I’m no pro in writing about boxing or mixed martial arts for that matter, but when Professor Floyd Mayweather, Jr. walked into that ring to start the class earlier this morning, Manila time? By gods was that some Sweet Science 101 session he conducted.
I’m not saying Robert Guerrero was a slouch, nor his dad’s claim that Mayweather ran rings like a chicken held true, but damn, dead pro wrestler Eddie Guerrero could’ve fought better. Only it was boxing and the Ghost did not stand a chance.
A lot of haters out there may call Floyd’s tactics boring, or worse, cowardly, the way he runs circles and mini-grapples to get his body shots off. But hey, $40 million just by putting pen to paper? That’s something. And holding a class for every aspiring boxer out there? That’s the bonus. It’s not everyday the best boxer holds a clinic on Boxing 101.
Which reminds me, watching that Showtime feature leading up to the fight, Floyd said that everyone’s always saying the same things. You know, the typical, “I’ll come out firing on all cylinders and pick him off methodically, cutting the ring then landing my body shots.†But it only lasts one round, Floyd says.
All of them said that.
Take the fight to him, body him up, beat him up. All of those have been said. But it hasn’t been done. It’s easier said than done they say. And Money just proves them right. Once the meet-and-greet round is over, the 36-year-old ring wizard will drop the hammer and crush his foe’s hopes all in one swashbuckling, no-frills boxing clinic.
Footwork, check.
Ungodly reaction instincts, check.
Accurate power punching (it was at 60 percent), check.
Ring cutting, check.
Defense, check.
What does he doesn’t have? I mean, having eight titles in eight divisions sure does mean a lot compared to his five, but the guy’s body of work and how that swagger translates to just a magnificent show on the ring? Unmatchable.
No one can put a stain on that record now.
No one.
He ducked whoever it was who can put a stain to it two years ago, when someone was certainly rampaging in the boxing world. But since he found his God and renewed his “faith,†that guy has no chance in hell of making the Superfight happen. Or of making a fight out of it. He’d be crushed.
Money knew it then, some two years back, that a rampaging Pacman can destroy him. But now? That will be easy pickings for him.
We can all forget about the Superfight.
And his record getting stained.
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