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November 1998
Each month we bring you a selection of articles from the current and past issues of BOXING MONTHLY. To buy the magazine, see our subscription or back issues pages, or use our world distribution map to find a news-stand copy. Why not use our Interactive Forum to express your own boxing comments and opinions!
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I TOLD YA SO
Flashy Floyd Mayweather was as good as his word when his chance came against Genaro Hernandez. GRAHAM HOUSTON reports from ringside in Las Vegas |
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BOB'S YER UNCLE: Arum says he can make Mayweather as big as De La Hoya
- Get Big Pic After all the trash talk, Floyd Mayweather walked the walk as he outclassed and stopped
Genaro Hernandez in eight rounds to capture the World Boxing Council super featherweight
title at the Las Vegas Hilton on 3 October. Mayweather, the 21-year-old from Grand Rapids, Michigan, but who now calls Las Vegas
home, did everything his father and trainer, Floyd Sr., said he would except that he did
not get Hernandez out of there in less than five rounds. But he would have done so, the
senior Mayweather said afterwards, if he had followed his father's instructions more
closely and banged Hernandez to the body more often instead of shooting for the head. Just as his father had predicted, though, Mayweather was too strong, too fast, too
young and too hard-hitting for the 32-year-old Hernandez, a professional boxer for 14
years whose only loss in 40 previous bouts came when his nose was shattered by an Oscar De
La Hoya left hook. Not even De La Hoya, however, mastered Hernandez as easily as Mayweather did. There were no knockdowns, but Mayweather - who entered the ring a 9-5 on betting
favourite - jolted Hernandez often, inflicting bruises around the older man's eyes and
denting his nose. And after eight rounds, Rudy Hernandez, the former fighter who trains his younger
brother, had seen enough. He called over referee Jay Nady to say the fight was over. There was no argument from Genaro, who knew that all he had to look forward to was
another four rounds of being pasted. One feared that Mayweather might gloat. It had all been so easy. The young man has been
labelled cocky (although Mayweather prefers to call it confidence). But, one is happy to
report, instead of showing hubris, Mayweather was humble in victory. He exhibited a
sensitive side to his nature, shedding tears after being declared the winner, then
allowing Hernandez to dominate the podium at the post-fight press conference. Mayweather Sr., the former pro welterweight who once fought Sugar Ray Leonard, was also
refreshingly low key. But then, he had been right all along - no need to rub it in. The new champ - the 1996 Olympic lightweight bronze medallist who becomes the first
member of the U.S. Atlanta squad to capture a world pro title - said: "I just wanted
to take my time and relax, counter punch and do the best thing I could do to win. I feel
I've got the best defence in the world, but I got hit more than I usually get hit. Genaro
hit me with some shots I didn't expect to get hit with. "This is the best fighter I ever fought. Genaro Hernandez was tougher than I
anticipated, but after the second round I started using my jab a lot more and taking
control of the fight." Asked to evaluate his performance on a scale of one to 10, Mayweather said: "I
felt I got like an eight." But Hernandez took the microphone and, smiling broadly,
told us not to believe it. "He's lying," Hernandez said, to laughter. "I
don't care how many fighters are out there, there ain't nobody [could] beat me the way he
did tonight. I'm a two-time world champion, I don't miss much [with punches] but I missed
a lot today with Floyd. So I rate him as a 10." And Hernandez was indeed made to miss, so many times that the veteran of 14 previous
world title bouts began - unbelievably - to look like an average fighter. It was
Mayweather, with only 17 pro bouts behind him (all wins, 13 inside the distance) who was
looking like the master boxer. This was shown in the judges' scorecards. Judge Bob Logist, of Belgium, had Mayweather
winning every round, 80-72, Terry Smith of California had it 79-73, giving the seventh
round to Hernandez, while Chuck Giampa of Las Vegas also saw it 79-73, scoring the eighth,
and, as it turned out, final, round in favour of the champion. Hernandez did, indeed, do his best to rally in the seventh and eighth rounds, taking
the fight to Mayweather and attempting to overpower him with aggression. But the veteran
