Sports Updates

Last weekend at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas Juan Manuel Marquez fought Floyd Mayweather. Prior to the bout the fighters had agreed to face each other at 144 lbs or deal with penalties. Marquez was expected to be around 7 lbs heavier than he had ever been in his career whereas Mayweather Jnr was fighting at his natural weight.

Floyd weighed in at 146 lbs and Marquez was 142 lbs. Floyd had to pay Marquez a six-figure penalty for every pound he was overweight. That's a lot of money especially in this economy but the state of the financial system didn't look too bad when it was reported that Floyd would earn upwards of $10 million and Marquez $3.2 million.

Not a sell-out

The fight venue wasn't sold out with tickets still available in all price ranges on the night of the fight. Floyd typically isn't a big ticket seller unless he fights the top fighters. But in this case, maybe people are not willing to pay for tickets right now when they can watch at home for much less. Pay per view figures are expected to come in near or around one million buys - which are huge figures for PPV.

Floyd was the naturally bigger guy and the commentators used his size as one of the reasons why he was able to manhandle Marquez so easily. But didn't we all know he was bigger prior to the fight since he started his career as a super featherweight and has moved up in weight. Marquez is at his best around the lightweight limit and this fight was being fought near the welterweight limit.

It was clear that the longer the fight went Floyd would get his rhythm back after having been out of the ring for 21 months.

Marquez started slow not trying to catch Floyd off guard. He did however land a long right hand to the face in the 2nd round but Floyd countered with a left hook dropping Marquez. He got up but he was unsteady. Floyd didn't go for the finish. Instead he picked his shots and moved, looking as though he was enjoying being back in the ring and even happier to be hitting somebody and getting paid to do so.

I could maybe have given the fifth round to Marquez for the right hands he landed but it was close. He wasn't feinting his way in and he was throwing long rights to Floyd's head but there were no four and five punch combinations.

By the ninth round Marquez looked done. But Floyd still didn't step it up to force a stoppage. It was obvious that Floyd had outboxed and outsmarted Marquez and he was levels above.

Lacking excitement

I thought since Floyd was coming out of retirement he needed to come back with a bang. He didn't. He is a talented fighter but doesn't excite many fans. He depends on his defence and his skills are some of the best I've ever seen in boxing. All time including Muhammad Ali, Joe Louis or Sugar Ray Robinson came and fought, always looking for the KO win. But Floyd doesn't do that. He rarely gets hit and doesn't take chances in case he does, but that may excite the fans.

Floyd won a unanimous decision over Marquez only losing three rounds total on all the judge's scorecards. But was it good to see him back? And was he really missed that much?

Marquez still holds the lightweight belt so he will most likely move back down in weight and fight Michael Katsidis - who fought and won on the undercard.

In my opinion, Floyd is the best pound for pound fighter today. I'm glad to see him back in the ring but I would like to see him take a little more of a risk in his fights and knock some guys out!