Why an Extended Break Would Be a Huge Mistake for Floyd Mayweather

Floyd Mayweather looked tired when he entered the ring against Marcos Maidana. Or maybe it was just old.

Whatever it was, he looked even more of it after the bell rang on Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, and he didn’t look any better after.

Despite facing a limited brawler with perhaps the most bunk fight plan going into a big-money bout since Ricky Hatton tried to bum-rush Manny Pacquiao back in 2009, Mayweather easily out-pointed the suddenly inept Maidana over the course of 12 rounds.

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According to Mitch Abramson of the New York Daily News, a bloody-lipped Mayweather “spoke as if he needed a vacation” after defeating Maidana. In fact, Mayweather told Abramson, and others gathered for the post-fight press conference, that he might not be in the ring again for a full year:

"I may not fight again until in September," said Mayweather. "It all depends on how I feel. I may fight again in September. I don't think Showtime and CBS is rushing me. I think we're doing good numbers."

Mayweather has done something like this previously. He “retired” back in 2008 instead of accepting a rematch against Oscar De La Hoya. Moreover, he walked away from potential matchups against Miguel Cotto, Antonio Margarito and Manny Pacquiao.

Mayweather returned in May 2009 to defeat Juan Manuel Marquez.  

But why the threat of another long break? It wasn’t that the fight was difficult. If anything, it was easy, and most of that was Mayweather.

Boxing’s finest technician, Mayweather, can box circles around someone like Maidana 99 out of 100 times. That number turned even bleaker on Saturday when Maidana came into the ring trying to box Mayweather from the outside rather than throwing every punch he had at him.

And with a referee like Kenny Bayless? One that consistently overstepped his bounds as an official by breaking the fighters apart the second they came into close contact with each other, whether they had one hand free or both?

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Mayweather wins every single time under circumstances like that, so Maidana might as well have stayed in his dressing room.

But there were subtle moments in the fight that Mayweather appeared different than the master performer fight fans have become accustomed to seeing.

Maidana hit Mayweather flush on the chin on more than one occasion in the fight. When it happened in Round 3, it appeared to shock Maidana even more than it did Mayweather.

MLive.com’s David Mayo suggested Mayweather was more fatigued than ever after defeating Maidana, not all of which was attributed to the fight:

"

He's tired of four fights in the last 16 months. He's tired of the silly rivalries with musicians. He's tired of the media fishing for answers to trap questions that, for whatever reason, he chose to answer — badly, it's worth adding — and for whatever reason, his public-relations handlers didn't adequately quell.

"

Sure, Mayweather has had numerous outside-the-ring problems: public feuds and bad press to name a few. But the majority of that stuff is Mayweather’s own doing, and it would seem silly to believe someone who lives in as much constant dysfunction as Mayweather wouldn’t be well-equipped by now to handle it.

15Rounds.com’s Bart Barry saw something more on fight night, that Mayweather might simply be something less than he’s ever been:

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It didn’t take a minute of Saturday’s fight to see Floyd’s legs were, in a word, soggy; though his footwork remained impeccable, he moved round the canvas like it was memory foam over the ring’s plywood base, not an inch of padding. He was skittish as his movements were laborious, and one now wonders what might have happened if an enhanced Maidana answered the opening bell, rushing him disrespectfully as he rushed Adrien Broner 10 months ago.

"

Mayweather is 37. Fighters have fallen from grace much faster and earlier in their lives than that. Mayweather is closer to the end of things than he is to his prime, and he didn’t appear to be as great against Maidana as he once was.

And that’s the thing: Mayweather will be even older this time next year. When fighters start to slip, even exceptionally talented and highly skilled ones like Mayweather, the only constant that remains in the equation is the downward slope of their ability.

Mayweather’s end will come. He’d be wise to recognize that.

Uncredited/Associated Press

Mayweather isn’t shy about calling himself “TBE” (the best ever). If he’s serious about that, and he should be, then he shouldn’t be shy about fighting as much as possible before his body will no longer allow it.

Moreover, Mayweather should ditch the Marcos Maidanas of the world and seek out the best possible competition of the current era. For him, that list starts with Pacquiao and then moves up towards middleweight Gennady Golovkin from there.

If you balk at the idea of Mayweather-Golovkin, look no further than Sugar Ray Robinson going all the way up to 175 pounds to take on Joey Maxim in 1952. Robinson didn't just call himself the best ever. He believed it. 

An extended break by Mayweather would be a huge mistake. After all the money and fame are gone, all a fighter has left are his accomplishments. Mayweather’s legacy is something that could last as long as anyone could hope for in a sport like boxing, so long as he has possesses the grit and gumption to go after it.

But taking a year off? An extended vacation? That’s the wrong move for a man who claims to be on par with the all-time greats.