from Los Angeles got the worst of it as Mayweather fired right back at him. Although Hernandez said afterwards that he would have fought on, but that his brother
overruled him, it appeared that the champion was glad when his ordeal was over. It was the second time Hernandez has lost by retirement, the first coming, of course,
against De La Hoya, and it seems unfortunate that he will perhaps most be remembered as a
champ who - to put it harshly - quit on the two occasions when he knew he could not win. Just 15 days earlier, Julio Cesar Chavez had surrendered in his rematch with De La
Hoya, also in Las Vegas. In neither case could I blame the defeated fighter. How many times have we wondered why
a corner did not pull their man out when a fight has become a lost cause? For instance,
many of us at ringside thought that Rafael Ruelas was allowed to go on too long against
Kostya Tszyu at El Paso in August. And yet Ruelas is one of the many warriors in ring history who would never have
capitulated, who, if they could not win, at least demanded the satisfaction of trying to
go the limit. Too game for their own good, one might say. Yet these are the fighters who
will have a special place in the affections of fans. Hernandez had shown character in his title fight with Azumah Nelson in March 1997 when
he chose to continue, rather than take a disqualification victory, after being dropped by
an after-the-bell blow to the throat. As Hernandez himself admits, though, age is catching up. He had hinted even before the
bout with Mayweather that he is coming to the end of his career (this may indeed have been
his last fight, although he wishes to be given time to think things over) and brother Rudy
was not prepared to see him exit the sport with the sort of hammering that could have had
a lasting effect. Rudy told his brother before the start of the eighth: "Last round!" He told
Genaro that he had lost every round, to "go for broke" in an attempt to turn the
tide. But when Hernandez was again on the receiving end - after a strong start to the
eighth round - Rudy decided there was no point in sending his brother out for more of the
same. But while Hernandez (who got his biggest purse of $600,000, to Mayweather's $150,000)
contemplates the end of his career, the future is rich with promise for the new champ. At
time of writing, his promoter, Bob Arum, was seeking to match Mayweather with tough,
talented Angel Manfredy in December at Madison Square Garden. The fight would be televised
by Home Box Office, which showed Mayweather's bout with Hernandez and is, Arum said,
interested in a long-term agreement with the fighter. Some in Arum's organisation - including matchmaker Bruce Trampler - had wondered if
Mayweather was ready for Hernandez. But after the way that the challenger dominated the
fight, the question now being asked is if any of the other fighters in the 9st 4lbs
(130lbs) weight class are ready for Mayweather. Promoter Arum said afterwards: "I have seen really talented young fighters, they
come into a fight like this, they fight better than they've ever fought before, they rise
to the level of their competition, they give such a wonderful performance, and I must say
that even though some people in my office had some trepidations about the fight when we
made it, Floyd's father was absolutely, supremely confident from the get-go. "Then, of course, he [Mayweather] went up to Big Bear [in the mountains east of
Los Angeles] and trained, and he never looked as good as he did in training for this
fight. His body was terrific - he could go, like, 50 rounds if he had to at that kinda
pace. "The unfortunate thing is, he was so good that he made one of the great
130-pounders in history - Genaro Hernandez - look ordinary. And Genaro is a wonderful,
wonderful fighter, he really is. But it was certainly a no contest because Floyd was so
superior. "If the fight had gone on, at best for Genaro would have been four rounds of the
same. He was taking an awful beating, and he could have been knocked out - he could have
been hurt. And he's meant so much to the sport, and he showed what a great guy he was in
the Azumah Nelson situation, that I was very delighted that his corner was smart enough to
stop the fight." If Hernandez wishes to fight on, Arum said he would like to match him with Cesar Bazan,
the World Boxing Council lightweight champion, perhaps in January. As to Mayweather, Arum said: "He's only 21 but I think not only has he matured as
a fighter, he's matured as a person. We all have very, very, very high hopes for Floyd
Mayweather and we hope that he'll be a superstar in the same manner as Oscar De La
Hoya." Hernandez said: "I take my hat off to Floyd Mayweather, he did a very good job.
