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This week's commentary: Roy Jones, Shane Mosely, Zab Judah and Floyd Mayweather - WWF Frauds!
That's right, they are on par with the WWF performers; and many of the WWF guys actually work harder for less money...
The above mentioned boxers have been hailed and hyped as pound for pound the worlds greatest fighters, by the world sanctioning body known as HBO. This sanctioning body has a proclivity for denouncing the championship status established by other organizations, for various and sundry reasons, while using it's power as a communications giant to hype and "crown" selected fighters based on fan appeal. Many other networks and fan magazines do the same thing.
Why is this done? Because fans tell the print and broadcast media what they like by what they watch and read, and happily pay the media money to see what they like. The media will then give the fans more of what they like, in order to get more money, and so on.
In giving casual boxing fans more of what they like, the media will profusely hype the fan favorites. Fan favorites have to thus become marketable commodities. They achieve this status by cultivating and hyping marketable features such as nicknames, ring entrances, flashy attire, speed, punching power - and being undefeated.
That last feature is critical.
To acheive that last feature, the fan favorites have to have managers and trainers knowledgeable enough to pick opponents who won't win, while letting the hyped fighter showcase his/her features to the fans.
What's this got to do with the four guys mentioned above? Well, for the most part, they too took the WWF route to fame and fortune. And why not? The pay is top notch and the risks are minimal!
Still, in this writer's opinion, it gets to the point where the hype becomes a little offensive. This is especially felt when fighters who benefit from modern era WWF boxing strategies are compared to champions and fighters before them, who fought and won mainly because of a deep personal need and commitment to doing so. The earlier fighters had no big media hype on which to shape a career path, by hand picking opponents to showcase themselves until they got a title fight arrangement (An exception being the Mafia manipulation of fighters some 40 or 50 years ago. Some would say that's STILL the case, to some extent!)...
When Shane Mosely was lightweight champ, HBO color commentator Roy Jones claimed that Mosely was the best lightweight champ "this side of Robero Duran"! Nonesense. HBO hype! Everyone has an opinion, but Roy should know better!
After Duran, Alexis Arguello was lightweight champ. Though slow of foot, Arguello was tall; heavy hitting; iron chinned; iron willed, and a master at setting opponents up and breaking them down. A lightweight with Mosely's fighting qualities and experience would've found that his punches would be near meaningless to Arguello, while feeling power like he never felt before. It took exceptional mental and physical toughness to stand up to Alexis Arguello. The lightweight Mosely had nothing to prepare him to handle such a foe; let alone compare his championship reign to that of an Argeullo...
Edwin Rosario was also a champ at lightweignt after Duran. Though not as physically tough as Arguello, Rosario was a resolute, Peurto Rican master boxer who could uproot trees with his hooks and crosses. A fighter, like Rosario, with the agility and skill to land brutal shots unexpectedly and at different angles is a nightmare. Mosely's lightweight opponents were more like wet dreams...
At his best, which was probably at lightweight, Julio Caesar Chavez, another post Duran champ, was an extraordinary offensive machine. A punishing, aggressive, high volume puncher with slick head movement and an impenetrable chin, Chavez was nearly unstoppable at lightweight. Even Rosario's crushing power failed to have any remarkable effect. Another potent past era champ who would've likely been too formidable for the lightweight Shane.
And, lightweight champ Boom Boom Mancini would probably have run Shane Mosely out of the ring. Mancini was exceptionally tough physically and mentally; stayed in tremendous shape; and could box pretty well when he had to. He actually boxed commendably against Alexis Arguello before being debilitated and stopped in the 14 round.
The championship qualities of the aforementioned former title holders were evidenced early in those fighters careers, because they had opponents who helped them develop those qualities early on, including each other.
The quality in the lightweight Shane Mosely most notable to me was his apparent efforts to TRY to emphasize hand speed. His opponents were generally curled up in a defensive posture, making little or no offensive efforts. That suggests to me that good competition was either not available, or not selected. With the right level of commitment and physical preparation, there is NO level of ability that can't be addressed in the ring, at least to SOME extent. With regards to speed, there are means by which even average fighters can be taught to handle it, at least to SOME extent. Freezing up under a rapid barrage is not one of 'em. Most of Shane's competition at lightweight seemed to prefer that technique...
Shane's flaws were exposed at welterweight however. Deficient in the ability to roll his head away from punches; and with a bad habit of retreating from opponents with hands down and head up, Shane got caught solidly by an opponent who had the attributes and will to catch and hurt him, namely Vernon Forest. Basic boxing skills Shane, moving your head, keeping your hands up and all...
Likewise, Zab Judah got exposed. Fleet footed and hand fed (with respect to opponents), Zab was likely not used to being pressured by a really tough opponent who fought to win. Against Kostya Tszyu, Zab had some early success, but Zab's crowd pleasing flashiness took over, and he subsequently felt the power of a veteran professional puncher who himself was accustomed to winning, and stayed focused on doing so, despite catching some sharp shots from Zab earlier in the bout. (Maybe it's better to say that Zab's body reacted to the power of a veteran pro puncher. It's likely Zab "felt" little or nothing after the cross that sent him crashing. At least not till the next morning...).
