"You can't go by Pacquiao knocking Cotto out and Floyd not knocking him out to judge them anyway because first of all, every fight that Marquez had with Pacquiao could have went Marquez's way. But couldn't no way possible could you say he beat Floyd. He lost every single round and almost every second of every single round. So how can you compare that? And then you have one guy that's a 154-pounder and he fights him at 145; it's totally different. Floyd goes up. Floyd fights at welterweight on fight night and this guy is a middleweight. I mean, when you put those different parameters in there, it's not even fair. If Manny Pacquiao would have fought Miguel Cotto at 154 pounds, I don't want to say that the outcome would be different, but I guarantee it is. It would have been a different fight; a completely different fight," stated world-class trainer Jeff Mayweather, who shared his thoughts on Floyd Mayweather recent unanimous decision victory over Miguel Cotto. Check out what he had to say about the performance and much more!
PC: It was great to see you out in Vegas. How are things going Jeff?
JM: Everything's going good. I'm looking forward to Celestino getting in there and his fight.
PC: You actually like this fight against Mikey Garcia for Celestino, right?
JM: Yeah, and Celestino is working hard. Right now, he's doing his strength training, so he will be strong come fight time because we don't want to over-train him like he did for the Litzau fight. Celestino is one of those guys; he just loves to work, so right now, I'm just allowing the strength trainer to do his job so he will be prepared for the fight. But I think Garcia is tailor made for Celestino and he's going to make us look spectacular.
PC: We spoke after Deandre Latimore's fight and of course you guys were disappointed in his performance. What do you think Deandre could have done differently to change the outcome?
JM: With Deandre, he is a very strong puncher, but his forte and his strength is his body punching. In the first two rounds, that's what he did and that's what our game plan was to stay on top of Quintana and force him on the ropes and actually force him to fight. He didn't do nothing but run for the first two rounds and Deandre stayed on top of him, just like I asked him to. But what happened was, once Deandre hit him and he felt that he hurt him a little bit, he went back to the old Deandre and he forgot about the game plan, because Deandre is really not a guy with fast hands, but he has fast hands in combinations. Once he got away from it, he became the old Deandre, loading up on his punches. I don't care how hard you can punch, when you load up, a good fighter can see it. Obviously he's a good fighter; he's been a world champion. That's when the tide changed because he was no longer fighting with a game plan. He was basically looking for a knockout and looking for a homerun. When you look for a knockout, you put yourself in a position to be knocked out.
PC: You told me at the weigh-ins that you wanted to avoid him throwing single punches, and that's what it turned into.
JM: Right! Yeah, we really wanted to avoid that.
PC: It's obvious Shane Mosley's big fight days are behind him, but if he takes the Zab Judah route and reinvents himself on the smaller circuit, do you think he can become relevant again or do you think it's over?
JM: I don't think he can reinvent himself. I think Shane Mosley is done. He can beat some guys out there, but what's the point of it when he was at one time one of the best pound-for-pound fighters? He's 40 years old. He should have made enough money to walk away and have no problems. I see no reason for him to fight anymore. He went from being a top fighter...not just a fighter, but he was one of the best fighters in the world at one time, to now he's a gatekeeper. He's fought everybody that there really is for him to fight, so now there really is nobody for him to fight. Who else is he going to fight? And not only that, who wants to see him fight? The last time Shane Mosley had fire was when he fought Margarito, and other than that, he had a moment against Floyd and that fire had water poured on it quickly. He just fought in survival mode against Pacquiao, and then the fight with him and Mora was so boring, oh my God. Most of the people watching it probably fell asleep on it. I know I did. So when you look at the situation, who really cares to see Shane Mosley anymore? He was a great warrior and a very likable guy. I like him and I was a big fan of his, but it's over with. It's time to call it quits. Not only could he not pull the trigger, but his punches didn't have nothing on them at all. He had his run and he has nothing to be ashamed of. He is a Hall of Famer and he is a guy who had a great career, but it's one of those things where, do you want to be remembered for having a great career or do you want to go out like Roy Jones? Jones was a guy who everybody wanted to emulate and be like, but he stayed too long and once Roy got beat, he was done. He never came back. I mean, at least in Shane's case, he had some setbacks and was able to come back and even become world champion again, but Roy had a crash landing. He was like Humpty Dumpty. When he fell apart, couldn't nobody put him back together again. Hopefully Shane will go ahead and pack it in because realistically, I don't think fight fans want to see him no more. And what's the point because everybody that is somebody as far as today's boxing, he's lost to already.
