Floyd Mayweather.. Living legend?

As I watched Floyd Mayweather pick apart Senor Guerrero last night, the first thought in my head was is he that good or was Guerrero just not the right fighter for him. I thought about Mike Tyson. When Tyson was blasting all of his opponents, his conquests became verbs. His actions were all adjectives and his victories became a new vernacular. When Tyson lost to Evander Holy field, every accomplishment became belittled. Every victory was criticized because he "didn't really fight" anyone. The heavyweight division was filled with tomato cans and one sledge hammer. In fact if you hear sports radio today, the hosts frequently taunt the Tyson era as a soft one. Larry Holmes is another champ who gets no love even though he is the only fighter in 50 plus years to come close to tying Rocky Marciano for most wins in a career without a loss. (49-0). Holmes destroyed Ali and was a hated champion like Mayweather. He was cocky. He had a sick jab and could beat anyone in his prime with that one punch.  Mayweather is beyond cocky. Mayweather can box with speed,precision, and defend like no one ever has. He has made people look absolutely foolish. The destruction of Gatti, Rickey Hatton, Marquez, De La hoya, Shane Mosely have shown his prowess and extraordinary ability. Yet he is vilified and abhorred for his lifestyle.
He is mostly criticized these day because he had not fought Manny. Pac man was robbed in the Bradley fight and got the snot knocked out of him in the Marquez fight. Mayweather feels that he can destroy Pac man. He calls him the little guy because of Pac mans weight rise over the the past 15 years. It would be an interesting fight only to see if there is a strategy to defeat May weather. 44 fighters have had a plan and they have all left with a defeat and a sore face. Will we scrutinize Mayweather's wins forever like Tyson and Holmes if there is no Fight with Pac man? They are both approaching 40. Both f their careers are winding down. Neither have nothing to prove. I read somewhere that there is a cry for Mayweather to lose which could help his public appeal. As if Mayweather really cares about his public appeal.
He is a living legend no matter how it ends. I realize that we over analyze everything in sports, but some things need not be so difficult to see. Next we will criticize Tiger or Lebron for their dominance. We don't have to love our heroes. Ali lost. Babe Ruth didn't always get the game winning hit. Jordan didn't win a title every year. Tiger lost to Y.E. Yang at the pga's. If Floyd never loses, I will still put my pants on one leg at a time right. Admire what he has done. If you do, you will see that he truly is a legend...

mma vs. boxing

For the past decade, many people have declared that boxing is dead and Mixed martial arts is the new king in the sport of pugilism. Since there is no true answer here, I thought I would chime in and tell you that I still prefer Boxing over the MMA stuff. I have several reasons and here they are: 1). There is nothing like a championship fight in any sport. If both combatants are of equal ability it heightens the fight to another level. No game 7 in any sport can rival it. The Super Bowl may come close but fight night was awesome. When Sugar Ray Leonard and Tommy Hearns fought or when Oscar De La Hoya fought Felix Trinidad the earth moved. When Ali fought Frazier or Tyson fought anyone the earth would stop to watch no matter what happened. Today sure the quality of fighters could sweat in the same gym as the previous 25 years of boxing. Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacqiauo may be the best fighters in the world. Hopefully they will fight next year. They are the closest to what we had back in the day. But back to my point, I don't get the same feel with a MMA fight. The best fighters don't always fight one another. The current Heavyweight champion is 275lbs and he is beating on old fighters who could kick anyone else ass but not Brock. Plus he has had 7 fights and he is a champion. How is that possible? The really good fighters all have been beaten a bunch of times and it seems that everyone has a chance to win in a fight. Plus the best fighters are all old and they fight these up and coming guys and once they get beaten we never hear from them again. Before Chuck Liddell became a household name he had several losses and it was like he was proving himself to be tough and then get a few wins and then beat the heck out of Tito Ortiz and you are the baddest man on earth. What champion do you know has 7 losses?Usually in boxing when a championship fight is held, both fighters have great records or a pedigree of fights that warrant giving him a shot at the title. I am aware that HBO and Showtime do make showcase fights where a boxer that they are sponsoring gets a chance to show off what he can do. Once again that boxer has a good record and you think that translate into him being a good fighter. In MMA, all it takes is a proper strike and then a wrestling move and the fight usually is done. Now yes I have see some fighters tun an adverse situation around rather quickly in MMA fight and yes that is exciting but that rarely happens.

2) reason I prefer Boxing is that it seems as if MMA fighters could be anyone. I stopped being a tough guy a long time ago because you never know who are messing with. I was working at a club and Tank Abbot came in and my boss told me that if he starts fight just let him finish then clean up the mess. I heard a story about some guy who beat up a staff of bouncers at a night club and when I found out it was a guy who was a martial artist I though I was in a movie and laughed. Then I saw the guy and he was barely 5'10 and 185 soaked and wet and realized that he was crazy and was reliving a childhood fantasy. So many of these guys don't fit the profile. When I see Forrest Griffin I think he is a computer geek. I had a guy staying at my hostel who was a MMA fighter and he was the biggest pain in the ass and i couldn't believe that he knew Judo and could get down with the best of them. Joe Rogan is a MMA fighter/ announcer and can kick some serious butt if prompted. Don't you think the Carlos Mencia would just fight him if he was just a regular guy? I don't see the artistry in the sport. I hate to generalize but some o the guys look like they belong in prison and in motorcycle gangs. There is an art to boxing. Some fighters like to street fight and i think they are easily beaten by someone who times out their attack. When Mayweather took the late Arturo Gatti apart, i thought that was pure boxing and ring savvy. Gatti was famous for having a big, big heart and tough chin was getting peppered from every angle on his face. When Paquiauo was doing the same to Hatton and DeLa Hoya I couldn't believe just how pure and beautiful his techniques was. When I watch an MMA fight I see the creativity of putting submission holds on opponents and think of the mentality of a chess player when that happens. Getting someone to the floor takes some skill and usually a tired fighter. Too me that is when the sport gets savage because the elbows and forearms to the head makes sick sounds that I cannot take.

In conclusion Boxing needs to get better fighters in all divisions fighting again and then everyone will go back to it. The Klitscho brothers need to fight and the new good light heavyweights and middleweights need to bring back a glamour to the sport. MMA is exciting and 5 minutes in a ring is an eternity. They need less name fights and more quality fights. The old men of the sport needs to train a new genration and make the new generation better than the old. Regurgitating the same fighters over and over again is boring. Making these guys fight trilogies when one fight is plenty keeps me away. MMA needs to develop their divisions better and try to get all of the other leagues to join in. Fedor Emelianneko should be fighting Lesnar to have a universally recognized champ. I will watch both but will always prefer boxing. Call me old fashion... Maybe I like Bob Arum and Don King better than Dana White. Hell I like Vince McMahon better than all of them..