With two of the four "pound for pound greatest fighters" addessed, that leaves us with Floyd Mayweather and Roy Jones.
Roy ran some noncompetitive divisions during his career, and is currently running one now. Amazingly, some folks have compared his light heavyweight championship status to that of Bobby Foster's! Absurd. Well before we get to Foster, moving backwards from the present, there was Michael Spinks. There was also Eddie Mustapha Muhammad. There was Saad Muhammad; Dwight Muhammad Qawi; Marvin johnson; Victor Galindez; Yaqui Lopez; James Scott, and on and on. Those guys were all contemporaries of one another. They made up one of the most competitive light heavy divisions in the past 50 years! They were all outstanding fighters and fought to win at all costs! They all brought unique strengths and weaknesses into the ring; and their will to win made their strengths more significant than their weaknesses.
So forget Bobby Foster. You don't have to go back that far. Fighting like he does now, Roy Jones could not have hung with the light heavies of the Saad and Spinks era. If Roy tried to lay back and pot shot those guys, as he has a tendency to do now, he would've gotten out hustled or run over. I think it safe to speculate that the various and formidable sizes, boxing and punching abilities of the Spinks era light heavies, plus the indomitable spirit inherent in that group, would've forced a Roy Jones to mentally and physically adjust his approach to boxing, or get crunched at some point along the way. Whether Roy could adjust and apply a more hard core mental and physical approach, to try to dominate as demanding a division as the Saad/Spinks era light heavies, is even more of a speculative exercise. In performing that exercise, let's remember that Roy frequently speaks of minimizing risks...
Unfortunately however, we'll never see how Roy would handle those outstanding light heavyweights, one can only speculate...
Past era champions and challengers aside, we won't see Roy Jones against a contemporary competitive light heavyweight either. The division now features part time postal workers and police officers who moon light top ranked challengers.
One competitive fight available for Roy however, is at a level down from light heavy - super middle weight. Roy claims he can make that weight again. Bernard Hopkins can make that weight as well. The fans should tell the media that they want that fight.
Yeah, Roy bested Bernard years ago, in a close competitive bout. But Bernard has gotten better, while Roy has not been compelled by his competition to improve.
Tall, powerful, versatile and outstandingly tough physically and mentally, Hopkins would force Roy to the limit, and beat him if Roy's limit has decreased even in the slightest...
This now leaves Mayweather. "Pretty Boy" (what?) is flying high after his domination of Diego Corales. But don't fly so high yet Floyd!
Corales is 6 feet 2 inches and weighed in at only -130- pounds for his fight against Mayweather! The guy trained for the most hyped fight of his career by eating something like half a sandwich once or twice a day in order to make that weight!
Though Corales never said that striving for emaciation was a problem for him, any physician, nurse, physical therapist, personal or fight trainer with any common sense (I don't think Corales' had any), will tell you that type of shit is dangerous! Your brain alone needs more calories than a half a sandwhich provides, in order to keep you thinking straight! When your brain does not get enough calories from food, it starts feeding on body tissue, including muscle. At that height and weight, Corales had little or no fat available for energy, so his body was likely chowing down on muscle tissue for fuel! The guy was a walking health hazard!
Against Mayweather, Corales was statue like and seemed barely able to move...
It is this writers opinion that Mayweather is similar to Zab Judah. He is fleet footed and flashy, but inexperienced at being forced to react under heavy duress.
Floyd now has a lightweight title fight this Saturday against Jose Louis Castillo. I've never seen Castillo fight, but if this guy can creatively pressure Mayweather, and not shuffle after him at a predictable pace; hit hard and fight Mexican tough, he'll drop and perhaps stop Mayweather. The only thing that could possibly save Floyd from a KO under such conditions is the inspiration he'll naturally get from his family's fighting background, most notably that of uncle Roger, a bad man with a lot of heart in his day (Tactically speaking, I never understood why champions who are shorter or rely more on power choose to chase their challengers. If the champs game is hard hitting, it's obviously not always smart to blindly shuffle after challengers who feed on predictable, incoming opponents. The challenger has to take the belt. The champ should thus NOT give it to him. If the champion is an aggressive puncher, varying the pace or angle of an attack; and on occasion just refusing to run behind the challenger, can compel the challenger to come and get it. Think of what would happen if the bull had sense enough to figure out how to get the matador to come running at him, just once!).
Actually, another thing that might save Mayweather is the judges. Oh, and the referee. Maybe HBO. Though he is the challenger, Mayweather gets the top billing in HBO's promos of the fight. Castillo might therefore have to kill Mayweather to win. All the more reason for Castillo to prepare, and fight, to win.
I think he will. I pick Castillo by late round stoppage; and Bernard Hopkins, by decision, over Roy Jones should those two ever meet. Wanna bet?
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