Ask 411 Boxing 01.06.08: Mayweather, Making Weight, Cruiserweights and Juan Manuel Lopez

Posted by Ryan Bates on 01.06.2009

This week, Las Vegas correspondent Ryan Kaye sticks his grubby little hands into the mailbag to fish out your questions and answer them better than anyone else in the whole entire UNIVERSE! (Or at least better than anyone else scheduled to do it this week... of which he was the only one.)



Remember, you can drop a question anytime to our boxing staff at [e-mail] and we'll get to it in one of our mailbag sessions!

Well, kids, it's time for me to step up and take over mailbag duties for the week. I've been wading through all the rejected "Dear Santa" complaint letters (next time, maybe you'll learn that cutting little Susie's hair into the shape of disgraced fighter Sergio Medina won't get you that pony you were hoping for) and found some great questions asked by our 411mania Boxing readers. Let's get to them.

Do you think Mayweather is avoiding coming back because he's afraid of Margarito and Pacquiao? – Chris (Downey, CA)

Absolutely. Mayweather has given us one of the worst facets of boxing in existence today. Before, when deals were being made and purses were being discussed, it was the promoter who took the angle of "least amount of risk for most amount of reward." Whether or not the boxer agreed with it was never discussed; the public presentation was that the boxer would take on anyone, anytime, any dollar amount. It was Floyd Mayweather Jr. that stepped out in the media and said, "Yeah, I only want to fight for a lot of money, and I don't want to work hard." A huge disappointment to the boxing world, as it is very hard to dispute the fact that the man is insanely skilled.

Now Floyd faces a 147-pound division ruled by Antonio Margarito, and a 140-pound division currently being heralded by Ricky Hatton, and both weight divisions, along with 135, have the threat of the true pound-for-pound king, Manny Pacquiao. So Mayweather, who avoided Margarito for the longest time, certainly won't be coming back to the 147 division. And Floyd could come back to 140 and go after Hatton II; however, that puts him directly in the line of Pacquiao. And should Pacquiao/Hatton come off, it's likely that Pacquiao will take that one, which narrows the gap between Manny and "Money."

It's not going to happen, kids.

If Margarito and Pacquiao weren't enough, let's talk about the supporting cast in this play: Paul Williams, Andre Berto, Miguel Cotto, Kendall Holt… You won't see Floyd coming out of his hiding place anytime soon.

If you don't make weight, can you still fight if you're only a pound over? I've seen it done in MMA but I'm not sure about boxing. – Xavier (Bronx, NY)

It all depends on the fight. Sometimes it's acceptable, and sometimes it's not. It all depends on many factors. The importance of the fight to the weight class (title fight against contendership against non-ranking fighters) plays a role, as does the fighters themselves, along with their entourage, for example. Weights for a fight are contractually negotiated per fight, and sometimes have a "leeway clause." However, coming in over weight is considered a "breach of contract." The fighters' camps may choose to renegotiate terms (as was the case in Chavez Jr./Vanda II), or the fight may be cancelled (as was the case with the impending Corrales/Castillo III). If the fight is renegotiated, it may carry penalties such as fines, the stripping of a title for an overweight fighter should he hold one, or the removal of the belt from the victory spoils, should the challenger be overweight.

In short the answer is yes, but it is not pleasantly looked upon, and comes sometimes at a hefty price.

What's your opinion of Juan Manuel Lopez? – Mel (Clearwater, FL)

That's not such a bad question. Most people might chide you for questioning that which is JuanMa, one of the world champions at super featherweight, but I'm not going to be one of them. I will say that I think he's going to be in the junior featherweight picture for a good long time, and that should he and Israel Vazquez or Rafael Marquez tangle it will be quite a fight. I think his power is one that we haven't seen in this division for quite some time except from the aforementioned Fight of the Year participants.

I think the one point where you can question him is that we haven't seen him in a battle yet with someone of premium caliber. Of his 24 fights, 16 have not made it past the scheduled halfway point, including all five of his last fights. Is he that damn good? Yes he is. But how would he hang with a Vazquez or Marquez? We know they can go 12 rounds and look amazing at the same time. Can JuanMa? Probably. I believe in the kid. Can he beat them? If it were Rafael Marquez, yes, I would pick Juan Manuel. Vazquez though… man, if Vazquez/Lopez ever happens, it's a lock for that year's Fight of the Year.

