So Pretty Boy Floyd is set to fight Victor Ortiz on Sept. 17th. Finally Floyd. I grew up watching him fight and I've always loved him, despite himself. But recently he's been annoying the hell out of me, stop running your mouth and fight. I think he'll win pretty easily against Ortiz and hopefully that will set up a Pacquaio fight. However, if Ortiz can pull off the upset, he's my choice for fighter of the year... And fight of the year for that matter for his spectacular bout with Berto.

I'm not sure how Ortiz wouldn't get Fighter of the Year if he beat both Berto & Mayweather in 2011.  I will be pulling for Ortiz all the way.  I am a HUGE Mayweather hater, and I will pull for anyone that he steps in the ring with.  Unfortunately, I see Mayweather winning this fight because I don't see him taking on anyone that he doesn't have a HUGE advantage over.  It wouldn't suprise me at all to hear that this fight will take place at 154 pounds (where Mayweather has fought at before).  This is just another fight for Mayweather to take, so he can basically stall.  He is just waiting for Pacquaio to lose or retire, so he doesn't have to fight him, or at least not hear everyone say that he should.

I'm pretty sure this will be at the 147 pound welterweight class because the fight will be for Ortiz's belt. Many in the fight world are viewing this as a warm-up fight for Mayweather to get him ready for the Pacquiao fight. He can't fight Manny after being inactive for almost a year and a half. I think in the days after the Ortiz fight we'll really know if we will ever see the Pacquiao/Mayweather super fight. If negotiations don't begin and they don't set a date for a fight in the first half of 2012, I don't think it will ever happen.

I figured the fight would be at 147, but I had to wonder if Mayweather would stoop so low again.  I think Mayweather wins against Ortiz, and then continues to stall when it comes to fighting Manny.  Floyd does NOT want this fight to happen EVER.  He is going to hope that Marquez or any other Manny opponent gets the win, or that Manny retires.  Then he will come out and shit talk about Manny never wanting to fight him & how he is the greatest fighter ever.  If Mayweather vs. Pacquiao gets signed, I will immediately look outside my window for flying pigs.

By the way, there is a very small chance that Ortiz wins this fight.  Mayweather is a little vulnerable to southpaws early in fights.  If Ortiz does have the power at 147 to buzz Mayweather & is capable of going in for the kill afterwards, then there is a chance he could get a win (of course this is a VERY small possiiblity, but it is there).

I agree, Ivey. Mayweather wants NO part of Pacquaio. Mayweather has won a lot of belts and beat a lot of one-time champions, but he hasn't fought a guy that was in his prime since Jose Luis Castillo, a fight many thought he lost.

I saw both of the fights against Castillo when they happened.  I didn't score either fight myself, but I do know that the first one was VERY close.  The second fight mostly consisted of Mayweather letting Castillo get close, hitting him with some shots, and then running away as fast as he could.  I think Mayweather won the second fight, but it was so ugly.

I am a Floyd Mayweather hater.  I've even said this before in this forum.  However, I also have a lot of respect for the talents & skills of Mayweather.  I think he is one of the most gifted fighters of his generation & probably of all time.  I don't respect his arrogant personality, but I think that I can live with that because not everyone is perfect.  I also don't respect how he's managed his career, and that I find less easy to accept, being the boxing fan that I am.

I think that I could respect Mayweather more if he actually decided to challenge himself.  He cares so much about the "0" on his record though that he avoids any challenges where he may not come out ahead (Manny Pacquiao being the current challenge he doesn't want any part of).  The funny thing about it is that Mayweather would be more appreciated if he were to challenge himself, even if that meant he would lose a fight or two.  I give him props for what he did when he fought at 130 pounds (even though I would have liked to see him fight Joel Casamayor & maybe Acelino Freitas before moving up), and he deserves A LOT of credit for taking on Jose Luis Castillo for his first two fights at lightweight.  I can accept some of the fights that he took after fighting Castillo, but most of them up until now have been more of a waste of time.

Mayweather said that some fighters weren't worthy enough of a fight with him because they hadn't proven themselves up until that point (Cotto), and then others hadn't proven to be enough of a draw as far as pay per view sales went (Margarito).  He completely ignored Kostya Tszyu's existance when he fought at 140 pounds, and then he claimed Pacquaio was a cheater that he wouldn't fight unless the drug testing was olympic style testing.  All of this happens, and he goes on to have a fight that was nothing more than an absolute joke.  He fights a guy that had never fought above lightweight, with the fight taking place at welterweight, and the guy was also past his prime (Marquez).  His reasoning as to why the fight was relevant, was because Marquez was the number two P4P fighter in the world at the time.  So if a flyweight were the number two ranked fighter P4P at the time, would Mayweather have fought him instead?

I am not really a fan of "Sugar" Ray Leonard.  There are some fights of his that I wish he would have lost (second Duran fight, Hearns fight, & Hagler fight), but I do have respect for Leonard as a fighter.  Leonard is a fighter that Mayweather once claimed he was better than.  If you break down their talents & skills, it is possible that Mayweather is better.  However, there is no comparison when it comes to the list of fights that each had in their careers (so far in the case of Mayweather who is still active).  Floyd Mayweather's career isn't even a blip on the radar when compared to Leonard's.  Ray's fights against Benitez, Duran, Hearns, & Hagler are enough to overshadow Floyd's resume.  So, in my opinion, Floyd Mayweather is NOT better than Ray Leonard, or really any other of the fighters that would be considered on Ray's level (I won't even get into Floyd claiming to being better than the other "Sugar" Ray & Ali).

