(Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Floyd Mayweather’s return to boxing is back on.
The flamboyant former pound-for-pound king was scheduled to fight Juan Manuel Marquez next month at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, but his return from a brief retirement was postponed after he injured a rib training.
Mayweather has been cleared by doctors and the fight has been rescheduled for Sept. 19th, at the MGM Grand. That means Marquez, who is wildly popular in his native Mexico, will be fighting the weekend after the Mexican Independence Day.
Mayweather told fans in a statement to, “hold on to their hats and sombreros when I get back in the ring and show what they have been missing these past eighteen months.”
STOKER MAC (BR) — Floyd Mayweather Jr. is one formidable boxer—a welterweight dynamo clearly deserving of much more respect than he is getting lately.
Before Manny Pacquiao gained the throne by knocking Ricky Hatton senseless in two rounds, it was many fans' opinions (including mine) that Juan Manual Marquez was at boxing's summit, and that he was possibly the true No. 1 among the world's pound-for-pound boxers.
When Mayweather came out of retirement, it wasn't due to anything Shane Mosley or Pacquiao had done. It was because Marquez called him out on national TV in front of a worldwide audience.
And still, the Mayweather detractors—and there are many—seem to think that he is ducking and dodging fighters in his own 147-pound welterweight class.
Nothing can be further from the truth.
He is simply returning and facing the toughest fighter he can face. Without an interim tune up match, he is more determined than ever to get back what is rightfully his.
The fighters who have tried to defeat this classic boxer-puncher is long and storied and some great Boxing surnames adorn its pages—to infer that he is a cowardly fighter who alludes other pugilists is utterly ludicrous.
Manfredy, Gatti, Judah, De La Hoya, Hatton and the late Diego Corrales all found out the hard way that nobody thus far has been able to emerge triumphant over the great Mayweather.
So what about Marquez? Is he up to it?
On the eighteen feet of battle field which is the squared circle, Marquez is a Sherman tank—he can take a direct hit, fall down, and keep on coming. His two previous wars with Manny Pacquiao demonstrate to us that trying to break his will and stamina can prove to be a frustrating endeavor.
Marquez knows he was cheated out of two wins against Pacquaio, by judges who smelled of that Vegas stink, and he isn't about to let it happen again.
Juan Man, as he is affectionately called, feels that he is owed something. On July 18th, look for him to try and collect it.
However, it is my opinion that Marquez will try to out box Mayweather, like he did with Pacquiao. Even though "Pretty Boy" could some day be beaten by somebody, somehow, it will not be because he was out boxed. Nobody's going to out-box him, at least not anytime soon.
Stoker Mac (reprinted from my June 10, 2009 article—with permission from me.)
10 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete