Writers: Your Answers, My Friends, Are Blowin’ In The Wind
By Brian Gorman, Doghouse Boxing (May 6, 2010) Doghouse Boxing (Photo © German Villasenor)  
Have you heard about Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s amazing transformation last weekend? It seems that he not only defeated future Hall of Famer Shane Mosley, he also discovered courage for the first time and managed to become better than his nemesis Manny Pacquiao, all in one night.

At least that’s what you’d believe if you listen to the Monday morning quarterbacking of the sport’s talking heads.

In this age of sports commentary where the term conventional wisdom has unfortunately become redundant, writers’ individual opinions and insights have become obsolete, replaced by our fear of not fitting into the accepted group of so-called experts.

Case in point: In spite of a pair of terrific efforts by Pacquiao since Mayweather’s September 2009 return, Mayweather leapfrogged him in the Ring and ESPN welterweight rankings just because he did what we expected and outboxed Mosley.

It gets better: Upon Mayweather’s return last year, few if any were willing to place him back atop the pound-for-pound rankings, as if that list requires some criteria other than a determination of who the best boxer is in the world, regardless of weight. Yet now, those same two leaders in boxing journalism should have readers scratching their heads after still ranking Mayweather behind Pacquiao on their pound-for-pound lists, despite the fact that they compete in the same division.

That sounds like logic you can only find by those in Washington, D.C. Or even worse, by boxing promoters and sanctioning bodies.

We wonder why modern-day boxers will assume no risks, yet we tear them down after one loss. The same Paul Williams we crowned last year as the king of any domain he chose to inhabit between welterweight and super middleweight was “exposed” after one loss two years ago to Carlos Quintana and considered overrated after a debatable decision win in December over current middleweight champ Sergio Martinez. Why then do we chastise Mayweather for coveting his spotless record?

Everybody gets them wrong sometimes. My two most memorable gaffes were suggesting that Williams was the one welterweight to defeat Mayweather - one week before his Quintana loss; and my expressed disgust over the Oscar De La Hoya-Pacquiao mismatch. (Guess who I picked in that one.)

The fear, though, of being wrong – or worse, unpopular – makes fighters become what the majority says they are. The legendary Bernard Hopkins instantly became shot last month after the Roy Jones, Jr. bout despite a well-earned heaping of praise since he took the light heavyweight crown four years ago.

Meanwhile, pound-for-pound flavors of the month, like Cristian Mijares, Hozumi Hasegawa and now Celestino Caballero, come and go without mention of the hastiness of their inclusion in those ranks. It says here that should Caballero meet Cuban sensation Yuriorkis Gamboa, he’ll get drilled by Gamboa’s faster, straighter, harder punching. Perhaps that prediction – and ones that Paul Williams and Amir Khan will just be too much for Kermit Cintron and Paulie Malignaggi over the next two weekends – will prove erroneous, but at least their maker can claim rightful ownership.

As for last weekend, what about Mosley? As it turned out, he’s old and shot and should just retire. At least that’s what everyone’s saying.

For much more from Brian, visit: www.steelcityfighters.com/.

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