Is Floyd Mayweather running scared from Gennady Golovkin?

IT was interesting to read in the current edition of Boxing News that the team picked Floyd Mayweather v Gennady Golovkin as the fight it would most like to see in 2014, ahead of quite a few potential classics.

Which fight fan wouldn’t want to witness Mayweather’s super slick skills tested by the relentless controlled aggression of “GGG”? There’s more than a few who suspect the Kazakh’s power might enable him to inflict a first professional to defeat on “Pretty Boy Floyd”.

Leaving aside that they box for different promoters and are aligned with different TV companies, there’s one other stumbling block: Mayweather has made it pretty clear he doesn’t want to tackle a full middleweight like Golovkin. He has a strong case in that he is the sport’s biggest star, and the one who will bring most money to the table in the event if the match being made. In other words, Golovkin should shed a few pounds to even up their chances.

But hold on a minute. If Floyd were to delve in to the history of the sport that has rewarded him so handsomely, he would see there have been precedents for welterweights biting the bullet and going up to full middleweight.

In 1974 Jose Napoles was an outstanding world champion at 10st 7lbs/147lbs, who had reigned since 1969 (with a six-month interruption in 1970-71 caused by a cut-eye loss to Billy Backus, subsequently avenged). He could have gone on making good money against a crop of solid challengers; instead, the Cuban-born Mexican tested himself in the hardest way possible, stepping up two weight divisions to challenge Carlos Monzon.

The Argentine hardman was equally dominant in his class (11st 6lbs/160lbs), having reigned since 1970 with an awesome blend of strength and power. No doubt Napoles was tempted as much by a substantial payday as by writing a page in the history books; this was professional boxing after all.

But when considering Mayweather’s excuses about Golovkin’s greater size we should consider the size of the task Napoles faced. He had first reached world class at lightweight back in the mid-1960s and had scaled as light as 144lbs for some defences. Monzon, meanwhile, had been a middleweight since turning in pro back in 1963.

As it turned out, the 5ft 7 1/2ins Napoles came in at 153lbs, one pound inside the light-middleweight limit, for their February 1974 clash in the Paris suburbs. Monzon, a listed 5ft 11 1/2ins, scaled 11st 5 3/4lbs and was simply too big for poor Jose, who after receiving a pasting failed to come out for round seven.

There was no shame in the defeat, with Carlos continuing to reign until retiring undefeated in 1977 and going down as one of the top middleweights in history. But the fact remains, Jose Napoles made a bold bid to add to his legacy as a boxer rather than merely his bank balance – does Floyd Mayweather really want to end his career without making a similar attempt?

Source: http://boxingnewsonline.net/latest/blog/is-floyd-mayweather-running-scared-from-gennady-golovkin