throws his punches with.

De La Hoya said to RingTV “When I fought him in 2007, he might be the same Floyd. Fresh, better shape, young, strong, I don’t see any difference. I still see the same movement.”

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Mayweather-Canelo is a 50-50 fight, says Morales

floyd#31Former four division world champion Erik Morales says he sees the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez fight as a toss-up for September 14th. Morales thinks it could either way due to Mayweather fighting a younger guy in the 22-year-old Canelo, who Morales feels showed a lot of improvement recently.

Morales said to oem.com.mx “I see the fight 50-50 possibilities for each. To me, the fight comes down to conditions such as age, experience, youth, desire…this fight is very even for me.”

A lot of people feel that Canelo’s weight advantage could be the factor in him getting a victory in this fight. He weighed 172 for his last fight and has been fighting in the mid-160s in his other fights at 154.

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Mayweather vs. Canelo: Will Saul’s 20 lb. weight advantage help him beat Floyd?

canelo00Golden Boy Promotions has done a good job of parking their fighter Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (42-0-1, 30’s) in the junior middleweight division instead of at middleweight, which is where the 172 lb. Canelo should be fighting given his weight. But by parking Canelo at a weight that he’s barely making at 154, Canelo has big advantage over the welterweights that Golden Boy is matching against him.

I’m not talking junior middleweights because Golden Boy has been mainly matching Canelo up with pumped up welterweights. The exception to that was Canelo’s fights against Austin Trout and Ryan Rhodes, but the Trout fight was a very close one and probably should have been scored a draw, if not a victory for Trout in my view.

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