A few weeks ago, I voiced my displeasure of Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s choice (by way of internet poll) of Amir Khan as his next opponent. Of course Mayweather hadn’t yet made an official announcement, but he had repeatedly and explicitly stated he would allow his fans to choose his next opponent. Still, this is boxing, where promises are as useless as a screen door on a submarine.
Now Mayweather has made an official announcement that he will be fighting Marcos Maidana on May 3. I fault myself for believing anything out of the mouth of a fighter or promoter without seeing a signed contract. Even then, there’s always reason to be skeptical when it comes to prizefighting, which is likely the last remaining entity in the world that’s more corrupt that politics. Sadly, I have an affinity for both.
Speaking of politics, they may have played a role in Mayweather’s decision. While the pound-for-pound king certainly wanted to add some British pounds to his duffle bag of cash, the general lack of interest in his poll probably opened the eyes of his advisors. Most fans gave the proverbial shrug to both potential opponents.
The official Khan vs Maidana poll garnered only 35k votes on the Mayweather Promotions website. That’s despite more than four million fans following the fighter on both Facebook and Twitter and more than two million on Instagram. That didn’t stop the Golden Boy Promotions spin cycle now that the fight with Maidana has been made.
In a press release, GBP stated, “Through the accumulation of more than 100,000 votes on the various online polls, more than 100,000 comments on Mayweather’s Facebook and Instagram pages, as well as non-stop fan tweets, Mayweather saw an overwhelming majority favor Maidana.” Once again, the fix is in.
The bout versus Maidana is at least sellable to an American audience. Though Maidana has historically struggled with bigger, faster fighters, he is on a four-fight winning streak, including a solid victory over the man some consider to be a poor man’s Mayweather, Adrien Broner.
Additionally, it keeps Mayweather’s tried and true formula of fighting a Latin American fighter around the time of Cinco De Mayo. Maidana is Argentinian, not Mexican, but you can still expect the Latinos to pack the house to root against Mayweather. Though there are better fights to be made, Maidana was certainly the right choice of the two.
It remains to be seen what will happen with Broner now that his “big brother” has snatched away his opponent. Broner had previously exercised a clause for an immediate rematch with Maidana but will certainly step aside for the ‘Money’ train. Rumors suggest Broner will drop down to 140 pounds for his next bout. There’s no shortage of attractive opponents, including Khan, Danny Garcia, Ruslan Provodnikov (Top Rank beef), Lucas Matthysse, Lamont Peterson and others.
Meanwhile, Khan whined expressed his disappointment with the entire process of the fight selection. As noted before, Khan was supposed to fight STL’s own Devon Alexander for his welterweight crown but bailed out when he found out he was entered into the Mayweather sweepstakes. I’d still love to see that fight happen, but without a title at stake, there’s a slim chance of that fight coming to fruition.
Bernard Hopkins back at it
Forty-nine year old IBF light-heavyweight titlist Bernard Hopkins (54-6-2, 32 KO) will get back into the ring April 19 in a unification bout against WBA beltholder Beibut Shumenov (14-1, 9 KOs). You read that right. Old man Hopkins is now 49 years old and instead of sitting on the porch and yelling at kids to stay off his lawn, he’s punching them in the mouth and telling him to stay away from his title.
Hopkins could have his hands full against the power punching Kazakhstani, but Shumenov’s style seems almost tailor-made for the ageless defensive wizard. Should Hopkins win, he could set himself up for one last light heavyweight mega bout with either WBC champion Adonis Stevenson or WBO titlist Sergey Kovalev, both considered amongst the most exciting fighters in boxing.
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