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Current Issue: June 2003 |
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APPRECIATE THE ARTISTRY Some might term Floyd Mayweather Jr negative, but his latest defence allowed him to display a defensive mastery that few other fighters can call upon. GRAHAM HOUSTON reports
A pattern seems to be emerging when lightweight champ Floyd “Pretty Boy” Mayweather Jr fights.On the one side you have those who think he boxed masterfully, on the other, those who find him disappointing for not closing the show. There are those who feel he is an exponent of two of the mostly lost arts: defence and the classic deployment of the left jab. Others say that he doesn’t punch in combinations and is too concerned with not getting hit. The same divisions occurred after Mayweather’s unanimous, near-shutout 12-round decision over Victoriano Sosa, a tough challenger from the Dominican Republic, before a 7,550 crowd at the Selland Arena in Fresno, California on 19 April and the usual worldwide TV viewing audience.This was Mayweather’s third successive fight as a lightweight and the third time he has gone the limit. His notoriously suspect hands are a contributory factor. He said afterwards that he had hurt his left hand against Sosa. But even leaving aside the matter of hand problems, it seems clear that at 9st 9lbs (135lbs) Mayweather’s hitting doesn’t have quite the authority that he did when he was champion in the 9st 4lbs (130lbs) super featherweight division.Mayweather, of course, is meeting, bigger, stronger men in the lightweight division. He couldn’t put a dent in Mexico’s Jose Luis Castillo in their two bouts. Now Sosa has taken him all the way.But a boxer doesn’t have to blast people out to be exceptional. And Mayweather, I think, is indeed out of the ordinary. Viewers on Sky TV in Britain and the Home Box Office network in the States will have drawn their own conclusions. Perhaps those who were unimpressed might have been expecting too much. Sosa is a big lightweight whose actual fight-time weight was 10st 5lbs (145lbs). He is known to be a hard puncher, with 26 KOs in a record of 35 wins, two losses and two draws. He twice dropped and almost stopped Paul Spadafora in a previous challenge for a lightweight title three years ago. This is a man who always looked like being there for the full 12 rounds, one who would not be easy to get out of there. So, to me, it was no surprise that the fight went the distance. It always figured to do so. If we cannot really fault Mayweather for not stopping Sosa, then, what of the performance itself? For me — and I know that not everyone agrees — this was a beautiful display of textbook boxing.I don’t think there is another boxer in the business who uses the left jab as effectively as does Mayweather. He employs the jab as a stiff weapon, to the head and also downstairs, where he really drives it in. These jolts to the midsection can wear a man down. Sosa, it appeared to me, had been significantly slowed by the later rounds. Then there is the Mayweather defence. He turns his body and pivots and dips in such a way that it is very difficult indeed for the other man to get a clean shot at him. Along with the genius Roy Jones and the old master James Toney, Mayweather is one of the most difficult boxers in the business to hit with a square-on shot. There were rounds when Sosa threw lots of punches. For the most part he was missing or hitting arms and gloves.The scoring of the three judges perfectly reflected the fight with margins of 118-110, 118-110 again and 119-109. If you score a fight on the basis of who lands the most punches on target, this was really a landslide for Mayweather. Indeed, in 11 of the 12 rounds, at least two judges had Mayweather winning the round. Put another way, the consensus score — that is, as reflected by rounds in which all three, or two of the three, judges scored for Mayweather — was 119-109.The only round that I thought could have gone to Sosa was the seventh, simply because he threw so many more punches than Mayweather. Sosa made his biggest rally in this round. He was, to be true, extremely hard working. Yet for all Sosa’s effort, according to the CompuBox punch count Mayweather landed 11 punches while Sosa had only six connections.At one point in this round, a truly solid jab had Sosa’s legs going a bit although there was probably a bit of a slip involved — referee Raul Caiz Sr called to the ringside commission members that the canvas was wet would need to be wiped between rounds. But the ultimate futility of Sosa’s big seventh-round effort was illustrated in two moments. First, he went down on his hands and knees after Mayweather ducked a left hook. Later, Sosa went into the ropes, facing where Mayweather had been an instant earlier, after another miss. Even when Sosa was making his biggest charge of the fight, then, he was still being frustrated.I give Sosa a lot of credit for his heart and his determination. He proved that he deserved the opportunity. He is a world-class lightweight. But, really, he didn’t come close to winning, despite his own assertions to the contrary and the mixed reception that greeted the verdict. Statistics can be misleading but according to CompuBox, Sosa threw 565 punches and only 14% hit the target. This indicates that what we have with Mayweather is a defensive master.The criticism that he doesn’t punch in combinations is a valid one. But Mayweather picks his punches expertly. Even if he is throwing only single shots, he seems to make every one of them count, whether left hooks or right hands. By the closing rounds he had Sosa looking hurt and broken down physically and mentally. If Mayweather had really gone for it in the last two rounds, and let his punches fly, I am not sure that Sosa could have survived. Mayweather knew he had the fight won, though, and he saw no point in giving Sosa the chance to get lucky. That was a decision on his part that could be criticised. Mayweather says that getting the win is the most important thing, which it is, but I can see how his lack of aggression against an opponent who looked ready to go could have disappointed a lot of people. But looking at the fight overall, Mayweather took on a valid challenger and outboxed him in 11 out of 12 rounds. I make that a master-class type of performance. It was not, though, one that inspired belief in Mayweather’s bold declarations that he can move up to light-middle and defeat Oscar De La Hoya. The jump of three weight classes would be too much. De La Hoya would be too powerful. Not that the fight ever looked likely to happen, as De La Hoya is trained by Pretty Boy’s father, Floyd Mayweather Sr, and says that out of respect for the father he will never meet the son. I am not sure Mayweather could beat the light-welter champ, Kostya Tszyu, if the fight could be arranged (unlikely as Mayweather is in the HBO fold while Tszyu fights on the rival Showtime network). But Mayweather against Tszyu would be intriguing and I don’t think anyone could be certain who would win. Certainly, Mayweather seems set on moving up in weight. Light-welterweights and welterweights appear to be in his future. By fighting in heavier weight classes, either light-welter or welterweight, Mayweather would be doing what the great ones have done, challenging himself and giving the boxing public the sort of fights that are awaited with eagerness.The boxing lesson he administered to Sosa brought Mayweather’s record to 30 wins in a row, 20 inside the distance. I know that a lot of people thought that Jose Luis Castillo beat him in their first fight, but, to me, Mayweather hasn’t come close to losing.Unfortunately, his grasp of public relations is not his strongest point (I was unable to get an interview with him to accompany this article, for instance) and I can see how people could find him conceited and not very likeable. But as a performer, in the ring, I believe Mayweather to be a true master at what he does. Delicate hands permitting, the best may be yet to come.
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