17.08.04 – By Patrick Corcoran: The 135- and 140-pounders have it all: action brawlers in Arturo Gatti and Acelino Freitas, slick boxers like Sharmba Mitchell and Joel Casamayor, emerging stars such as the Diaz pair, Juan and Julio, and Miguel Cotto,and pound-for-pound title contenders Kostya Tszyu and Floyd Mayweather.
It is a virtual smorgasbord for the boxing fan right now in those two divisions. The past six months has proven beyond a doubt what has long been true: the center of the boxing universe is now in the lower weight classes, particularly the aforementioned lightweight and junior welterweight divisions. Diego Corrales’ hammering of Acelino Freitas on August 7th was icing on the cake; already this year we’ve seen great bouts between Miguel Cotto and Lovemore N’dou, Juan Lazcano and Julio Luis Gonzalez, Floyd Mayweather and Chop Chop Corley, Juan Diaz and Lakva Sim, as well as many others.
The fights on the junior welterweight and lightweight horizon are equally appealing. There is the long-awaited rematch between Kostya Tszyu and Sharmba Mitchell in November, and Cotto squaring off against his amateur nemesis Kelson Pinto next month. Matches between Corrales and Castillo, Gatti and Mayweather, and British bomber Ricky Hatton versus the winner of the Tszyu-Mitchell have all been discussed.
A fight fan could lose hours at a time simply daydreaming about the possible matchups.
The potential fights are intriguing, and would be made even more so if Erik Morales throws himself into the mix. The three-division champ could probably hang around at 130 pounds and collect a huge payday for a third fight with Marco Antonio Barrera. Or he could hop in the ring against Barrera-conqueror Manny Pacquio. But the one name on Morales’s lips after his decision over Carlos Hernandez that I am interested in was Mayweather. Moving up to 140 pounds (or a catch weight somewhere below) for a fight with Mayweather would be a huge risk for Morales, who would be at a disadvantage in size, speed, and probably power. But in some ways it makes sense for both sides. Morales has been a champion for seven years and a professional for eleven. Although nothing Morales has done in the ring would suggest this, it is not impossible that he is a little bit board with his career.
Fighting Mayweather would be a brand new challenge, and beating him would be the capstone of a brilliant career. For Mayweather, a Morales fight would give him a chance of being the pay-per-view attraction he often talks of being. A tough fight with a Mexican legend could show the public that at his core, Mayweather is more than just a defensive whiz with fast hands. Even without Morales, the lightweight and junior welterweights are loaded with gifted fighters. The contenders’ talent pool appears to be well balanced, so that any fight featuring two top-ten boxers is a compelling bout with two potential champions. No other division could make that claim—except, sadly, the heavyweight division, where everyone is a potential champion not because the division is so deep, but because it is so damn thin.
Even outside the heavyweights, boxing’s bigger divisions seem to have a shortage of skilled boxers. Among the light heavyweights, if Antonio Tarver doesn’t get a third crack at Roy Jones, he is out of 175-pound options. And Jones himself, his generation’s finest fighter, is coming off of the most memorable three-fight stretch of his career, but he won’t even be
fighting on pay-per-view in his next bout, versus Glengoffe Johnson in September.
It doesn’t get a whole lot better looking at the cruiserweight and super middleweight ranks. Both are fractured at the top, without a unified champion or any dynamic attractions that demand the public’s attention. This dearth of talent among the heavyweights, light heavies, and cruisers makes the glut of skilled brawlers in the lower ranks seem all the more impressive. Boxing pundits have been heaping well-deserved praise on the junior welterweight division for years now, but it’s time the
lightweights got their due as well.
Both divisions have multiple champions, a large stable of contenders, and prospects galore. Consider David Diaz. The divisions are so stacked that a guy like Diaz, an undefeated 140-pound prospect who shined this spring in a feature bout on NBC and has already breezed through gatekeeper Emmanuel Augustus, but is nowhere near the top ten. He either has to move up to 147 or be very patient, because it could be years before he gets a title shot at this rate. But Diaz’s loss is our gain. The process of separating the contenders from the pretenders, and then the contenders from the champions, will be a long and thoroughly enjoyable process in the junior welterweight and lightweight divisions.