There ain't nobody around at 130 pounds as good as Floyd Mayweather. Floyd had everything
going for him tonight and I'm pretty sure he'll have everything going for him in the
future." He thanked his brother, Rudy, for stopping the fight, saying: "I would have been a
bull-headed guy, I wanted to continue fighting. After the seventh round he [Rudy] told me
we had lost every round. Father Time caught up to us. It's the same for every great
fighter. I'll have to go back and see [on the videotape] what beating did I take today and
decide if I'm interested in fighting again. I was defeated in a real bad way. I never
thought I'd lose a fight the way I did tonight." After a closely fought opening round, in which the 5ft 7ins Mayweather seemed to be
struggling a little with the height of the 5ft 11ins champion, it settled down into the
sort of fight in which youth, speed and power decides the issue. Each man slipped down in the opening round when pulling back from a punch, and they
went down together in the second, Mayweather on top, when they got tangled in a clinch.
But by the end of the second Mayweather was beginning to get his left jab to work - stiff
jabs they were, too - and he landed a right-hander that clearly shook Hernandez. The
pattern had been established, and it did not vary. Mayweather received cautions for holding behind the head, but Hernandez tried to rough
up the younger man in the clinches. But Mayweather's speed was starting to befuddle
Hernandez by the third, the rapidity of his punches - including a swift, sharp right-hand
lead - catching the champion by surprise. And so it went, round after round. When Hernandez went to the ropes to try to draw Mayweather on to counters, the
challenger either stayed on top of him and outpunched him or stayed back and measured him
for telling blows. Some of Hernandez's punches landed, his left hooks having Mayweather looking a little
puffy around the right eye, but the younger man was doing the seriously hard hitting. And
Mayweather was confident enough to stand in front of Hernandez, left arm low in a style
somewhat reminiscent of his uncle Roger -the two-time world champ. who was at ringside -
relying on his reflexes to pull away from punches. Hernandez began to miss wildly, and
Mayweather drilled him. By the seventh there was a bruise and swelling under Hernandez's right eye. His rushes
were checked by counters - a right uppercut here, a left hook there. "Man, this kid
is good!" exclaimed a reporter from Mayweather's hometown newspaper in Grand Rapids
who was sitting next to me. And after eight rounds the fight was over as Rudy Hernandez spared his brother further
punishment. One long-running world-championship career is over; another may be just
beginning.
One could forgive Floyd Mayweather Sr. for saying: "I told you so." After
all, the 45-year-old ex-fighter had been telling us all along that his son, Floyd Jr., was
in a different class to Genaro Hernandez. Backstage at the Las Vegas Hilton, Mayweather Sr. said: "Little Floyd [as he calls
his son] will knock out anyone at 130 pounds, The Prince [Naseem Hamed], all of
them." A reporter suggested that his son might have to go up to lightweight to get a test
worthy of his talents, but Mayweather Sr. said: "I'm not going to 135 [pounds] just
because it makes you great. The object is to win. In boxing history, a good big man
usually beats a good little man. He will probably go from 130 to 140 pounds [9st 4lbs to
10 stone] in his career but only when it comes naturally." Talking about the win over Hernandez, Mayweather Sr. said: "Seeing as he's
[Hernandez's] the champion, I would call the first round pretty even, but after that
everything started going downhill [for Hernandez]. I told my son to step it up with his
jab. I'd watched videos of Hernandez and, to me, after two or three rounds he starts
getting sloppy, and that's what I seen happening. "To be honest, I think my son could have stopped him way earlier, something like
the fourth or fifth round, if he would've used the body attack like I said. But he's still
young, time is still on his side. Hernandez is a good fighter, but like I told you before,
Little Floyd is too young, too fast, too strong, hits too hard and he's got more knowledge
than Hernandez. That was the fight. He [Hernandez] took a brutal beating." And what
about Little Floyd's projected fight with Angel Manfredy? Mayweather Sr. said: "He'll
knock Manfredy out tomorrow. I'm telling you right here - Manfredy will be stopped." |
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