Just KC
10-25-2006, 01:41 AM
There is little doubt about who the most talented fighter in the world is. Floyd Mayweather Jr. was groomed, practically from birth, to be a world champion. Boxing wasn't even really a choice. With his family's boxing background his chosen career path was a mere formality. There is no question he was born with great natural talent. Tremendous hand and foot speed, cat like reflexes, and a rare athletic ability that doesn't come along every day. Together with his dedication, love of training, and ring smarts, Mayweather has everything it takes to turn the sport's most talented fighter into its best fighter. His accomplishments, on paper, rank right up there with the best in the history of the sport in the first ten years of his professional career. From an astonishing 86-4 amateur record, including a bronze medal in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, to an unblemished 36-0 professional record that his taken him to four world titles in as many weight classes. These accomplishments have finally earned him the mythical title (a title he gave to himself long ago) as the #1 pound for pound fighter in the world by most credible experts and writers. Yet despite these accomplishments, Floyd Mayweather made a ton of mistakes throughout the early part of his career.
After the Olympics he could have very well chosen similar paths as Sugar Ray Leonard and Oscar De La Hoya by thinking as a businessman as well as a boxer. Instead he tried to be the best fighter he could become and didn't worry about his image. From his many legal problems out of the ring, his public feud with his father over his management, and to him once referring to HBO's six fight, 12 million dollar offer to him as a "slave contract”, his image outside the ring hasn't quite lived up to his nickname ‘Pretty Boy’. Because of this image he was relegated to fighting in half empty arenas for far less money than his talent was worth. Over the last couple of years it seems he finally realized that his bad boy image wasn't going to sell tickets or pay-per-views no matter who he was beating. Maybe it was a natural maturation, or maybe he saw the dollar signs at the end of the tunnel. Either way, since that realization he has worked very hard to remake that image. He has been much more open with the media than he was in his younger days. He's done interviews for several popular magazines, worked overtime to promote his recent fights, including going on the talk show circuit, and has even landed a deal with Nike's Brand Jordan label. All this, he hopes, will transform him into what he believes he should be – the highest paid boxer in the sport. It seems to be working as he has been selling out his recent big fights and has done solid pay-per-view numbers in his fights with Arturo Gatti and Zab Judah. He has also been written and talked about more recently than at any point in his career. Even the criticism that he has received for some recent chosen opponents has helped make his name bigger. Fans may finally be forgetting about those young mistakes and new fans of the sport will appreciate what he's doing in and out of the ring now, while never even knowing about his previous bad choices.
Carlos Baldomir's path to prominence in the boxing world has been a lot more quiet, both in and out of the ring. In fact, even some die hard boxing fans would find it hard to admit that they knew who he was at all as recently January 6th of this year. He was no more than a 13 year journeyman from Argentina who had never even fought for a world title. That all changed on January 7th at Madison Square Garden. Baldomir was supposed to be no more than a speed bump as the mandatory challenger for Zab Judah's WBC welterweight title, on Judah's way to facing Floyd Mayweather Jr. That speed bump quickly turned into a brick wall as Baldomir outworked and hurt Judah several times in the second half of the fight on his way to a close, but unanimous, upset victory in Judah's backyard. Even with his victory most experts thought of Baldomir as a fluke and blamed Judah's loss on overlooking Baldomir, instead of giving Baldomir credit for a hard fought victory. So what happened next? After negotiations between Baldomir and Floyd Mayweather went nowhere, Zab Judah ended up getting the fight with Floyd anyway, despite his loss and Baldomir had to once again go to his opponent’s backyard. This time he went to Atlantic City to fight Arturo Gatti at Boardwalk Hall in front of Gatti's loyal hometown fans. Again, he was the underdog. This time his performance was much more dominating. He took Gatti's best shots and kept coming forward and landing his own power punches before knocking Gatti down twice and stopping him in the 9th round. Now nobody could call him a fluke. He has finally been recognized as the true welterweight champion of the world. It's hard to imagine that throughout much of his early career, Carlos Baldomir had to sell feather dusters in the streets of Santa Fe, Argentina, to help support his family. A far cry from the flashy and flamboyant lifestyle of Floyd Mayweather, who has been well known for his vast array of diamond jewelry and exotic cars throughout his career.
On November 4th we will find out if Carlos Baldomir's Cinderella story will continue or if Floyd Mayweather will take one step closer to his goal of becoming the ‘greatest fighter ever’, as well as securing his ‘legacy fights’ against the likes of Shane Mosley and his ultimate pot of gold, Oscar De La Hoya. One thing's for sure, he better not take Baldomir lightly, or Baldomir's glass slipper may become a permanent part of his wardrobe.
