http://forums.doghouseboxing.com/ind...howtopic=70665
Mayweather needs to punch ticket
Thursday, July 27, 2006
By David Mayo
The Grand Rapids Press
GRAND RAPIDS -- High-pressure deadlines stemming from high-level negotiations were understandable last month when Floyd Mayweather waited as long as possible before Oscar De La Hoya shunned him, but not now, not with another looming deadline, not with his options expiring.
Once again, time is running out on a potential Mayweather pay-per-view date, with the 90-day promotional window for the proposed Nov. 4 event closing almost as rapidly as his list of potential opponents is dwindling.
As much as Mayweather might like to blame today's situation solely on the many high-caliber boxers unwilling to fight him -- for now, at least -- he shoulders most burden for the ultimate outcome, which may come down to choosing between his twice-spurned $8 million offer to fight Antonio Margarito, or not fighting again this year.
Mayweather, the Grand Rapids native and boxing's pound-for-pound king, was supposed to find November's negotiations markedly easier after De La Hoya and their proposed September date were removed from the equation.
After all, in the vast financial pecking order of professional boxing, Mayweather would out earn any opponent -- from 130-pound Manny Pacquiao to 240-pound heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko -- with the sole exception of De La Hoya.
So removing one of their two massive egos from the equation, and giving Mayweather two more months to come up with an alternative plan, should have made talks decidedly easier.
It hasn't worked out that way.
Granted, some of the issues were beyond Mayweather's control.
For one, Shane Mosley, whose one-punch knockout and utter demolition of Fernando Vargas two weeks ago made him the most attractive immediate potential opponent for Mayweather, is a pie-in-the-sky negotiator who appears oblivious that the Mayweather fight never will be more marketable than now -- not next year, when Mosley said he might be interested.
Later is when a lot of people want to fight Mayweather -- Mosley and his promoter, De La Hoya, principal among them.
Later has a way of never arriving.
Meantime, Mayweather's list of potential opponents for Nov. 4 has shriveled to nearly nothing.
Ricky Hatton, the unbeaten Englishman, has voiced no willingness to fight Mayweather immediately,
Carlos Baldomir, the welterweight champion from Argentina who this year has upset Mayweather's two previous foes in pay-per-view main events -- Zab Judah and Arturo Gatti -- was on Mayweather's wish list, yet how serious can a 36-0 superstar be about fighting an opponent with nine losses and six draws?
Talks with Cory Spinks are under way, but that fight requires Mayweather to move up 7 pounds, will probably happen only if the De La Hoya proposal next spring falls through, and hardly is an event the public is clamoring to see. It's a fallback plan and nothing more.
As for the other person responsible for this pressing deadline situation, Mayweather needn't look far.
His list of potential opponents after the De La Hoya proposal fell through included hardly a makeable fight in the bunch. Hatton never has committed to the idea. Mosley has dodged the fight for years. And Miguel Cotto's promoter, Bob Arum, wants to make the Mayweather fight for his other client, Margarito.
Mayweather paid Arum $750,000 this spring to break their promotional contract and negotiate directly with De La Hoya. Now, he seems hard-pressed to acknowledge that risky ploy could prove fruitless.
Margarito is still out there, the one prominent opponent willing to take the fight, and the one individual in this equation without fault for the impending deadline.
That seems the only fight available that makes any sense, and as much as Mayweather may dislike the idea, he very well could find himself fighting for his former promoter, in a fight he doesn't want.
The only alternative may be to sit out the rest of 2006, which would be the most absurd outcome of all, and solely his burden to bear.
