Floyd Jr.: “Just another fight”
On the one hand, and Mayweather himself has said this, there is nothing all that special about his May 2 meeting with Manny Pacquiao at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. It’s just another fight and will be, he predicts, others predicts, this pundit predicts, another win. He’ll be just two shy of 50.
“To me, it’s just another day,” Mayweather told Fight Hype last week. “It’s just another fight. I mean, when you just look at the tale of the tape, I have a longer reach, I’m taller, I’m stronger, and I’m more accurate.”
He is also one of the greater tacticians of his time and is better than Pacquiao when it comes to foot work. The 38-year-old Mayweather has this ability to dance from danger and then strike with deadly accuracy. He has the highest plus/minus record in boxing.
In CompuBox’s 2014 rankings Mayweather is on top at +24, the 36-year-old Pacquiao 9th with a +10. Mayweather does not throw punches as often as most but stats show he picks his spot, connecting 42 percent of the time (1st) while opponents land a punch 18 percent of the time (2nd). Pacquiao connects a punch 35 percent of the time (10th) and is struck by 25 percent of the punches thrown at him (tied for 10th).
And then there’s the intangible.
“The only thing I know is win,” Mayweather said. “So is losing in the back of his mind? Absolutely! Why? Because he’s probably lost three or five times before, so losing is in his mind. Losing is not in my mind because the only thing I know how to do is win.”
Mayweather – Pacquiao: Boxing history
This weekend Mayweather posted a photo of him at Vegas casino but while he did so, he noted that he’s working very hard to be ready. He always does, he’s known for having one of the most rigorous training regimes in sport.
But this time with Fight Hype he spoke of the fight’s place in history. Sure on the one hand it is just another fight and he goes about his business in the same way and expects the same result, but on the other hand it does have, he acknowledged, a place in the history of the sport that does make it something special.
“Training camp has gone tremendously thus far, all I can do is just wait,” he said this week. “This fight is not just a big fight, this is the biggest fight in boxing history. This fight will be a part of history.
“When you look back at Marvin Hagler, Sugar Ray Leonard, Tommy Hearns, Roberto Duran, Larry Holmes, Mike Tyson, Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Robinson, Wilfred Benitez, the Spinks brothers, Pernell Whitaker, James Toney, Cornelius Edwards and the list goes on and on. I just come in and take my hat off to the guys who paved the way for me to be where I am at today.”
Where he is today is on the verge of a great victory that will boast his record to 48-0, just two wins shy of being able to retire at 50-0 and be the man who matched the record of the great Rocky Marciano. Further, he’ll be able to retire without the critics nagging at him for not taking on the Filipino southpaw that so many thought he was afraid of.
To be among the greatest pound for pound champs boxing has known.