On paper this should be an easy fight for Floyd. He's younger, faster, has a longer reach, is far more skilled, and more experienced in big fights than Baldomir. If you keep looking at that paper, however, the fine print will tell you that, despite his 43-9-6 record and only 13 KO's, he hasn't lost in 8 years, and has been fighting at welterweight and above his entire career. In fact, he probably has about a 30lb natural weight advantage over Mayweather. And despite his low knockout percentage he did hurt Judah badly and knocked out the very tough Gatti. His punching power seems to be highly underrated. His biggest asset going into this fight may be his confidence. It's never been higher than it is now and that can mean everything to a fighter. That being said, Mayweather has never had a lack of confidence. This fight is intriguing for other reasons as well. It has been recently learned that Roger Mayweather, who was suspended for jumping in the ring in the Judah fight and could not work Floyd's corner anyways, has not been available to train Floyd at all for this fight. Roger was convicted of battery charges on September 19th and is not eligible for release until March of 2007. How will Floyd react without having his uncle preparing him in the gym? Most, including Floyd Mayweather Sr., feel that for the most part, Floyd Jr. trains himself anyways and it will not have much of an effect. Others feel that without Roger working the target mitts in the gym and other aspects of his training, Floyd will be at a disadvantage against Baldomir, especially since he apparently hasn't added any new trainers to compensate for the loss of Roger. Mayweather Jr. says he will stick with advisor and strength coach, Leonard Ellerbe, and longtime cutman and co-trainer Rafael Garcia. Roger Mayweather will likely help Floyd devise the game plan from jail, however.
So how will the fight play out? Will Floyd simply be too fast and too skilled? Will his past hand problems show up when he hits Baldomir enough times on the head? Will Baldomir be too big and strong? Has Floyd simply moved up too far in weight? Well, here is my prediction.
The first round will start out as most Mayweather fights do. A tactical round with both fighters feeling each other out. In the second round Baldomir will try to impose his size and strength on Mayweather and come forward with his head down, throwing a lot of punches. He will try to keep Mayweather against the ropes as often as he can. Floyd will make his legs and reach advantage a big part of the fight and show Baldomir many angles all night. Floyd won't be able to do what he did to Gatti. Baldomir is simply too big and will throw many more punches than Gatti did. Baldomir will rely on his great conditioning and constant body punching to stay in the fight and try to wear down Mayweather. Mayweather, on the other hand, will likely not wear down in the second half of the fight like Judah did, and will not stand and take the punches that Gatti did. It is very unlikely that he will take Baldomir lightly, and is always in extremely good shape and should be strong enough to dominate the last few rounds. He tends to be the one to outlast his opponents, as far as conditioning is concerned. I see the first half of the fight being close, with Mayweather having a slight lead. In the second half of the fight Baldomir will be coming forward, but showing frustration as Floyd lands constant straight rights and body shots and then moves away, while Baldomir breaks down and starts showing the punishment on his face. I think Floyd has an outside chance of stopping Baldomir, but, in all likelihood, will win a comfortable but extremely hard fought decision.
Many people who think Carlos Baldomir can win this fight see this being a lot like the first fight between Mayweather and
Jose Luis Castillo, where Mayweather won a close, controversial decision. The truth is that Baldomir is a completely different fighter than Castillo. Castillo is much faster on his feet than Baldomir and was able to stay close and shadow Floyd when he would move around the ring. Castillo is also a much better body puncher and hits harder with a single punch. Baldomir has a bigger body and will have to hope that Floyd will stand and trade, and allow Baldomir to push him around the ring while leaning on him to wear him down. That's highly unlikely. Floyd is too smart for that. I see Baldomir as a better, bigger version of Emanuel Augustus. Floyd claims that was his toughest opponent, and he did do some damage before Floyd finally wore him down and eventually stopped him. It wasn't a pretty fight, but was filled with action. No matter what happens, it is a very intriguing fight for a number of reasons and is the right fight for Floyd to have taken, despite criticism for not fighting Antonio Margarito, Ricky Hatton, and Winky Wright. Baldomir is rated as the true welterweight champ and has beaten better recent opposition than Margarito. Hatton said he would fight Mayweather if he got $13 million for the fight, which is completely ridiculous, and the Winky fight was probably more talk between the two than anything else. Winky seems to be very comfortable at 160 and the two are probably too good of friends to fight right now. Add to that Mosley and De La Hoya, who both said they weren't fighting again in 2006, and Baldomir became the logical choice. Even though Floyd should definitely come out on top, Baldomir is a formidable opponent that presents some style and size problems. The fight is definitely worth tuning in for as Baldomir has more than a puncher's chance to derail Floyd's future plans for big money showdowns with Mosley and De La Hoya. With that being said, Carlos Baldomir has already surpassed expectations and will lay it all on the line. Floyd Mayweather has it all, therefore has everything to lose. For him, November 4th, at The Mandalay Bay in his backyard of Las Vegas, will definitely be ‘Pretty Risky’.