Like many other fans of boxing, I would LOVE to see the fight against Pacquiao happen.  The funny thing is that I think it's very possible that Floyd wins that fight.  Whether he won or lost that fight isn't really what would be important though.  The more important fact would be that he was finally stepping up to the plate.  Living up to the reasonable expectations that fans & the boxing media have for him.  He's obviously bound for the Hall of Fame, and he will be regarded as one of the best fighters in boxing history.  I hope that he takes the Pacquiao fight though, and that starts a trend.  Win or lose for Floyd, I think that will make him an even greater fighter than he is now.

I don't think Mayweather's career is even in the same ballpark as Leonard's, and I absolutely LOATHE Leonard. I agree with you 100% about Mayweather not challenging himself. Once he got to the top he's just coasted. Think about his fights since 2005. In 6 years he's fought Arturo Gatti, Sharba Mitchell, Zab Judah, Carlos Baldomir, De La Hoya, Hatton, Marquez and Moseley. That's 8 fights in 6 years. 4 against guys past their primes (including the much smaller Marquez), 3 vs. guys who had no business in the ring and 1 legitimate opponent in Zab Judah.

I don't think Mayweather's career is even in the same ballpark as Leonard's, and I absolutely LOATHE Leonard. I agree with you 100% about Mayweather not challenging himself. Once he got to the top he's just coasted. Think about his fights since 2005. In 6 years he's fought Arturo Gatti, Sharba Mitchell, Zab Judah, Carlos Baldomir, De La Hoya, Hatton, Marquez and Moseley. That's 8 fights in 6 years. 4 against guys past their primes (including the much smaller Marquez), 3 vs. guys who had no business in the ring and 1 legitimate opponent in Zab Judah.

I agree on Judah being a legit opponent, and I even thought Judah could KO Mayweather (his power really is sick when he connects).  I could have lived with the fights against Hatton and Mosley if they would have taken place when they should have.  The fight against Hatton should have taken place when Floyd was at junior welterweight.  I don't think Floyd had to fight Cotto at 140, because Cotto really did have a little more to prove before stepping up that much.  I think if Mayweather was going to avoid a fight against Tyszu, then he should have at least fought Hatton at junior welter.  Luis Collazo showed that Hatton is very vulnerable at 147 pounds, so how did he even stand a chance against Floyd at that weight?  Of course, I would have picked Floyd to win the fight at 140, but at least it would have taken place when it should have.  A fight against Mosley could have happened at any point in the ten years before it finally did take place.  It's difficult to say who would have won if it had happened earlier in their careers.  I wouldn't have been suprised if Floyd won though.

I didn't have a huge problem with the Gatti fight.  The problem I had was how Mayweather talked about the fight in the media.  First he says that Gatti is a nobody, and that the belt he owned at the time was worthless.  Then, after beating Gatti, he says that Gatti is one of the best fighters in the world, and acts like he just won the undisputed championship of the world.  I think that's how Floyd gets by, because lots of people somehow accept the twisted logic that he uses to explain why the fights he has matter.  I also don't understand why Gatti continued to try to outbox Floyd in that fight.  Gatti did have underrated/underappreciated boxing skills, but he was NEVER going to outbox Floyd.  I think he should have went into brawler mode from the very start of the fight.  He probably would have still lost, but he would have at least put up a much better effort (even if he still had no shot to win).

Floyd is the most skilled fighter, but damn his fights are boring. I feel like he really needs an exciting dominant performance against Ortiz or he'll start to fade in the public's eye. I'm interested to see the pay-per view numbers for this fight, maybe when Flotd realizes that he isn't as entertaining as he thinks he is, he'll fight Pacquiao. If he did finally make that fight happen his two biggest pay days (Pacquiao and De La Hoya) we'll be because people wanted to watch his opponents, not him.

Floyd won't have an exciting fight against Ortiz or anyone else for that matter.  He is far too defensive minded while protecting his precious undefeated record.  He may dominate Ortiz, but it won't be pretty at all.  The only way that Floyd would have an exciting fight, is if he decided to actually FIGHT while in the ring with any opponent.  I think he'd have to take on an amateur or shot fighter 30 years past his prime to have that happen (though I still wouldn't be suprised if he didn't do it then).  Ortiz will probably look decent in the first few rounds, and then Mayweather will go into "mind numbing boredom mode" to get the win.  He will shout about Pacquiao not wanting to fight him, and then go into semi retirement again.

I think Pacquiao would force him to actually fight. I'm not saying he'd brawl, but if Pacquiao hits him with the barrage of punches he's been unleashing lately, Floyd will have to throw back. Even if he doesn't get hit cleanly with a lot of punches, he'll lose round after round.

The longer the fight is held off, the better it gets for Mayweather.  Pacquiao's abilities will naturally decline, which will hurt him much more because he is primarily an offensive fighter that lacks one punch KO power (dude hits hard, but he isn't going to KO anyone at this point with one punch).  Mayweather will continue to decline as well, but his style will keep his ability to win this fight from being damaged as much as Pacquiao's.  The longer these two don't get in the ring together, the farther they move from their athletic prime.  The longer this fight is delayed, the more the fans of boxing are robbed of seeing a historic fight.

Ivey, do you feel like Mayweather is kind of like LeBron James's less politically correct boxing counterpart? "Give me the belt, give me the money and give me the fame.... Wait fight a champion, I don't know about that lets just stick to the first 3."

I do see a similarity in that sense between the two.  The only thing is that Lebron has to actually earn his title by beating the best teams in the playoffs.  Though I'm sure if Lebron could skip that part of the process, he would, and he would act as though he just defeated Bird's Celtics, Jordan's Bulls, and the Showtime Lakers. 

I wouldn't be suprised if Lebron were 100 percent similar to Mayweather if he were a boxer.  He would probably do everything to avoid the Klitscko brothers (I am assuming that he would be a heavyweight), win the NABF title, and act as though he's better than Muhammad Ali.