Undefeated Aftermath: Mayweather


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Undefeated Aftermath: Mayweather - Hatton

By Eric Marks (Dec 14, 2007) Doghouse Boxing (Photo © German Villasenor)

Floyd Mayweather Jr’s predictable destruction of Ricky Hatton, taught us several things: a) Hatton is no welterweight, b) Mayweather makes good business decisions; and c) the tug of war was somewhat uneventful at times until the knockout occurred. Nevertheless, we can postulate several things about Ricky Hatton and Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Hatton should return to junior welterweight as soon as possible. Despite Mayweather’s talent, the undersized

brawler that is Ricky Hatton would not only lose to all the talented welterweights, but suffer the same fate as he did against Mayweather. Mosley, Cotto, Williams, Cintron, Margartio, and De La Hoya would all KO ‘The Hitman’, which probably explains Oscar’s continued interest in fight Hatton. Ricky is smart enough to know this, but he may be tempted by the payday to fight De La Hoya. This would just be embarrassing for him and he’d be better off returning to his comfort zone at 140.

As for Mayweather, he is in a unique position now. There are not many of the types of fights out there that he desires, high reward low risk. He risks fighter bigger, stronger younger guys who are not huge stars and have the potential to make him look bad. It is unclear if Mayweather will follow through with his rhetoric and retire. If he doesn’t the logical next fight for him would be Miguel Cotto. That being said, Cotto is a natural and hungry welterweight who would certainly be a big risk for Floyd, but the reward is good, given Cotto’s status as an emerging star.

Despite retirement talk, the likely scenario will be Mayweather vs. Sugar Shane Mosley. This would be the biggest fight outside a Mayweather/De La Hoya rematch and Mosley is at a point in his career that the risk-averse Mayweather would probably feel comfortable that he could unanimously outpoint Mosley. Mosley still seems interested in this fight and I’m sure Mayweather will when numbers are discussed.

From a fans perspective, a Mayweather/Cotto fight is the most attractive prospect in all of boxing for the upcoming year and Mayweather may surprise us and take this fight, but Floyd against Shane is not far behind in attractiveness and is a likely prospect. If Mayweather wants to be the best ever, it is premature to hang up the gloves and he probably wants to keep the intrigue alive and fans guessing…so look for Mayweather/Mosley probably in June 2008.

I do not believe the talked about Hatton/De La Hoya fight in the UK will occur for reasons already discussed, namely Hatton’s size disadvantage. Consequently, look for Cotto and Oscar to fight in May 2008. I’m also not convinced that Mayweather will be able to walk away from fighting as he contends he will do. If he sticks around long enough he will taste defeat. So he may have the right idea of wanting to retire and not have boxing retire him, but as long as fights like Cotto or Mosley remain he should continue on for the fan’s sake and history’s as well.