YOU would be hard pressed to find a more impressive sportsman in the modern era than Floyd Mayweather Jnr.
Mayweather produced a simply stunning display of boxing in the early hours of Sunday morning to make a world class fighter in Miguel Cotto look almost amateur at times.
Fighting as he does best on the counter, Mayweather at times stood toe-to-toe with the powerful Cotto, evaded a flurry of big shots then stung his man with hurtful blows of his own.
It was almost reminiscent of Keanu Reeves’ portrayal of Neo in the Matrix trilogy at times. His reactions were bullet-like and he was always a few steps ahead of his Puerto Rican opponent.
It is rare that you see a performance of such magnitude as Mayweather’s on Sunday. It simply oozed class, control, and for the first time in a while he also stood and traded with his opponent, showing guts and determination to boot.
At 35, Mayweather doesn’t seem to be on the decline and talks have re-emerged about the possible super fight between him and Manny Pacquiao.
That fight is never going to happen in my opinion. Mayweather is the biggest box office attraction in sport. His 36 minutes of work on Sunday have made him a minimum sum of $32million - and that figure looks set to rise to anything upto $70million once the pay-per-view purse has been counted up.
While Pacquiao is a big name in the sport of boxing, he doesn’t have the same pull that Mayweather possesses. But will he be prepared to take a smaller cut of the purse than his opponent? I very much doubt it.
Pacquiao is a huge star in the Philippines, where he is all set to have a successful career in politics once he hangs up the gloves. His ego won’t let him go into a fight as the lesser man and with less than 50 per cent of the possible purse, which would easily reach the $100million mark.
While I would love to see that fight happen, I think Mayweather would win more comfortably than people believe. Pacquiao is all about rhythm and no fighter in the world would be able to regularly find the chin of Mayweather, such is his ability to dodge punches and fight back on the counter with blistering speed.
* While on the subject of fights being made, I’ll be one of the few who will be excited to see David Haye and Dereck Chisora get it on, should their rumoured fight be confirmed.
Chisora is one of the most overrated boxers I’ve seen for many a year. He fought Vitali Klitschko, a man who is past his sell by date, and still came nowhere near winning. His pre-fight antics were a disgrace and I am looking forward to seeing Haye teach him some manners in the ring.
Comments