After Floyd Mayweather’ Jr.’s recent destruction of Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez in Las Vegas, attention has immediately turned to Mayweather’s next opponent in May 2014, the time he will next fight. A number of names have already been mentioned as possible opponents including rising star and heir apparent to Mayweather, Adrien ‘The Problem’ Broner. While the two appear to be chummy, indicating they won’t fight each other, the magnitude of this potential encounter leads one to believe that should they both remain undefeated, they’ll eventually meet in the ring. For Broner, this could be the passing of the torch, but after witnessing how brilliant Mayweather looked earlier this month (14th) against Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez, he may want to hold off a while. But Mayweather calls the shots, and for him this fight can’t occur soon enough.
Floyd has been criticized rightly or wrongly for fighting guys on the way up or on the way down. There seems to be some agreement that the guy who has the best chance to beat Floyd at some point in the future, should Floyd in fact ever lose, is Adrien Broner. Broner has the speed, power, stamina, and talent to compete at the highest level. And Mayweather has to recognize that he probably handles Broner right now or in May 2014, but perhaps not as easily in two years or beyond. Floyd’s been around the game a long time, so he knows money can change a fighter’s mind, and if he senses a Broner fight is inevitable, better for it to be his third fight of the six fight deal with Showtime, rather than the sixth fight.
This “get him on the way up” mentality may have played a role in his choosing Canelo to fight. Some said the fight should have come later, but in all likelihood Canelo would have gotten better and Floyd worse. So now was the perfect time to fight Alvarez and he was the biggest name out there. Similarly, Broner is probably the biggest fight Floyd can make, given the demand for the other fighters from 140-154 is not especially high, with the possible exception of a bout with middleweight champion Sergio Martinez at a catch-weight, though there is no indication Mayweather is interested and Martinez appears in slight decline and coming off an injury.
To further the case for a Mayweather/Broner fight, consider that Broner is a trash talker and will likely call out Floyd at some point down the road, as he fine tunes his skills in the ring and the public demands the fight. In that instance, Floyd risks another situation like he faced with Manny Pacquiao a couple years back, when he was accused of ducking Manny to preserve his undefeated streak. It’s been said in life that if we don’t deal with problems they become bigger and more difficult. Floyd Mayweather Jr. must have the foresight to realize that ‘The Problem’ could cause him bigger problems later on if not dealt with now.
