Boxing News Boxing News
Come Saturday evening, we will know the answer to the question of whether or not Carlos Baldomir’s 15 minutes of fame is coming to an end or not . The match between the Argentine WBC Champion and four weight former world champion Floyd Mayweather has been highly anticipated by boxing public, and in my view, things are not as clear cut as betting odds may suggest.
On paper, it seems that this match can go only one way and that is Mayweather’s way. So far, the best “pound-for-pound” boxer seems unstoppable in his quest for greatness, and even though he is in his toughest fight to date by challenging the true and legitimate linear welterweight champion, that doesn’t seem to faze anyone into giving Floyd much chance of losing against Baldomir.
And, it seems that the only person who believes that Baldomir can actually win the fight is Carlos Baldomir himself. Well, not exactly the only person as there are few writers out there who think that Baldomir’s chance of wining are much bigger than bookmakers suggest, and I am certainly one of them.
In my view Baldomir, unlike Mayweather, doesn’t have many winning strategies at his disposal for this fight. His only chance is to come firing on all cylinders and have his guns blazing from the opening round.
If Baldomir is to win, he has to put Mayweather on the backfoot throughout the fight and not to give Floyd time to reload, sharpshoot, and structure his offensive and defensive moves.
He has to fight as the stronger man, make it a war, and go for a broke. The more respect he gives to Mayweather the less chances he has of winning. This doesn’t necessarily mean that he should be reckless, but rather that he should be intelligently aggressive; choosing short punches, avoiding wild and wide shoots and keeping his defensive guard up while constantly jabbing.
How many times have we have seen Mayweather in his shoulder-roll defense, leaning against the ropes, while opponents keeps hitting nothing but air before getting blasted by the blizzard of lightning fast counterpunches? To avoid the same fate ,Baldomir must opt for a close quarters fight, going early for the body and only going upstairs when countering.
To fully illustrate the kind of a fight plan that Baldomir has to bring, just examine Manny Pacquiao’s last fight against Erik Morales. This is not to make any comparisons between Morales and Mayweather, or Pacquiao and Baldomir, but rather to illustrate the mental dimension of the Pacquiao’s fight plan.
Few have given Pacquiao much chance before the second Morales fight, and in the early rounds it didn’t even look like he was having en edge. Only in the last few rounds did it become clear that Morales could not handle the devastating combination of aggression, high tempo, speed and power, wrapped up in brilliantly executed fight plan which resulted in Manny’s sensational win by stoppage.
While Baldomir strengths are very different from Pacquiao’s, if he is to beat Mayweather, he has to do similar thing. He has to force his strengths on Mayweather for every second of every round and if it means opening up and taking some risks in order to be in position of landing meaningful punches, then he has to do it.
Baldomir’s worst enemy may not be Mayweather’s punch, but rather the fear of it. If he brings the heart and balls, along with a good fight plan, the rest will be there: his size, strength and strong chin. Only then does Carlos Baldomir have a good chance of pulling an upset.
