World-renowned trainer Floyd "Joy" Mayweather Sr. had a lot to say about some of the recent and upcoming fights and you don't want to miss it. Mayweather talks about how training camp has gone for Joan Guzman and the struggles he's been having to make weight for his clash this Saturday with Humberto Soto. Plus, check out what he had to say about Miguel Cotto's big win over Shane Mosley as he praises the WBA champion on his performance. Also, Mayweather breaks down Joe Calzaghe's win over Mikkel Kessler, Antonio Margarito's performance over Golden Johnson, the upcoming brawl between Ricardo Mayorga and Fernando Vargas, and of course, his son's big fight clash Ricky Hatton.
PC: What did you think about the decision in the Cotto/ Mosley fight and what did you think of the fight overall?
FM: Well, I'll be honest with you man, if there was any fight that was close, it was that one! Any fight that I thought anytime was ever close, it was that fight right there. I thought the fight
I had to go with a draw. That's the way I had to go. I couldn't go Shane's way and I couldn't go Cotto's way. Cotto fooled me because Cotto hit Shane with the jab. Cotto fooled me about his chin too so evidently, it was a true statement about him being weakened by making 140 pounds. Now he takes a better shot, he hits better and seems like he's learning the game. I take my hat off to him man. He's a tremendous guy, he really is. He's definitely turned it around man. My thing with Shane, even though it was a close fight, when you fight a guy and you have all that experience that you have, even though you're older, your days are over. At that age, you fight a guy like Cotto and you fight to a decision in a close fight, it's time for you to quit because you ain't going to get no better. Cotto is going to get better; Shane aint going to get no better. The game is over. He's as good as he's going to get and it's over now.
PC: If Shane wouldn't have engaged as much and boxed Cotto, do you think he would've pulled it off?
FM: Trust me, it wouldn't happen. If he fought Cotto again, he still couldn't outbox him. He would have to come back down on his toes. He's 36 years old now and he's not going to be no spring chicken just bouncing around. He's not going to do that all day and if he did that, he probably would end up getting stopped. He ain't got that kind of energy to do that. If you watch, you'll notice Shane was the one trying to grab Cotto and hold him. It definitely wasn't about him getting on his toes and outboxing him so he could forget that. Cotto walked him down and it didn't look like Shane's punches moved him or nothing.
PC: What did you think about Calzaghe and Kessler's fight?
FM: I'm going to be honest. They were talking about a classic, but ain't nothing classic about that to me. They said it might be the fight of the year. The fight of the year for what? Maybe the fight of the year in the amateurs. Calzaghe's wild. That man throws punches like a woman man. That man there ain't a bit more of a boxer than the man on the moon.
PC: So you're not impressed with Calzaghe? Some people have him as high as # 2 on their pound for pound list.
FM: Man, he ain't got no business being in the pound for pound. I don't know nobody in the top 10 that he can box better than. He might just have a punch rate. That's the only way he wins his fights like that. He don't have no skills. Kessler could've won if he had a trainer to show him what to do. Calzaghe is nothing to me man, as far as his boxing style; nothing! I don't see nothing in him. I think the Shane and Cotto fight was an exciting fight because they were going blow for blow and everything was tit for tat. I thought it was a very good fight. It really surprised me that Cotto picked Shane's jab off and he out jabbed Shane. It wasn't that he was faster than Shane, but he moved at the right time and timed Shane perfectly.
PC: Do you think that Margarito's early knockout was because he was in against someone clearly overmatched?
FM: Man, come on man! Man, look here man, like I said when they were talking about Lil Floyd fighting Margarito, it would be the same damn thing. Margarito ain't nobody man. If you put him back in there with Paul Williams, he'll do the same damn thing again. It makes no difference. He tried to make up excuses on why he lost, but he'll have to make up another excuse because Paul Williams is going to beat him another way. He can't win. He could definitely forget about Lil Floyd. Lil Floyd is his last wish he wants to have.
PC: How do you see your son doing against Hatton?
FM: I'm gonna tell you like this right here. Hatton's going to come in there and try and hassle Lil Floyd, but when they make him stop grabbing Lil Floyd, it's going to be a whole nother Gatti. It's going to be a whole nother Arturo Gatti. He's going to have a busted head, busted eye, nose, lip, ears and everything. That's the only thing going down because he's going to take a Floyd whoopin'.
PC: What can we expect out of Juan Guzman Saturday night?
FM: Well, you know, if everything's good
we have a few pounds to get down. When we get that straightened out
first of all, I'm not the strength trainer, I'm just the trainer. I'm not the guy that do all of that, you know? I'm not the person to get the weight and stuff down, but I should've did it my way because everything will reflect on me however it goes. I'm planning on getting it right. I've seen a couple of videos on the guy and I'm not really impressed. He stands up straight and comes right in. He ain't doing nothing. It's a few things Guzman ain't doing with me yet and sometimes it takes fighters 2 or 3 fights with a trainer to learn what you're trying to put out. He has weight problems right now still. We weighed him and he weighed 135 and ¾. We weighed him again and he was 136. You supposed to be going down, not going up. He's going to have to learn the hard way. I still think he has enough energy because he's in good shape, but he gotta have endurance. You could be in good shape and not have endurance and you're going to get tired anyway. I worked with him the other day on the pads and he got tired as shit. I told him, "it ain't going to work man." Don't get me wrong, I definitely think he's going to beat the guy. I think when he gets the food in his body and rests real good, he'll be alright.
PC: You just think he's making it a little harder on himself than it has to be?
FM: Yeah! Well, he need to leave 130 alone man. He came in a little heavy. He came in at about 165; too much weight to be carrying on a 5'5 frame man. He needs to go up to 35 because it aint going to be no more of that stuff there man because it's no good at that weight. I think he'll be good man. I think he just needs to eat good and he'll be pretty much energized.
PC: Last fight I want to get your opinion on is Vargas and Mayorga. What do you think about that?
FM: (laughing) I'm going to tell you the truth. I'm going to tell you right now what's going to go down with that. Mayorga is going to knock the shit out of Vargas. Vargas is another one that aint going to know whether to shit or go blind. I'm trying to tell you man, when my man starts stepping to him, you gonna see. He ain't gonna want none of that. Mayorga coming to get that ass and believe me when I tell you, he gonna get it. First of all, whatever Vargas used to have is gone. He was a done being a fighter a long time ago. He got stretched.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]