All Eyes On Mayweather’s Next Move

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May Day” came and went and if you were waiting for Floyd “Money” Mayweather to suffer his first professional defeat; well you can keep waiting. Floyd was on the money.

Mayweather outclassed his opponent Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero en route to a unanimous decision victory in which all three judges scored it 117-111 in his favor. Mayweather surely did not resemble an “aging” superstar and with his impressive footwork and laser sharp right hand leads gave us a glimpse of his junior lightweight form.  Boxing wouldn’t be boxing, however, without a little controversy.

While most agreed that Robert Guerrero was a good opponent, very few gave him more than a puncher’s chance. Critics point out that Robert Guerrero was just another slow, flat-footed fighter whose most significant win was against an overrated Andre Berto. They say that this was just another example of Mayweather “cherry picking” opponents. 

Legitimate foe or not, Mayweather showed that he is still a force to be reckoned while landing 60 percent of his power shots and employing tremendous lateral movement, both of which frustrated Guerrero all night. Guerrero looked tentative and unwilling to exchange, uncharacteristic of him, but I’m betting it had something to do with the slick counter right hands tagging him for 12 rounds. The overmatched Guerrero, though, was gracious in defeat and, as always, put forth a valiant effort.

Now, all eyes are on Mayweather’s next fight. Even after hurting his hand, Mayweather insists he will come back and fight on September 14th at the MGM Grand. Mayweather has five fights remaining on his contract with Showtime but the most anticipated fight is one against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. 

Saul Alvarez, the fighter most people believe will be the next Mexican superstar, most recently defeated Austin “No Doubt” Trout on April 20th, 2013 to win the WBA, WBC and The Ring Magazine junior middleweight titles. Alvarez displayed improved footwork and head movement along with decent speed and power to score a unanimous decision victory over Trout. Though many saw a much closer fight, the judges scored the fight 115-112, 116-111 and an absurd 118-109 all in favor of Canelo. Austin Trout was slated to be a dangerous fight for Alvarez as it could’ve eliminated his shot at becoming the first fighter to defeat Mayweather, but the young fighter rose to the occasion and handed Trout his first loss. Once again, it wouldn’t be boxing if there wasn’t a little controversy. Many did predict that a close fight meant Canelo would surely get the decision over Trout and after 8 rounds we saw a glimpse of what was to come when one of the judges had it a shutout in favor of Alvarez.

Nonetheless, Canelo showed vast improvement and has many believing that he has the best shot at dethroning Mayweather as the “pound for pound king”. Canelo, for one, would have to improve his conditioning as he looked tired mid fight against a game Trout. Fighting in spurts may work against lesser opponents but Canelo will have to be ready to capitalize on his opportunity if he does land a fight against Mayweather. 

 

Will Mayweather end up fighting Canelo in September or will he continue “cherry picking” his opponents?