24.11.07 – By Ron Hansen: Moments after the dust settled in Ricardo Mayorga’s majority decision over the washed up Fernando Vargas, Mayorga made it clear that he wants to move down down in weight the welterweight division to challenge either Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Miguel Cotto. Mayorga said, “In February I’m going to start working to go down to 147lbs,” he said. “I’m coming after Cotto and I’m coming after Mayweather and I want to show the world that I’m the champion of the 147lb division.”
The 34 year-old Mayorga, however, would appear to have little chance lining up a fight with either fighter at this stage of their careers, since both of them have bigger fights ahead against the top talent in the welterweight division. Only a four years ago, Mayorga was arguably the top fighter in the welterweight division, but that shows you how fast things change in boxing. At this stage in his career, Mayorga has become a trial horse for once great fighters to look good against. Unfortunately for Vargas, he didn’t have enough left to put Mayorga in his place.
Actually, Mayorga would be better off skipping the welterweight division altogether and opt for the junior middleweight division. At least there, he’d have half a chance at beating one of the champions, like World Boxing Council light middleweight champion Vernon Forrest, whom he has already beaten twice or perhaps Cory Spinks, a fighter that won a majority decision over Mayorga in 2003. No doubt, that would be the smarter thing for Mayorga to do, because he’s dreaming if he thinks that he’s going to get a shot at Cotto or Mayweather.
That isn’t going to happen, and all he’ll end up doing is weakening himself in the process of stripping down to 147, just as Vargas did while training for his bout with Mayorga. Although, I’d give Mayorga an excellent chance at beating Kermit Cintron, who looked awful against Jesse Feliciano on Saturday night.
Injured hand or not, I think Cintron would have big problems with Mayorga’s style of fighting, especially if Mayorga blitzes Cintron in the early rounds like Antonio Margarito did in their bout in 2005. However, Cintron will mostly likely lose his title against Paul Williams, which would take all the interest out of a fight with Mayorga. That’s too bad, because Mayorga would do well against a soft-chinned fighter like Cintron, whom he could likely overwhelm if he bum rushed him in the first round.