It’s also cool that you nurtured your own career and image to the point where you have nothing but total control. However, those days are officially over and thank God for that. You owed yourself (your unbelievable skill) and the boxing world this solid. Show us what you can do when you are facing all-time greats that can challenge everything that you offer.
Everything is pushed to the side on this one.. You see, a guy like Shane Mosley is who you would call an “O.G.” (Original Gangster) of the sport. He is the type of guy that you can face at any time and he will give you work. It’s that simple. Seriously, “Sugar” is a Hall of Fame fighter that knows all the angles of this sport.
All of those things that you were able to do, in regard to the Ricky Hattons and the Carlos Baldomirs of the world and the other fighters you entered into HBO PPV with, are understood by the fan. Not only do we understand everything that you claim to be, but we also understand the fact that you can be so much more.
Time has come in order to see it all come together. You have done nothing but good for your career; for your life. For future generations of your family that will have financial opportunities others are not blessed with. The only thing we can say, as fans, about that is kudos to you for accomplishing that as a man, for providing that with your talent.
This brings me to the way everyone, including Yours Truly was bashing Mayweather for not making the fight the fans wanted to see, at the moment. Maybe, just maybe, like I stated during my earlier bashing, “Money” knows something we don’t. Hey, he knew that we, at least, are now getting two competitive fights against good, solid B-level (in terms of gate) fighters. Fighters (Mosley and Clottey) that would have had to settle for lesser spoils, had they not been given this opportunity.
That is really what is incredible to me in this situation. That a fighter with the stature that “Sugar Shane” brings to the ring is considered the B-side to other future Hall of Fame fighters (more on that in a little), but hey, it is what it is. So, at least Mayweather can no longer dodge and sprint away from the ghosts of Jose Luis Castillo, who gave Mayweather his only seriously close fight (I had it for Castillo for the record) in their first outing.
In the rematch, we got what we always see from a more talented, technical fighter who was touched by a more rugged, savvy veteran. A track meet, in which the more naturally-gifted fighter hits and moves, hits without getting hit, (yes, one of the informal definitions of The Sweet Science that is boxing), or as we say in the Philly gyms, “swimming with out getting wet.”
Now I’m going to go off of the Mayweather track for a moment. Just stick with me on this one. Fighters with certain swagger and sense of invincibility throughout their journey inside of the ring, from their amateur days, through their domination of the journeyman, and even several talented challenges, professionally, tend to have this ego form around both themselves and their entourages. It’s actually a really interesting thing to view, in a sociological type of way, during fight week.
Fighters that are in tune with the quest that awaits them tend to be able to separate themselves from this attitude. Fighters like Jesse Brinkley, who, last Friday in Reno, proved that ultimately at the top level, there is no substitution for being proficient in the sport of professional prizefighting. It was awesome to see how Brinkley (the few times I actually saw him throughout the build-up of the fight) was focused. All business.
Aware of the fact that opportunities are not freely given, but if you are prepared and focused, you can take them. Simply put, he was willing to go down that dark tunnel of pain only a special few are willing to travel. Boy, did he stand up to some serious pain. Did you see his right eye after round one? What occurred afterward was awesome. Brinkley got into the zone. Everything he has ever done in the sport, before that night, came together inside of that theater in Reno and helped him dominate a much more naturally-gifted fighter.
For these supernaturally gifted talents, they tend to do all of the right things that work for their abilities inside of the ring. However, they tend to allow other ventures and their preferred lifestyle, outside of the ring, to interfere with the fact that they too can be chin-checked when fighting another gifted professional.
In essence, they forget the immortal words of Public Enemy and they start to believe their own hype. This is why, when they are touched by these serious professionals who are willing to go down that dark tunnel of pain in order to grasp victory, they, at times, are not able to never recover from it. Sorry, Beyonce, they may have a big ego, but they get theirs irreversibly damaged. Hopefully, this is not the case for the young Curtis Stevens. He is a great talent who still has a huge bright side.
Which brings me back to Mayweather and why his “kitty cat walk” through the welterweight division has set him up to take on the stride of a tiger. While, as fans, we have been forced to listen to every excuse in the book as to why he has never stepped up the competition, as a welterweight; or have had to (which, to me, is the more annoying of the two) listen to him rant about being the greatest without fighting the best (we are just keeping it real, Floyd). It is now the moment that his true career in his natural weight class begins.
Let that professionalism that has made you a mainstream star come to light, inside of the ring. Yes, it may seem a little unfair of fans that DON’T get inside of the ring to bash someone who does. But, hey, it is our money that is spent to make these events successful. So entertainment is what we crave and now it is time for Floyd Mayweather Jr. to push all of his other ways of entertaining the masses to the side.
Do this fight and the rest of your career for the boxing fans. Not just for the occasional fan that really only knows of you from the WWE or “Dancing with the Stars,” but for the fan who remembers you from the Olympics, remembers when you went from Floyd Mayweather to “Pretty Boy Floyd” to your transformation into “Money.”
Against “Sugar” Shane Mosley, best believe you are getting into the ring, on May 1, with a man who, if anything, is a professional, who as we already know, is willing to run down that tunnel. Mosley has been running at the speed of a tiger his whole career. Maybe that is why he was not the one on “Dancing with the Stars.” After all, his two victories over Oscar De La Hoya (at least, the pre-BALCO victory) was a clear victory, no one was split about it.
That is why boxing fans will love Mosley even if he got his Barry Bonds on. Because when it came to fighting and stepping up, even against a tough mainstream challenge (Vernon Forrest and Winky Wright at his height of P4P status). That is what was right for the real boxing fan.
So thank you, Floyd Mayweather, for finally signing to a fight that the boxing fan, not just the public, cares about and actually may have some in the boxing industry believing you may lose. Now please, please, once this one is over and done with, don’t think that you have a pass to return to trying to make those other fights that mean really nothing but a name and check at this point in your career. Like other fighters in different situations, this is your bed. You made it, so it’s time to lay all up in it.
Quick Fist Note
Not only did the Boxing Gods give back to us for missing out on the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight and the less-talked about-yet-still intriguing Mosley-Berto fight. They gave us Pacquiao-Clottey and now Mayweather-Mosley before the summer starts.
Friday night, we also got ESPN2 stepping up by putting on the Glen Johnson-Yusaf Mack fight. On a serious note, every time Yusaf Mack fights, I can’t help but think of Tybius Flowers, one of his close friends who was murdered on the rough streets of North Philadelphia, on a corner that I am all too familiar with, in a neighborhood that many do not get out of.
REST IN PEACE: Tybius “Tibbs” Flowers, 17-6 (10) with one no-contest, Former USBA junior middleweight champion. I still can remember watching Tibbs and Kermit Cintron trading some serious shots, while sparring in front of just me and a handful of people at Shuler’s Gym in West Philadelphia. Never forget those fighters that walked and fought with a tiger’s pace, at every point in their professional careers.
