03.05.05 – By Patrick Corcoran: For the past several years, as Larry Merchant pointed out in Saturday night’s broadcast of the James Toney-John Ruiz fight, the glamour division in boxing has not been the heavyweights. For the fistic fireworks, boxing fans need to drop down a couple of divisions to the junior welterweights. The division has more talent the Dream Team (the first version), and, until recently, it was anyone’s guess who’d emerge and take control of the division once and for all.. Kostya Tszyu, the man to beat for so long, has been largely inactive for the last couple of years. Floyd Mayweather, arguably the pound for pound king of boxing, left the friendly confines of the lightweights for greener pastures among the 140-pounders.
New talents like Miguel Cotto and Ricky Hatton demanded attention, while old mainstays like Arturo Gatti and Sharmba Mitchell were banging away, as ever. In short, it was chaos.
But now, after years of bedlam, there exists a vague sense of order in boxing’s deepest division. With fights in June between Hatton and Tszyu as well as Mayweather and Gatti, the picture will become only more clear. Add Vivian Harris and Cotto to the mix, and we have the sextet most likely to contain the eventual ruler of the junior welterweights. East Side Boxing takes a look at the six, in no particular order.
Vivian Harris is the unknown. He is huge, hugely talented, and known only by name to American audiences. The most important thing for him is to let Americans see him. Manager Emmanuel Steward has been extremely cautious with Harris, and most fight fans have yet to see him in action. Harris has the size and the talent, but no one is clamoring for the next Vivian Harris
bout because no one knows what that means. He could be the future of the division, but we need to see him first.
Mayweather has the talent to match any boxer. To hear him tell it, he has more athleticism than Roy Jones, more skills than Ray Leonard, and will end up being compared only to Ray Robinson. For all that, and his glittery record, he has been tested—severely—by a fighter who can wade through his lightning counters and lead right hands and keep punishing him: Jose Luis Castillo. If Castillo could do that to Mayweather at 135, what could a relentless 140-pounder do? And if he were to step in with Cotto, a much bigger and stronger man, or Tszyu, God’s gift to punching, could he fight in the pocket, rolling and picking shots outside of any real danger? If the answer to that question is yes, Floyd could be the future of the 140s. But Floyd wants to be a crossover star, and ultimately it is hard to see him not stepping up to welterweight, where Oscar De La Hoya, Shane Mosley. Zab Judah, and Antonio Margarito await.
Miguel Cotto could be the man, if he sticks around. Cotto is still just 24, but he has been fighting 12-round fights for two years, and there are not as many nobodies among his opponents as one would expect: only two of his 23 opponents had losing records when they squared off with Cotto. Cotto showed in his fight with Chop-Chop Corley that he can come back from adversity. Of course, adversity with Chop-Chop and with King Kostya are two very different things, so the only thing left for Cotto is to up the level of competition. After taking on his Olympic conqueror Mohamed Abdulaev in June, Cotto should step up to take on one of the division’s older, battle-tested contenders. He has the punching, the pedigree, the skills, and the heart to beat anyone in the division. Since he fought Corley at an unofficial weight of 157 pounds, it is fair to ask if Cotto can stay at junior welterweight while his 24-year-old body continues to mature. If he can sweat it out at 140 for another couple of years, this Puerto Rican sensation could be the best of the bunch.
Arturo Gatti has nearly everything it takes to be a legend: heart, punching power, great fights, an active style, you name it. The one question mark is whether he has the grade-A skills. At a press conference promoting their fight, Mayweather called Gatti a bum and a C-plus fighter. While this is overstating it, Gatti’s record does not include great wins over hall-of-fame opponents. Mickey Ward was never a titlist. Oscar De La Hoya schooled him, although Gatti was fighting above his natural weight. Ivan Robinson and Angel Manfredy both knocked him off when Gatti was closer to his physical prime than he is now. But Gatti has improved his defense and boxing ability Buddy McGirt, and the new boxer/puncher Gatti that we saw knock out Jesse James Leija in January could bring all of the good with none of the bad. We will learn if that is the case or not when he fights Mayweather. If so, the division, and the boxing public, will be his.
Ricky Hatton has the benefit of an entertaining style, backing from Showtime, and, usually, an arena-full of Manchester fanatics backing him up. His relentless body attack has been more than shot versions of Ben Tackie or Vince Phillips could handle. He is still an untested product, much like that new Airbus A380. If he can get over June’s dangerous step with Tszyu, he has the youth, the style, and the persona to carry the division for many years. But that is one monstrous if.
Kostya Tszyu: They don’t call him King Kostya for nothing. He is still the man at 140, the most dangerous puncher pound for pound in the game. He is lethal like cyanide. And the layoffs don’t seem to have hurt him: just ask Sharmba Mitchell. His 35-year-old body seems to be the perfect junior welterweight frame, so he won’t be forced to move up in weight. He may, in the wake of a June win over Hatton, decide to take a big money fight against the wealth of big money targets at 147, but there is no sign yet that he will slow down. If he decides that 140 is the place for him, the most feared man in the division could pull a Bernard Hopkins, fight at a tip-top level until his 40’s, and own the division for years more to come.