Will cruiserweights ever get the respect and props they deserve? – Andre (Las Vegas, NV)

If we have more scraps like Cunningham/Adamek, maybe.

The unfortunate tale of the cruiserweight division is that despite the current weakness of it, the heavyweight division is where the money is at, and probably will be for some time. So what's more likely, a 210-pound fighter dropping down to cruiserweight, or a 190-pound fighter moving up to heavyweight? It's not unheard of. Mike Tyson and David Tua are both recent examples of small heavyweights that were very successful.

Although I personally am not a fan of the show, The Contender might help with this, as many Americans don't follow the cruiserweight division. Why is that? Aside from Cunningham, the only claims America has to offer the division are Matt Godfrey (a good, well-trained kid that's still a little green) and BJ Flores (hardly something to write home screaming about). As The Contender, now on Versus, focuses on the cruiserweight division, including a personal favorite of mine Darnell "The Ding-A-Ling Man" Wilson, maybe more people will start paying attention to the division. Only time will tell.

What's up with Miguel Cotto? Who's he fighting next? – Jason (Elmhurst, NY)

He'll be in action fairly soon. Coming off his brutal loss from new WBC champion Antonio Margarito, the 32-1 (26 KOs) Puerto Rican star will be taking on Michael Jennings (34-1, 16 KOs) of Chorley, Lancashire in Madison Square Garden for the vacant WBO welterweight belt that Paul Williams left behind for higher ground. Not very much is known stateside about Jennings, but as the February 21st fight date comes closer, which will be packaged with Kelly Pavlik's return fight against Marco Antonio Rubio for the middleweight belts, I'm sure we'll be hearing more about him.

Where have all the heavyweights gone? – Brice (Las Vegas, NV)

To Europe.

I'd love for that to just be a comical answer, but it's pretty much true. The 4 major belts are held by an Uzbekistanian, whose next bout is against a German, and a pair of Ukranian brothers, one of whom has two of them. Our American hopes as of right now lie in Chris Arreola (which may see title action before the later months of the year), James Toney (who in shape is great, and out of shape is fat) and John Ruiz (don't get me started).

All the belts lie in the hands of Europeans, who to be truthful, are much better boxers than Americans… in the amateur ranks. And as we saw this past Olympiad, there is a world of difference between amateur boxers and professional boxers.

The difference is that when European amateur boxers turn pro, they keep that stiff, white-knuckle style of boxing, that with a good, smart game plan, is easy to crack, as demonstrated by how easily the Klitschkos will go down should a fly land on their chin. But they're so damn GOOD at the stiff jab-repeat style of boxing, that the best-laid plans of mice and men will often go awry against them. And as such, we have Americans losing to a boring style of boxing, or Europeans with boring styles of boxing fighting other Europeans with boring styles of boxing. And, as shallow as a nation we are, once America isn't good at it anymore, we don't care about it as much.

So how do we fix that, fellow heavyweight lovers? How do we get a return to the glorious days of the '80s and early '90s where the heavyweight division most recently sparkled?

1.) Hope one of them retires soon. You laugh, but the average age of the heavyweight champion right now is 33, so it could happen sooner than later.

2.) Take more time with our heavyweights! Don't rush them! My biggest fear is that Arreola (now 26-0, 23 KOs) will be rushed into a fight with one of them and not be ready for the European style of boxing. Test out European waters first.

3.) Just wait a couple of years until I start going after heavyweight titles. I like this one the best.

This round of mailbag questions-and-answers is dedicated to Jisselle Salandy, a female Trinidadian who was starting to make waves in the women's light middleweight division and women's boxing in general. The unified women's light middleweight champion (17-0, 6 KOs) died from injuries sustained due to a car crash on January 4, 2009. She was 21. As often as women's boxing is ragged on for lack of competition, she was one of the few working to change that. Our condolences to the Salandy family.