__________________________________________________ ____________
your thoughts?
After the Olympics he could have very well chosen similar paths as Sugar Ray Leonard and Oscar De La Hoya by thinking as a businessman as well as a boxer. Instead he tried to be the best fighter he could become and didn't worry about his image. From his many legal problems out of the ring, his public feud with his father over his management, and to him once referring to HBO's six fight, 12 million dollar offer to him as a "slave contract”, his image outside the ring hasn't quite lived up to his nickname ‘Pretty Boy’. Because of this image he was relegated to fighting in half empty arenas for far less money than his talent was worth. Over the last couple of years it seems he finally realized that his bad boy image wasn't going to sell tickets or pay-per-views no matter who he was beating. Maybe it was a natural maturation, or maybe he saw the dollar signs at the end of the tunnel. Either way, since that realization he has worked very hard to remake that image. He has been much more open with the media than he was in his younger days. He's done interviews for several popular magazines, worked overtime to promote his recent fights, including going on the talk show circuit, and has even landed a deal with Nike's Brand Jordan label. All this, he hopes, will transform him into what he believes he should be – the highest paid boxer in the sport. It seems to be working as he has been selling out his recent big fights and has done solid pay-per-view numbers in his fights with Arturo Gatti and Zab Judah. He has also been written and talked about more recently than at any point in his career. Even the criticism that he has received for some recent chosen opponents has helped make his name bigger. Fans may finally be forgetting about those young mistakes and new fans of the sport will appreciate what he's doing in and out of the ring now, while never even knowing about his previous bad choices.
Carlos Baldomir's path to prominence in the boxing world has been a lot more quiet, both in and out of the ring. In fact, even some die hard boxing fans would find it hard to admit that they knew who he was at all as recently January 6th of this year. He was no more than a 13 year journeyman from Argentina who had never even fought for a world title. That all changed on January 7th at Madison Square Garden. Baldomir was supposed to be no more than a speed bump as the mandatory challenger for Zab Judah's WBC welterweight title, on Judah's way to facing Floyd Mayweather Jr. That speed bump quickly turned into a brick wall as Baldomir outworked and hurt Judah several times in the second half of the fight on his way to a close, but unanimous, upset victory in Judah's backyard. Even with his victory most experts thought of Baldomir as a fluke and blamed Judah's loss on overlooking Baldomir, instead of giving Baldomir credit for a hard fought victory. So what happened next? After negotiations between Baldomir and Floyd Mayweather went nowhere, Zab Judah ended up getting the fight with Floyd anyway, despite his loss and Baldomir had to once again go to his opponent’s backyard. This time he went to Atlantic City to fight Arturo Gatti at Boardwalk Hall in front of Gatti's loyal hometown fans. Again, he was the underdog. This time his performance was much more dominating. He took Gatti's best shots and kept coming forward and landing his own power punches before knocking Gatti down twice and stopping him in the 9th round. Now nobody could call him a fluke. He has finally been recognized as the true welterweight champion of the world. It's hard to imagine that throughout much of his early career, Carlos Baldomir had to sell feather dusters in the streets of Santa Fe, Argentina, to help support his family. A far cry from the flashy and flamboyant lifestyle of Floyd Mayweather, who has been well known for his vast array of diamond jewelry and exotic cars throughout his career.
On November 4th we will find out if Carlos Baldomir's Cinderella story will continue or if Floyd Mayweather will take one step closer to his goal of becoming the ‘greatest fighter ever’, as well as securing his ‘legacy fights’ against the likes of Shane Mosley and his ultimate pot of gold, Oscar De La Hoya. One thing's for sure, he better not take Baldomir lightly, or Baldomir's glass slipper may become a permanent part of his wardrobe.
