One of the biggest misconceptions hovering around the upcoming Floyd Mayweather vs. Juan Manuel Marquez fight is the notion that Mayweather handpicked an easy opponent to collect a check. You can ask any *real* boxing fan around about Marquez and they should have him in their top 5 pound for pound. If I had to pick a winner between the two, I’d choose Mayweather easily, but when you take the following factors into account, the outcome may not be so cut-and-dry anymore.

1. Floyd is coming off a 2 year layoff – I don’t care who you are, if you step out of the ring for 2 years theres going to be a little bit of rust when you come back. Another thing to consider is that boxers can literally turn old in ONE fight (see Roy Jones Jr.), it’s always a dangerous decision to take long layoffs when you’re over the age of 30. Floyd’s saving grace *may* be that he walks around in shape at all times, he doesn’t need to drop 20-30 pounds for a comeback fight.

2. Floyd is nursing a rib injury - There’s a conspiracy theory floating around that Mayweather created this rib injury out of thin air because ticket sales for the bout was low, but it almost exclusively comes from fanatical Floyd haters. The type of rib cartilage injury could be a huge hindrance if it’s not fully healed by the time fight night is here on September 19th. Floyd is not an offensive powerhouse, he relies on quickness, reflexes, and defensive counter punching to win fights. This injury could potentially slow him down just enough to make the bout closer than we all expected.

3. Roger Mayweather’s troubles with the law - In case you hadn’t heard, Floyd’s uncle/trainer Roger Mayweather was arrested yesterday for laying the smack down on a woman. This issue wouldn’t be a problem in normal circumstances, but it does serve as another dark cloud hovering over this fight. Will it serve as a distraction in camp?

4. Is Floyd overlooking Marquez for Pacquiao? - I’ve mentioned this before, but if you pay attention to all the pre-fight press on this bout you’ll notice Floyd spends more time fielding questions about Manny Pacquiao than he does on his current opponent. None of us know what Floyd does behind closed doors to prepare for Marquez, but if outward actions are any indication he clearly isn’t worried about Marquez in the slightest.

Like I said at the beginning of this post, in an ideal situation Floyd would win this fight with his eyes closed (he’s just that good), but this situation is getting further and further away from ideal. At this point my prediction for the winner still hasn’t changed, but I will say I would NOT be surprised if we all witnessed a huge upset next month.

Oh boy…

I’m probably the biggest Mayweather fan out there, but I can’t co-sign any of what you’re about to read for reasons I will explain at the bottom of the post. But during a press conference promoting his upcoming fight against Juan Manuel Marquez, he offered these statements about MMA and Manny Pacquiao.

“You can’t take my shoes off, and take my shirt off and throw me in a cage. You do that with animals, you don’t do that with humans,” said a bold Mayweather. “It takes true skills to be in the sport of boxing.”

While Mayweather probably should have stopped his brash statements there — he didn’t, saying MMA was created by white fighters who couldn’t cut it in the ring.

“In boxing, we know who’s dominating. Black fighters and Hispanic fighters is dominating in this sport,” Mayweather continued. “And this is not a racial statement but there’s no white fighters in boxing that’s dominating, so they had to go to something else and start something new.”

Mayweather was then asked about a potential fight with Manny Pacquiao and offered these words:

“Everybody wants to see the Pacquiao fight, but it doesn’t work like that. Pacquiao isn’t his own boss and he’s giving up 27 percent of his money to Bob Arum,” Mayweather said. “Once he becomes his own boss, then we can talk. If he’s not his own boss I ain’t got nothing to say to him.”

But just in case he does, Mayweather says you know where to find him.

“It’s not hard to find me. Everybody know I’m in Las Vegas,” he said. “Just look for the biggest mansion and the prettiest Rolls-Royce — that’s me.” < ---- LOL

Here’s what I think about the entire situation……. Read the rest of this entry »

One of my favorite shows to come around recently is ABC’s Wipeout. I know It’s not exactly fine theater, but theres something about a 39 year old soccer mom getting bashed in the face by a motorized boxing glove that warms my heart. Through the wonders of Twitter, I learned that Shaquille O’Neal also loves Wipeout and wants to go on the show. (He’s mentioned this on more than one occasion.)

You know what the problem is?

Real celebrities think they’re too cool for all this, so when ABC decides to do a Celebrity Wipeout we’re gonna have to watch Gilbert Godfried, and some douchebags named Heidi and Spencer on the show. Here’s my wishlist of athletes I’d like to see join Shaq if this actually takes place:

1. Peyton Manning – The Ultimate Nerd You think this is a fun show where people just run as fast as they can and hope to make it to the end in time right? Well Peyton doesn’t think so, he’ll spend countless hours studying footage looking for patterns in the machinery, ideal launch points for jumping, and will have an exact replica of the set in his backyard.

2. Floyd Mayweather – Big Mouthed Bastard Everyone Wants To Lose There is no athlete on earth people love to hate more than Floyd (yes, people even hate him more than Terrell Owens). America will hang on the edges of their seats waiting for the moment where his face smashes into the wall…. and if history is any indication… it won’t happen.

3. Butterbean – The Fat Guy While he may be a questionable “celebrity”, he’s fat and thats good enough. Accidents are almost always funnier when theres a fat guy involved. Can you imagine this dude jumping on the big red balls? (Pause)… or on the second stage where the contestants have to jump the plank…. oh man.

4. Serena Williams – Affirmative Action/Token Female Athlete Since there will probably be a slot or two reserved for female athletes, I hope the one with the biggest breasts and booty gets chosen. Serena probably won’t want to get her weave all wet though, so I wish the producers luck on this one….

5. David Ortiz – The Lumbering Oaf Even though Shaq is 7 feet tall and 320lbs, he can move pretty well for his size. The producers need to recruit a second tall guy who makes the country wonder how he’s getting paid as a professional athlete. Plus, I always laugh when he tries to speak english.

I’m not sure if many people actually saw it, but HBO aired this teaser for Mayweather/Marquez 24/7 after the Cotto/Clottey fight on Saturday night and it was EXCELLENT. Although it only consisted of old footage of Floyd talking shit mixed with new footage of Floyd talking shit, it still made for the most entertaining 3 minutes of my weekend (I could make so many jokes here). I was extremely hyped for the 24/7 series as well as the actual fight on July 18th…. and then this happens:

Mayweather-Marquez fight delayed

Floyd Mayweather Jr., set to exit his year-plus retirement to face Juan Manuel Marquez on July 18 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, suffered a rib injury in training late last week, forcing him to postpone the welterweight fight on Sunday.

“I am extremely disappointed that this fight has to be postponed,” Mayweather (39-0, 25 KOs) said in a statement. “I was training very hard and looking forward to getting back in the ring.”

These sort of things happen all the time (most recently with David Haye) and theres really nothing anyone can do about it. The good news is, we know its not a broken or fractured rib so Floyd’s recovery shouldn’t last any more than 2 months. The rumored reschedule date is in mid-September and I’m praying that it’ll actually stick. For a fighter who relies on defense as much as Floyd does it would be suicide for him to go into a bout at anything less than 100%.

So we’re about a month away from Manny Pacquiao’s fight with Ricky Hatton and HBO is rolling out the first class promo for the bout. I originally predicted that Manny would murder Ricky Hatton, but I don’t think he’s going to fight the same Ricky that Floyd Mayweather fought.

In the past, Ricky would just charge in and bull-over fighters until he met someone faster and technically sound. Floyd Mayweather Sr. is making a point to teach him head movement, defense, and precision punching. A funny thing in this video is you’ll see Ricky Hatton working on drills he used to tease Floyd Mayweather for doing.