The day has past

http://www.saddoboxing.com/boxingfor...-has-past.html


So the day has past. Was it worth the wait ? Is that even the right question to ask ?


Nearly twenty years have passed since Floyd Mayweather Jr had his gloves laced up as a professional for the first time. 19 to be precise, the same age the teenage prospect was when he came back from the Olympics with a bronze medal, the first American boxer to beat a Cuban for twenty years. Floyd Sr was in prison serving a sentence for drug trafficking and his brothers Roger and Jeff trained their nephew for his pro debut.


Floyd wanted to earn enough to prevent his father from eating baloney sandwiches on leaving jail. He wanted him to be able to eat steak, and at that time he wanted to “lift up his dad “. His uncle Roger was a two time world champion and both his Dad Floyd Sr and his uncle Jeff had boxed as professionals, the Mayweather name was one to take seriously, and the importance of legacy was already fixed into his DNA. He was a somewhat different fighter then, a noted puncher even as an amateur, stopping his Kazakhstan opponent in 57 seconds of the second round in his Olympic debut.


Floyd had Robert Apodace down with 1 minute 15 seconds left in the first round of his pro debut with Kenny Bayliss (yes the ref from last night) asking Apodcada if he wanted some more after administering an 8 count. Even then Floyd was throwing combinations on the inside and early in the second round he had folded Apocada, ( an admitted journeyman) in half, like a cheap pack of cards. Floyd was known as pretty boy back then and the defensive skill set that kept his face that way and made him so elusive has been his trademark ever since. It isn't the whole picture though. Just the most obvious of brush strokes for those looking at the picture for the first time. Pause and reflect and much more than defensive flourishes are revealed.


It is easy to look at last nights fight and believe it was an anti-climax. A fight that would have been much more competitive and action packed if both fighters had been younger and in their supposed prime. The cold light of day rudely awakening bleary eyed hungover fans this morning though, can seem like a rather harsh light, and reveals that belief as nothing more than a dream. The casual fans and idealists would like to believe that at last the people's champion, in the form of Emmanuel Dapidran Pacquiao would unlock that defensive puzzle and provide a performance that would roll back the ages and re-stage a war from the boxing archives. A glorious vintage battle in which through pure force of will power and determination, the less gifted boxer could prevail through hard work and sheer bloody mindedness.


It didn't happen and was never likely to have materialised, even 7 years ago when the Filipino warrior retired Oscar De La Hoya on his stool, and brutally knocked out Hatton before stopping Miguel Cotto in the 12th round. Manny was a more intense firestorm back then, but Floyd had also extinguished the threat of all three of those common opponents, and would have had even faster feet with which to step back and away on. There may have been more parity in the score cards and the little man from Kibawe might not have had to resort to pretensions of having won a fight he clearly lost, but the result would likely have been the same.


Floyd May be just as deluded in believing that he is TBE (The Best Ever) in a pantheon in which luminaries like Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Robinson, Henry Armstrong, Willie Pep and Harry Greb eclipse undoubted talents like Duran and Ali, but he has certainly earned a place at the top table amongst such company. His ability to spin and half step away from trouble is matched by an offensive accuracy that has nullified some tremendous technicians and brutal punchers.


The waiting is over but the verdict of fans and pundits will rumble on for a while, unpicking the threads of a contest that delivered exactly what it had always promised, if in not quite an explosive fashion as many had hoped for. Boxing is not always like this and there is many a small hall fight, between clearly more limited fighters that might produce more thrills and spills because the propensity for mistakes is so much higher and recklessness is not about to be punished so severely. There will though not be a display quite so important in settling an argument as this one for a while.


Floyd remains the pound for pound best fighter actively fighting at this time and while his and Manny's peak has clearly passed they will both go down in history as modern day greats.