PC: Before we talk about Floyd and Cotto, what did you think about the Bernard Hopkins and Chad Dawson fight?
JM: It was too boring for me to watch. Both guys look like they were scared of one another. Nobody took the initiative. They both did a great job of talking about what they were going to do, but at the same time, they had too much respect for one another and that's what it looked like in the fight. It looked like neither guy wanted to take a chance. Don't get me wrong, it's one of them things where Bernard started making money late, so as long as somebody is willing to pay him, Bernard is going to get in that ring. He's not a guy where when he was in his 20's, he was making big money. Bernard ain't see no big money until he was almost 40, so if somebody is willing to pay him and keep him going and keep his career going, he's going to continue to fight. To be honest, he's in a weight class where, I mean, I don't know, people may want to see him fight Pascal again. I actually think he's a very boring fighter and he makes everybody look bad. I mean, there is probably 3 or 4 fights of Bernard's where I actually watched it and was like, "Wow, Bernard, I'm impressed." That was the fight with Trinidad, William Joppy and Tarver. I won't even say the fight with De La Hoya because he wasn't doing nothing and he just happened to land a shot. Those were the fights where he clearly dominated and showed all of the ability he has, but other than that, the rest of Bernard's fight were just sleepers.
PC: Floyd won unanimously in a way we are not accustomed to seeing him get it done, but it was a fan-friendly performance. What did you think of the fight?
JM: Me myself, personally, I would have loved to see Floyd do him like he did everybody else. It would have been a whitewash if Floyd would have just out-boxed him like he did the first 2 rounds. Cotto couldn't hit Floyd with a bag of rice in those rounds. He was swinging for the fences and couldn't land nothing. And then I think that Floyd himself made up in his mind that he's gonna stop him and with that being said, you put yourself in a position to taking chances and taking punches. Don't get me wrong, it's a fight that the fans loved, but it's the same thing that happened when he fought Castillo. Nobody is used to Floyd bleeding. Nobody is used to Floyd even getting hit, so the second he starts to get hit, now all of a sudden, it's a big deal and people saying he lost. How did he lose when he won 10 out of 12 rounds? That's the public and that's what they will do. They will turn on you if you're too good, and that's what happened. Floyd has been too good for his own good and people are looking for anything. Like I said, it's like the fight with Castillo where Floyd was making it look too easy. But in that fight, because Castillo was landing punches, all of a sudden, Floyd lost. People forget that it's a fight and he's not above anyone else. He is a great fighter, but at the same time, he is human. Not only that, but going into the fight, I already know why his nose was bleeding because he was the one that got me sick. He was sick going into that fight. He had a cold and I think that what happened was the cold broke during the fight. Don't get me wrong, Cotto kept the nose bleeding because he did land shots, but at the same time, I think the reason why it bled the way it did is because the cold was finally breaking because that's the same thing that happen to me, and I was at home when it happened to me. I wasn't boxing (laughing). I think that was a major part of the nose bleed itself. Other than that, I think Floyd put on a brilliant performance. He gave the people there monies worth. People thought he was gonna run and dance around, because if he would have danced around, like he could have, and beat Cotto and fought the way that I really wanted him to, then he would have still had the critics saying that Cotto's shot. This is the same Cotto that was drained against Manny Pacquiao. He came down to 145 pounds and had to kill himself. And then the other fight, of course he got cheated. On fight night, Floyd comes in at 147 pounds and fought a guy that was probably 164. He beat a solid Cotto that had just came off of his biggest win; a redemption win. He had a different kind of confidence about his ability and everything else. He gave his best in a great losing effort because he didn't even come close to winning, but it's one of those situations where a guy looks good. He makes a fight where he is losing every round look interesting.
You can't go by Pacquiao knocking Cotto out and Floyd not knocking him out to judge them anyway because first of all, every fight that Marquez had with Pacquiao could have went Marquez's way. But couldn't no way possible could you say he beat Floyd. He lost every single round and almost every second of every single round. So how can you compare that? And then you have one guy that's a 154-pounder and he fights him at 145; it's totally different. Floyd goes up. Floyd fights at welterweight on fight night and this guy is a middleweight. I mean, when you put those different parameters in there, it's not even fair. If Manny Pacquiao would have fought Miguel Cotto at 154 pounds, I don't want to say that the outcome would be different, but I guarantee it is. It would have been a different fight; a completely different fight.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]