Floyd Mayweather
MEGA BOUT COMES WITH A “CATCH”
New York, NY– It’s set, Floyd “Money” Mayweather (44-0, 26 KOs) will face Saul “Canelo”Alvarez (42-0-1 30 KOs) on September 14th, Mexican Independence holiday weekend. This will undoubtedly be a tremendous event, likely boxing’s biggest since Mayweather faced Oscar De La Hoya in 2007. In a first for Mayweather he’ll reportedly face Alvarez via a “catch” weight of 152 lbs. This is something that Mayweather has never done, although he has made two successful jumps from welterweight (147 lbs) to super welterweight (154) in the past.
BOTH SIDES OF “WEIGHT-GATE”
Over the years Floyd Mayweather has earned support and an equitable amount of distain for some of his choices pertaining to boxing. Those who are his fans shrug off inconsistencies in his character and career while his haters steadily chomp at the bit at every grain of fallibility they can discover. While Mayweather’s supporters will say that he’s exactly the fighter he claims to be, others will look at Floyd’s latest catch weight request as a perfect opportunity to criticize him and his legacy.
HERE’S FLOYD’S TAKE ON “WEIGHT”
Alvarez is the first true 154 lb. fighter that Floyd has ever faced. Both Miguel Cotto and Oscar De La Hoya can be looked at as transplants from lower weight divisions. Oscar started his career around 130 lbs and Cotto made his initial impact at 140. Alvarez has been making the 154 lb limit for much of his career although he previously made it clear that he was willing to meet Mayweather at a catch weight, sensing his physicality could be an issue. Mayweather simply pulled an Andre Ward move (Ward fought Chad Dawson at 7 lbs below his normal weight) and made his opponent stick to his word in order to make the fight.
PUTTING GLOVE ON OTHER HAND
f there is one glaring knock on Floyd in this move, it rests on how critical he had been towards Manny Pacquiao for consistently requiring catch weights every time he faced a bigger opponent. He faced De La Hoya at welterweight, which Oscar hadn’t made in years and also subsequently required both Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito to face him at 145 and 150 lbs respectively in catch weight bouts. Floyd and his team knocked Manny for doing this. Mayweather’s Uncle Roger even referred to it as ‘cheating’ in an article published in 2010
AND THE VERDICT IS?
It looks like Floyd at 36 will get a pass on this one due to his age and willingness to take on the best the sport has to offer. There is no other fighter who poses a greater perceived threat than the physically bigger, younger, 22-year okd) and thought to be stronger Alvarez. And Floyd isn’t asking him to make welterweight or 150 lbs. If Canelo is in shape its unlikely that shaving off an additional two pounds will severely alter the outcome of this bout. One thing is for sure, Alvarez is literally shaping up to be Floyd’s catch 22′ in more ways than expected.
Jarrad Woods