Welterweight and Junior Welterweight fighter, Karim Mayfield, spoke with me recently to discuss some of the things that have been going on with him in the ring as of late. He also touched on boxers in the Junior Welterweight and Welterweight divisions, as well as broke down the strategies of what Floyd Mayweather would have to do to beat, his former sparring partner, Manny Pacquiao.
In turn, he also said what Pacquiao would have to do to beat Mayweather. However, he first went over a little controversy regarding the possible bout he thought he had with Shawn Porter a couple weeks ago on a Premiere Boxing Champions card when he thought he would be replacing Roberto Garcia.
Mayfield said, “They flew me and my team down there and said I had to make a same day fight weight of 149 pounds, and then on the way to the hotel, they gave the fight to another fighter. I was told they were going to give me the fight and then I was told about this other guy, and I had never heard of this guy. Then come to find out they are giving the no name guy the fight.” Originally Mayfield wanted to be back in the ring in April. While that time period will be hard to meet now, Mayfield says, “I stay in shape. More likely it would be the end of April now, but yea, that’s still the plan.”
I asked Mayfield his feelings on the upcoming bout between Danny Garcia and Lamont Peterson which takes place this weekend at the Barclays Center. “If he (Peterson) presses Garcia, he’s definitely going to win. If he presses Garcia the way he pressed Amir Khan, he’s going to win. I don’t think Garcia likes that style, but if he tried to box him like he did against Matthysee, the same thing is going to happen that Matthysee did to him”, stated Mayfield.
Then he moved on to talk about what is being predicted to be the early season fight of the year, Lucas Matthysee vs. Ruslan Provodnikov, which will be April 18th in Verona, NY. Mayfield said, “That’s a good fight. I think Ruslan is a strong puncher, but I think Matthysee is a strong puncher and a better boxer, so I see Matthysee with an actual stoppage of Provodnikov.” Mayfield then spoke on how he feels about some of the boxers in both the junior Welterweight and Welterweight divisions. He made sure to point how he thinks the young 22-year-old Jose Benavidez is a rising star within the ranks of the sport and a fight he would like to take.
“Keith Thurman is a good fighter. He almost stopped Guerrero. That would be a fight I’d entertain. Kell Brook is good. He beat a good fighter in Porter. They flew me out there to spar with him before the Porter fight. That’s another fight I’d like to take also. Amir Khan beat Devon Alexander, then he beat Luis Collazo, then he beat the likes of Marcos Maidana, and I think he beat him worse than Floyd beat him. I’ve worked with Amir a lot, and we’ve been in the same camp several times, but he can get it too. I got to eat, my family got to eat, and this is a business”, said Mayfield.
Nowadays, you can’t get though a boxing interview without asking about the upcoming Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao fight coming up May 2nd in the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. While Mayfield thinks the fight with Mayweather and Pacquiao with be a draw, I wanted to see what he felt they had to do against one another to win the fight.
I first asked him what Mayweather has to do to beat Pacquiao:
“The way Floyd came forward against Zab Judah, no one expected that, everyone thought he would be the Floyd with the shoulder roll and all of that. He came up with his hands up and a whole new different arsenal. You supposed to back a southpaw up. He needs to come forward on Pacquiao. If he does that he’s have action, if he doesn’t, it’ll be a hard night for him.”
Then in turn, I asked him what Pacquiao has to do to beat Mayweather:
“Pacquiao has to overwhelm Floyd with angles and a high punch volume. If he sits there and let’s Floyd pick away, Floyd may knock him out. He has to fight him and throw the punches that he did to drop Cotto. The same way he fought him and Margarito, there were unorthodox punches. Floyd is a masterful fighter, but thinking back, how many unorthodox fighters has he fought? I think he has an advantage with his style.”
Mayfield has experience with numerous top fighters around the world, being in camps with them and too many sparring sessions to count, including as I said before, a long time sparring partner of Manny Pacquiao. His ability to adapt and help boxers train for upcoming big fights has been very important to many fighters. While he hopes to be back in the ring himself very soon, he words regarding how the biggest money fight in the history of the sport may go down, could be priceless.
