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Floyd Mayweather will never be remembered as one of the great boxers.
His name will never be spoken in the same breath as Muhammad Ali, Rocky Marciano, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, Mike Tyson or any of the truly transcendent figures of the sport.
Those guys fought for and earned the right to be all-time greats.
When the 35-year-old fighter decides to hang up his boots, the world will remember him—when they are forced to—as the ultra-talented but extremely misguided man who denied the public and himself the glory of fighting Manny Pacquiao, the only boxer worthy of being considered his equal at the time.
They will also remember a fighter who was embattled in domestic violence disputes and spent time rotting in jail instead of fulfilling his destiny in the ring.
Tonight Floyd will take on an opponent in which the outcome is all but decided. Money is going in as a -700 favorite against Miguel Cotto, and it would take a miracle for the Puerto Rican to emerge victorious.
After that, Mayweather is heading to jail in June for 90 days.
It’s during that three-month stretch that Floyd has to decide if he wants to change his destiny.
Floyd has made enough money to live inelaborate mansions, drive the most expensive cars, burn 100 dollar bills, bet nearly $2 million on one game of the first round in the NBA playoffs and countless other stunts for the rest of his life.
He’s got a chance to man up and actually fight Pacquiao when he is freed. Winning that bout would make him immortal and one of the greatest fighters of all time, not just the wealthiest.
Although the general consensus heading into the Floyd Mayweather-Miguel Cotto mega-fight tonight is that Money May will walk out of the ring with yet another win to his undefeated record, there are reasons why Cotto could pull the shocking upset to night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Sure the odds are stacked against Cotto, as he is a heavy underdog to Mayweather, the current No. 1 ranked pound-for-pound fighter in the world, but as Cotto said, “Nobody is invincible.”
Some analysts argue that Mayweather’s Pending Jail Time Could Distract Money May
Let’s get this one out of the way, the pending June 1st turn-in date for Floyd Mayweather’s 90-day jail sentence is less than a month after the Miguel Cotto bout this weekend and could be weighing heavy on Money May’s mind.
No matter what anyone has been through, losing your freedom for any amount of time is the worst possible thing that could happen, especially to someone like Money May, who is used to living the life of luxury.
Mayweather is used to living the 24-hour lifestyle that his hometown of Las Vegas offers and is usually out and about at all hours of the day and night, placing sports bets, eating the finest foods and coming and going as he pleases; jail is the last place someone that lives in this matter wants to be.
If the thought of imprisonment even crosses his mind in the ring, Mayweather’s game could be thrown off, giving Cotto the mental edge in the ring. Floyd Mayweather has taken on many fighters that have had impressive knockout records, but none that are as strong or in their prime as Miguel Cotto is.
Cotto has amassed 37 wins with 30 of those wins coming by way of KO, and Mayweather has to be concerned with that. As stated before, Mayweather is moving up to the junior middleweight division for only the second time, and is fighting Cotto at his more comfortable weight class where he has won each of his last three fights by TKO.
Mayweather has yet to be really hurt by a punch in any of his 42 bouts, but this is almost guaranteed to change come Saturday night.
How Mayweather responds to being hurt will be key, and if his response is weak, then look for Cotto to go in for the kill.
As we saw in Floyd Mayweather’s last fight against Victor Ortiz, Mayweather isn’t the cleanest fighter in the game, and could be prone to a disqualification against Miguel Cotto.
If Cotto can get into Mayweather’s head early on in the fight, he could make Money May revert to his dirty tactics, ones that the referee will be sure to keep an eye on after what took place in Mayweather’s last bout.
With all that is going on in Mayweather’s life, and his pending jail time, he may be easily irritated, leading to Mayweather being frustrated and dishing out some illegal moves—which could lead to a DQ.
Sure, this is the worst way to win a fight, especially if your trying to hand an all-time great his first loss, but a win is a win and Cotto would still be the first to hand Mayweather a loss in the event of a DQ.
