IN HIS most recent jab at Manny Pacquiao, flamboyant Floyd Mayweather Jr. went for a knockout by abruptly erasing the Filipino superhero from his personal radar.
“Pacquiao, who’s he?” Mayweather had supposedly told an interviewer.
Did Mayweather also mean the Pacquiao he once knew and grimly avoided to fight was all fiction?
Truth is that the dream Pacquiao-Mayweather super bout has briefly been revived as they headed for this weekend’s super bout in Las Vegas.
Allow me to give the floor to international boxing correspondent Anthony Andales, a full-time aeronautics engineer, who has sent his views from Detroit, Michigan:
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Can Saul “Canelo” Alvarez do a better job than Jose Luis Castillo, Oscar De La Hoya and Miguel Cotto against Floyd Mayweather Jr.?
This weekend, Alvarez from Juanacatlan, Mexico, will have the chance to rewrite the legend of Money Mayweather.
The WBC, WBA and Ring Magazine super welterweight world champion will try to challenge the No. 1 boxer in the world.
Has Canelo got a chance? Of course, yes!
1. Castillo vs Mayweather—Although Mayweather won that fight by majority decision, HBO’s Harold Lederman scored it the other way around. If I’m not mistaken, he scored it 115-111 for the champion Castillo. There was a debate. Castillo did enough to defend his title, he was the champion yet he was the aggressor. The main thing: Castillo was younger at that time and he was vicious in throwing those mean body shots. You read me right, “mean body shots”. Mayweather didn’t like to get hit, he’s not used to it. That’s the reason there was a commotion after the fight. Mayweather got hit a lot, but he won and captured Castillo’s belt.
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2. De La Hoya vs Mayweather—I was there at ringside, the biggest fight of all time! The first half of that fight, Oscar was winning. They were fighting for Oscar’s 154-lb crown. De La Hoya was very effective in cutting the ring, throwing a barrage of power punches to the body that made Mayweather stand still. Then the old Oscar faded in the second half—remember his fight against my favorite Felix Trinidad? If only De la Hoya had sustained his plan of constant body attack and bullying the finesse Mayweather, Golden Boy could’ve been golden that night.
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3. Cotto vs Mayweather—Although this fight was a unanimous decision win for Floyd, somehow the Puerto Rican managed to show the world that indeed Mayweather cannot roll off all the body punches. Again the cross-breed of jab-left hook and body punches were the keys to unlock the vaunted tight shoulder roll defense. The chances were there but Mayweather opted to do all the action at the center of the ring in the final quarter of the fight and won.
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Can Alvarez do better than Castillo-De La Hoya-Cotto? Yes he can! Alvarez turned pro when he was 15 years old and got 20 excellent amateur fights under his belt. At 22, he won his first legitimate world championship against Ricky Hatton’s brother, the vacant WBA light middleweight crown.
Now he just turned 24 and is already a veteran who is just two fights shy of the 36-year-old Mayweather’s total ring appearances.
Based on his record, Alvarez has a decent knockout ratio of around 71 percent compared to Mayweather’s 59 percent. In Alvarez’s last five fights, only Slick Trout and Shane Mosley heard the final bell, while Mayweather’slast five fight all went the distance, except that asterisk knockout against the shameless Ortiz. Therefore we conclude, the naturally bigger and reigning light middleweight champion is the stronger fighter.
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Can Canelo (Cinnamon) do better than Castillo-Oscar and Cotto?
I think he can! The body punches are given, the power punches reflect the number of knockouts and while the stamina is a little suspect, he survived strong against a legit 154-lb champ Austin Trout.
Can he bully the smaller Floyd? I think he can. Canelo looked like a bully in most of his fights especially against the smaller Josesito Lopez.
All Alvarez needs to do is fight big and bully the smaller Mayweather and sustain it the entire fight. If he does that then he would be a better version of Castillo-Oscar and Cotto. Plus Canelo is not flat-footed and he can box too.
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I foresee a knockdown in the first five rounds. Mayweather will go down for the first time.
Canelo’s constant attack will deliver him to the promised land, Alvarez will be declared a winner, a new pound-for-pound champion, a new king of boxing.
Then Manny Pacquiao will win against Brandon Rios, who doesn’t know defense and doesn’t know how to back-pedal.
Next, I guess Mayweather will resume talks and entertain a showdown with Pacquiao. Don’t get me wrong! It’s still going to be a humongous fight, but the magnitude of this fight will not be the same as what people had anticipated some three years ago to be the superfight of all superfights.