by ALEX P. VIDAL
LOS ANGELES, California – Team Mayweather’s game plan was simple: take one step backward, but take two steps forward.
Step one backward means outweighing your smaller opponent by as much as 20 pounds a day before the fight and be willing to cough up a hefty fine worth $600,000. Peanuts for the nine figures bankrolled for a 12-round tango.
An outweighed Floyd Mayweather Jr. (146 pounds) did to rattle and overran Juan Manuel Marquez (142 pounds) and escaped with a lopsided unanimous decision victory, 118-109, 120-107, 119-108, on September 19 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Team Marquez actually acknowledged the Mexican customer was smaller, having cam-paigned masterfully in the 130-lb category and came in at 140 pounds against Mayweather, who weighed 146 pounds. But any post mortem catcalls would be dismissed as sour-graping.
Mayweather (40-0, 25 KOs) only showed who’s the boss in the division he ruled with terror and fear that earned him the reputation as originally the best boxer pound-for-pound before he lapsed into a 21-month lay-off and thus yielded the honor to Manny Pacquiao.
Now that Marquez has been neutralized, all roads now leads to a possible showdown either with Pacquiao or Shane Mosley, who got an earful from Mayweather himself for interrupting the latter’s post fight press conference.
By toying with Marquez, considered as the second best boxer in the world pound for pound, Mayweather exposed something members of Team Pacquiao dread not to be discovered: boxers outside Mayweather’s division can be outshuttled by using defensive skills.
The difference between Mayweather and Pacquiao, as observed by Marquez, is that Mayweather is a 100 percent skilled defensive warrior while Pacquiao likes to brawl from opening bell until the end.
Pacquiao owns two of the five losses inflicted on Marquez’s amazing record and both wins were snatched from the jaws of defeat.
COMPARISSON
If Pacquiao were in the fighting shoes of Marquez in that fight, would Mayweather finish the fight on his stool? Or, would Pacquiao suffer Marquez’s fate? Speed both Mayweather and Pacquiao have it. Force they both possess it. Weight will definitely tilt in favor of the black executioner.
Marquez has admitted fighting Mayweather was like fighting a Goliath. He has given credence to conventional belief that fighting in a heavier weight vis-à-vis a heavier foe is always uphill climb. Mayweather’s dominance of Marquez spoke louder than words. Of the 493 punches he threw, 290 of them landed on Marquez’s face. Marquez landed only 142 of his 583 punches to Mayweather.
The message was loud and clear: there was no way for a lightweight speedster to outslick welterweight Mayweather in his own turf.
Meanwhile, after finding himself red in the face once more for predicting that Marquez would upset Mayweather, Golden Boy Promotions chief Oscar De La Hoya pushed for a Mayweather-Mosley showdown next.
Mosley, however, must tackle first Joshua Clottey in December while De La Hoya must wait for the November 24 joust between Pacquiao and World Boxing Organization (WBO) champion Miguel Cotto.
If Pacquiao rolls past Cotto, the Filipino superstar might most likely seal the Mayweather deal since Pacquiao is being backed strongly by Top Rank’s Bob Arum.
However, if Cotto hits a jackpot by trouncing Pacquiao, he might elbow out Mosley from the sweepstakes since Cotto had already beaten Mosley on points (via a majority decision in their previous fight.) /MP
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