On paper this should be an easy fight for Floyd. He's younger, faster, has a longer reach, is far more skilled, and more experienced in big fights than Baldomir. If you keep looking at that paper, however, the fine print will tell you that, despite his 43-9-6 record and only 13 KO's, he hasn't lost in 8 years, and has been fighting at welterweight and above his entire career. In fact, he probably has about a 30lb natural weight advantage over Mayweather. And despite his low knockout percentage he did hurt Judah badly and knocked out the very tough Gatti. His punching power seems to be highly underrated. His biggest asset going into this fight may be his confidence. It's never been higher than it is now and that can mean everything to a fighter. That being said, Mayweather has never had a lack of confidence. This fight is intriguing for other reasons as well. It has been recently learned that Roger Mayweather, who was suspended for jumping in the ring in the Judah fight and could not work Floyd's corner anyways, has not been available to train Floyd at all for this fight. Roger was convicted of battery charges on September 19th and is not eligible for release until March of 2007. How will Floyd react without having his uncle preparing him in the gym? Most, including Floyd Mayweather Sr., feel that for the most part, Floyd Jr. trains himself anyways and it will not have much of an effect. Others feel that without Roger working the target mitts in the gym and other aspects of his training, Floyd will be at a disadvantage against Baldomir, especially since he apparently hasn't added any new trainers to compensate for the loss of Roger. Mayweather Jr. says he will stick with advisor and strength coach, Leonard Ellerbe, and longtime cutman and co-trainer Rafael Garcia. Roger Mayweather will likely help Floyd devise the game plan from jail, however.
So how will the fight play out? Will Floyd simply be too fast and too skilled? Will his past hand problems show up when he hits Baldomir enough times on the head? Will Baldomir be too big and strong? Has Floyd simply moved up too far in weight? Well, here is my prediction.
The first round will start out as most Mayweather fights do. A tactical round with both fighters feeling each other out. In the second round Baldomir will try to impose his size and strength on Mayweather and come forward with his head down, throwing a lot of punches. He will try to keep Mayweather against the ropes as often as he can. Floyd will make his legs and reach advantage a big part of the fight and show Baldomir many angles all night. Floyd won't be able to do what he did to Gatti. Baldomir is simply too big and will throw many more punches than Gatti did. Baldomir will rely on his great conditioning and constant body punching to stay in the fight and try to wear down Mayweather. Mayweather, on the other hand, will likely not wear down in the second half of the fight like Judah did, and will not stand and take the punches that Gatti did. It is very unlikely that he will take Baldomir lightly, and is always in extremely good shape and should be strong enough to dominate the last few rounds. He tends to be the one to outlast his opponents, as far as conditioning is concerned. I see the first half of the fight being close, with Mayweather having a slight lead. In the second half of the fight Baldomir will be coming forward, but showing frustration as Floyd lands constant straight rights and body shots and then moves away, while Baldomir breaks down and starts showing the punishment on his face. I think Floyd has an outside chance of stopping Baldomir, but, in all likelihood, will win a comfortable but extremely hard fought decision.
Many people who think Carlos Baldomir can win this fight see this being a lot like the first fight between Mayweather and
Jose Luis Castillo, where Mayweather won a close, controversial decision. The truth is that Baldomir is a completely different fighter than Castillo. Castillo is much faster on his feet than Baldomir and was able to stay close and shadow Floyd when he would move around the ring. Castillo is also a much better body puncher and hits harder with a single punch. Baldomir has a bigger body and will have to hope that Floyd will stand and trade, and allow Baldomir to push him around the ring while leaning on him to wear him down. That's highly unlikely. Floyd is too smart for that. I see Baldomir as a better, bigger version of Emanuel Augustus. Floyd claims that was his toughest opponent, and he did do some damage before Floyd finally wore him down and eventually stopped him. It wasn't a pretty fight, but was filled with action. No matter what happens, it is a very intriguing fight for a number of reasons and is the right fight for Floyd to have taken, despite criticism for not fighting Antonio Margarito, Ricky Hatton, and Winky Wright. Baldomir is rated as the true welterweight champ and has beaten better recent opposition than Margarito. Hatton said he would fight Mayweather if he got $13 million for the fight, which is completely ridiculous, and the Winky fight was probably more talk between the two than anything else. Winky seems to be very comfortable at 160 and the two are probably too good of friends to fight right now. Add to that Mosley and De La Hoya, who both said they weren't fighting again in 2006, and Baldomir became the logical choice. Even though Floyd should definitely come out on top, Baldomir is a formidable opponent that presents some style and size problems. The fight is definitely worth tuning in for as Baldomir has more than a puncher's chance to derail Floyd's future plans for big money showdowns with Mosley and De La Hoya. With that being said, Carlos Baldomir has already surpassed expectations and will lay it all on the line. Floyd Mayweather has it all, therefore has everything to lose. For him, November 4th, at The Mandalay Bay in his backyard of Las Vegas, will definitely be ‘Pretty Risky’.
__________________________________________________ ____________
your thoughts?