Mayweather vs Mosley
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 27 Apr 2010
Floyd Mayweather Jr (40-0, 25 KO’s) faces Shane Mosley (46-5, 39 KO’s) in a welterweight bout that could well be his stiffest test of his career the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on Sunday (Manila Time) with the showdown being telecast by Solar Sports in the Philippines and ABS-CBN over The Filipino Channel in the middle east.
Rather than concentrate on Mosley, Mayweather couldn’t help but talk about his own legacy and claiming that while such greats as Sugar Ray Robinson was “one hell of a fighter, Floyd Mayweather is the best” at the same time questioning Pacquiao’s selection as the “Fighter of the Decade” by the prestigious Boxing Writers Association of America where the pound-for-pound king routed Mayweather by an overwhelming margin of over 2 to 1 in the boxing writers votes.
Most ringside experts regard Pacquiao as the world’s No. 1 but Mayweather continued his insinuations about Pacquiao’s skill and punching power and once again issued a challenge to the Filipino boxing hero to take the random drug tests which Mayweather insisted on, resulting in the collapse of talks for a Pacquiao-Mayweather megabuck super-fight.
Mayweather and his handlers led by Leonard Ellerbe suddenly brought up the issue of random drug tests to be conducted by the US Anti Doping Agency during the negotiations for a Pacquiao fight and demanded that the tests be conducted up to 14 days before the planned May 1 bout. Pacquiao agreed to the random drug tests and offered a 24 day cut-off and a test immediately after the fight in his dressing room which Mayweather rejected, resulting in the fight negotiations being called off.
Mayweather continued his tirade on the random drug tests insinuating that Pacquiao was reluctant to take the tests because he had something to hide. Mayweather insisted “All I'm saying, if you're a clean athlete, take your test. That's all I'm saying. That's all I've got to say. If you're a clean athlete, take the test.”
Mayweather also pushed the line that Pacquiao struggled twice against Juan Manuel Marquez even as he claimed “which we know he (Pacquiao) really lost, right? And we know he's been knocked out twice. He's been out-boxed by Eric Morales, but they still give him ‘Boxer of the Decade.’ So that's something I don't understand. He beat a Miguel Cotto who just got pummeled with a cast. So I mean, tell me what it really is.”
What Mayweather failed to mention was the fact that in the Morales fight Pacquiao suffered a nasty gash over his left eye due to an accidental head-butt which bled profusely and badly hampered his vision and that Pacquiao mauled Morales in the rematch and knocked the Mexican legend out in three rounds to end their trilogy.
In the first Marquez fight one of the judges who confessed to making a mistake by not scoring the first round in their initial encounter 10-7 after Pacquiao dropped Marquez three times helped Marquez salvage a draw while Pacquiao won the rematch by a split decision after he dropped Marquez one more time.
Mayweather who had previously claimed Pacquiao who pummeled Oscar De La Hoya into quitting after seven rounds and separated Ricky Hatton from his senses in a devastating 2nd round knockout got them out after he had battered and softened them up, failed to mention that he only won a decision over Marquez who had been knocked down four times in two fights by Pacquiao and was basically a finished and aging fighter when he faced Mayweather. Mayweather also failed to note that he was two pounds over the stipulated weight limit, refused to shed off the excess weight and instead paid a $600,000 penalty which gave him a huge advantage in size.
In the case of the knockouts, Pacquiao was a raw kid when he got decked by a lucky punch from bull-strong Rustico Torrecampo in only Pacquiao’s eleventh fight and his knockout against Medgoen Singsurat or 3K Battery happened after the Filipino starved for days to reduce weight but still failed to do so and was utterly exhausted and dehydrated when he entered the ring with some suspicion that the Thais had tampered with the scales.
Source: PhilBoxing.com
