"I've been working on a lot of offense, but my defense has always been tight," stated undefeated multi-division world champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. as he discussed his training for his September 19th return to the ring against Juan Manuel Marquez. According to Mayweather, his skills are sharp and he's promising to be an exciting fighter for the fans. Okay...fine...sold! Now I'm just curious so on September 19th, I'm picking Mayweather vs. Marquez over UFC 103.
Mayweather hasn't faced an opponent inside the ring since December of 2007. His bout with Marquez was originally set to take place this past July, but a rib injury forced Mayweather to postpone the bout until September. The extra time certainly hasn't hindered the sharpening of his skills. "My team, uncle Roger, Leonard Ellerbe, Rafael Garcia, Nate Jones and Juan Blake, has stated my timing has been tremendous and it looks like I never even left the sport. I'm working extremely hard and pushing myself to the limit to come back better than when I left," Mayweather revealed as he discussed his training in a recent interview on AllHipHop.com.
In previous fights, despite the ease at which he's been able to dominate opponents on the scorecards, Mayweather has been criticized for being a boring fighter. With the focus in training on offense, Mayweather looks to change that perception this time around. "The point is to come back faster, stronger, and be a complete, intelligent fighter. And this time of course an exciting fighter for the fans, because I want to bring excitement to the sport. Of course for myself first, but the fans do count. The performance has to be there for them," he added, promising to deliver an exciting performance.
Floyd sounds confident, as he should. I just hope he delivers on his promise. An exciting fighter is exactly what the fans want and thus far, during Floyd's retirement, Manny Pacquiao has been just that. With his second-round destruction of Ricky Hatton, he's kind of set the bar on what an exciting performance really is this year. That's a lofty goal for Floyd's first fight back. I would have settled for an easy unanimous decision, but since this is the Creme de la Creme we're talking about, now I'm expecting, at the very least, a 6th round KO. Admittedly, I'm just plain ol' curious after all this time so I'll be skipping the UFC event in favor of this one. Please, please, please Floyd...don't disappoint!
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