Sucker's Punch - Chris "Preach" Smith

I know what you're thinking.

You, like many around the world who witnessed the Floyd Mayweather Jr. - Victor
Ortiz bout last night are in one of two camps. The first camp being all about Floyd
and how he triumphed once again, even in the midst of questionable tactics by his
opponent. The second camp is furious, believing Floyd took advantage of Ortiz and
is a loudmouth who won't fight the best out there aka Manny Pacquiao.

In this case, both sides are right.

I wasn't hyped up for this fight mainly because I didn't think it would be a contest
from the outset. I'm not a full-fledged Mayweather supporter; he's a little too much
of a loudtalker and all over the place for me. That said, I do recognize that he's a
great fighting talent. One who, hate it or love it, is a far better draw than those
Klitschko brothers who seem to be afraid of fighting outside of Europe and are as
important to the sport now as a 2 day old spit bucket. Outside of Pacquiao of course.
And that's a major issue which I'll get back to. The whole mood around the fight
seemed forced for lack of a better word. Boxing, as a sport isn't dead but it's like
a wino resorting to rubbing alcohol and nail polish to get the highs it once had but
can't reach anymore. The main problem is that there aren't too many draws out there,
no big names. The heavyweight division is almost a wasteland. Younger fighters are
on the way, but boxing has to deal with the double edged sword of impatience and a
generation who loves the ground-and-pound savagery of mixed martial arts. The bout
last night would've been huge had it gone more than four rounds. But it didn't, and it
hurts the sport and Floyd, sadly.

As far as the knockout, I've witnessed it. And my take is, it wouldn't have gotten to
that point if Ortiz didn't lose his cool and head butt Mayweather. And I've never seen
a fighter try to hug another like cuddlebums do as an apology. Touch gloves and fight
on, dude. But that's Ortiz's youth working against him. The knockout was legal. A
boxers trained to take advantage of ANY opportunity. But it's sad that it had to get
to that point. Floyd also didn't help himself by cursing out Larry Merchant, prompting
Merchant to utter his now famous comeback. He comes off as childish and bullying
and even though Merchant isn't exactly Barbara Walters, you have to wonder if he
went at Merchant because Merchant was not going to let up and eventually ask him
about Pacquiao? Floyd hasn't backed away from calling for Merchant's firing, a move
that will only make those who are soured on him despise him even more.


No matter what, Floyd knows that in order to win everyone over completely,
he's going to have to fight Manny Pacquiao. He's at a place where other fighters
like Sugar Ray Robinson and Joe Louis have been. I know there are those who
will argue that it hasn't happened because they buy the argument that Manny
takes steroids. Which is a garbage argument and is now removed from the table
since Manny's camp has agreed to testing. Mayweather's painted himself into a
corner. This fight ended badly, too badly for a large group of people who won't
pay 60 bucks again unless it's a fight against Pac-Man. Floyd said he's game for
a rematch, but will Ortiz do it if he's only going to get the same price he got for
this fight($2 million at last report)? It only leaves Pacquiao. And who's to say Floyd
is WILLING to fight him right now? He just made a ton of money. He could pull a
Lennox Lewis and retire right now undefeated. It's a scenario more suited to the
WWE than professional boxing. And that's the real shame of it all.

The only suckers last night are those who thought they were going to see a
real good boxing match and got empty pockets and promises in return.