Floyd defeats Gatti…his critics, the press, the fans and even lands a shot on B-Hop!

By Terence "One Punch" Dooley
Photos by Richard "Every Letter In The Alphabet" Schneidenbach
 

Well Floyd Mayweather entered the weekend as firm favourite to win the fight but alienate the fans and emerges having easily won the fight with a whole new set of fans! Make no mistake about it as Floyd produced one of those boxing displays this weekend, like Roy Jones throwing a party against James Toney or Bernard Hopkins announcing his arrival versus Tito Trinidad Floyd Mayweather forcing Gatti to be withdrawn could be a pivotal fight in boxing history. At best a star has been born, at worst we are being given a glimpse of flawed genius, the outcome rests on the shoulders of Floyd Mayweather. Hopefully for us the fans this is only the beginning for the Pretty Boy of boxing, what a beginning it was as he became The Man material.

Transcending boxing to reach the casual fan requires a number of factors, usually great skills are not the sole requirement, that little something extra is required; in the case of Arturo Gatti it was balls of steel that got him the extra names on his fan base, now Floyd may just have swiped a few of those fans into his own corner with his nerves of steel. It was not the opponent but the manner of performance that make this fight a special one in my opinion, Gatti fans may try to make excuses but the fact is their guy was on the top of his game coming into this fight but he could have brought with him Game Plus and it would not have been enough. This was a seemingly tough assignment but Floyd looked like he was alone in the ring at times as Gatti was so woefully incapable of having any bearing on the fight whatsoever. In the end Gatti could only offer a willingness to give it his best so it was good to see that in his corner Buddy McGirt was equally as brave in stopping the fight as his man has been so many times, all those that criticised when Tszyu lost his title in a similar manner need to ask if we want these guys to be ruined for our enjoyment. Gatti should be applauded for working so hard to get another title then being willing to take on the rising P4P star let alone soaking up six rounds of unremitting punishment as a reward for his fighting nobility. Sadly Arturo represented little more than a willing canvas for Floyd to create his first genuine boxing masterpiece and Floyd duly did this with all the flair of a fistic Rembrandt to create the most stunningly one-sided display of boxing possible.

At this point it would be foolish to even begin cataloguing the display of Floyd, breaking it down into moves, situations and punches; Floyd threw every punch in the book, he utilised all the moves possible and he punched with impressive power. Even more disconcerting was the fact that Floyd looked the bigger man, despite the weight put on by Gatti it was Floyd that seemed to have the physical advantages. In keeping with this prudence of muscle Floyd threw clean shots like he was paying for them individually or at the least was being fined for missing blows! He was on point with everything; I swear that when Floyd was shadowboxing in his dressing room he hit Gatti with a straight right-hand! Seriously though Saturday was another master class of economy with punches following on from Wright - Trinidad, it was snapped into deeper focus by the farce of Harris - Maussa round one in which two men thought they were fighting a one-rounder! As the rounds increased Floyd became scarily accurate until in the sixth he connected with three lead rights then merely followed with a left to the body and head…as you do. Detractors who may say “Gatti has no defence.” need not pipe up here as the fact is that Gatti never used to have a defence but does now, it was just that Mayweather was so sublime he could have pierced any defence. In fact it would be pointless for me to even catalogue the positives to take for Mayweather, just stick your copy of the fight in the video and see for yourself once again…I’m on my third time already!

Another surprise is that in victory Floyd may have won over the fans and the big surprise for Floyd should be that he didn’t do it by talking trash he did it by producing the goods in the ring; it isn’t rocket science, if you can fight the fans will come to you. Now Floyd needs to ensure that when fans leave his fights they talk about his skills and not his press conferences, also Floyd acted with a great deal of humility after the fight, he cried after winning the title like it was his first one ever! Speaking complimentary when asked about Gatti was also a smart move and will have placated the voracious Arturo fans into forgiving the “Pretty Boy.” So all in all Floyd placed a tick in every box, he was so good he even managed to land a shot on the “Executioner”…

…Hopkins may have been sinking into complacency due to a lack of sustained challenge to his P4P status but in my opinion that status was severely weakened at the weekend. P4P ranking can still change even if a guy avoids defeat which it seems is all Hopkins is doing lately aside from beating up “Golden Boys” that are long past their shine-by-date. Floyd has put pressure on Hopkins to produce, versus Taylor, a better performance than his exercise in running versus Howard Eastman, yes Hopkins found the way to win but the bottom line is that more is required from the top dog in world boxing. If, as I anticipate, Hopkins struggles with Taylor or fails to light up the ring then in beating Gatti so impressively to add to his stunning body of work Mayweather will also have usurped Hopkins as P4P the best around. As far as I can see it the only problem for Floyd is that Hatton still holds the championship of the light-welter division and if past experience is anything to go by Frank Warren will teach Floyd some defensive moves in trying to get his guy as far away from Floyd as possible…probably by insisting Floyd comes to Manchester for the short end of the purse, seems reasonable doesn’t it? If this happens we’ll be left with one defining fight in this division…Hatton Vs Maussa anyone? Let’s hope common sense prevails and we get to see Mayweather going at it versus Hatton who is known as a young Arturo Gatti, if it happens I’d venture that Hatton will go the way of the old Arturo Gatti and Mayweather will reign supreme at light-welter as well as P4P Kingpin.

…No matter what happens nothing can be taken away from Mayweather who this weekend produced a display for the ages, for that he deserves the respect he always craved and a little of the love may now follow.


Questions Or Comments? Please Contact Terence "One Punch" Dooley