Mayweather vs Spadafora

Mayweather wide UD.

 

Floyd would have beaten the ever living **** outta Spaddy. Paul knew it too, which is why he avoided the fight. He was offered a 1 million purse to fight Floyd and turned it down. He knew in his heart that sparring was just sparring.

Floyd by TKO in a one sided rout.

 

Ah, Paul Spadafora. The 'White Whitaker'. In terms of Mayweather fights that could have happened, I'd have been much more intrigued to see how Mayweather looked against someone like Spadafora than against yet another face-first plodder like Margarito. Spadafora at his best was a fast-handed, defensively sound (for the most part, anyway) southpaw with legitimate skills and footwork.

Have to say, @Xplosive, I was never aware of Spadafora being offered the fight and refusing it. At least not around the time it was being talked up in 2002 / 2003. I was reading a few Roger Mayweather articles after his death a few weeks back and found one from 2011 where he was asked about if a fight between Floyd and Spadafora had ever been on the cards, and he said he'd never heard anything about it. I know that around that 2002 / 2003 period Spadafora was saying he wanted the Mayweather fight and that was the only thing he'd stick around at 135 lb for, because the weight was taking too much of a toll (I know it's easy saying you want a fight and doesn't necessarily make it so). Also from what I've seen (again, happy to concede I could be missing a few things here) Spadafora was always pretty realistic and humble about the sparring, acknowledging that he was a lot sharper as he was a week or two away from a fight whereas Mayweather was between camps, and that it didn't really mean that much.

Anyway, by that stage Mayweather was really trying to build the brand name and establish himself as a PPV star, and Spadafora just couldn't draw a crowd outside of Pennsylvania. Castillo was the more financially viable Lightweight titlist to target in 2002, and of course the first fight necessitated a rematch which killed off a few more months...not long after that Spadafora had that underwhelming performance and lucky (in my opinion) draw against Dorin, which was the beginning of the end for him in a lot of ways. So the window for that fight to happen at 135 wasn't all that big. Mayweather and his team also had an obsession with targeting WBC title holders as he's always talked about that being the 'real' belt and had a good relationship with them, so Spadafora with his small fan base, purist style and IBF title just weren't that attractive, I guess.

As for the fight itself...Well Spadafora was clearly a talented boxer. He looked great against Cardona and pretty good against Irwin, but those guys were tailor-made for him. Reactive fighters who came in straight lines, let him get off first and didn't have the weapons to trouble him. Against a guy like Sosa who didn't give him the green light to initiate all the time and who used feints, he looked a lot more beatable - although I actually am impressed with how he adapted in that fight and overhauled those two knockdowns and a big points deficit by abandoning his jab when he couldn't get it going and making it more of an inside fight instead, where his body shots and uppercut changed the course of the fight. But we know that Sosa wasn't from the top draw and that fight was between the Cardona and Irwin performances, I believe, so no real excuses for looking so bad for six rounds there.

Also, for all Spadafora's defensive talents he did have a tendency to take the straight right down the pipe, which was a specialty of Mayweather's. Spadafora could more than handle himself on the inside, but again that's a badly underrated aspect of Mayweather's game. I don't think Mayweather ducked Spadafora as some say, and I think he'd have beaten him without any controversy had the fight been made. Does things that Spadafora couldn't do - and even the things Spadafora does well, Mayweather does that little bit better. But nonetheless I'd have liked to have seen it and I think at his best Spadafora could have made it a competitive matchup. Slimy character and an underachiever, but he was a talent.

Mayweather UD.

 

My recollection of things might be blurry, and I'm human enough to admit I might be wrong. I seem to remember Mayweather-Spadafora being on the table and Spad turning it down, but if I'm wrong I'm wrong.

As for the actual matchup itself, you seem to have a higher opinion of Spaddy than I do.

He was protected and protected for a reason. Although I won't lie, the Cardona boxing lesson was impressive. I'll give him that much. An enjoyable boxing clinic, but he was never that sharp again.

Spaddy did in fact try to fight like a "white Whitaker"... problem was he didnt have a fraction of Pea's reflexes, so he got nailed by straight shots - as you accurately mentioned. Straight shots from Leonard Dorin and Angel Manfredy... not Floyd Mayweather.

Another difference, Pea had Tommy Hearns-like power in comparison to Spaddy. Paul was quite possibly THE most feather-fisted champion of all time.

I think he would have done horribly against Floyd. Floyd's laser right hand would have had no trouble whatsoever landing on Spaddy, and Spaddy had nothing to deter Floyd with.

I think Floyd would have walked Spaddy down and destroyed him no differently than he way he destroyed a guy like Sharma Mitchell.

I just think Spaddy, though skilled, was pretty limited, and had nothing to offer an ATG like Floyd.

 

I'm pretty sure the fight was being lined up by HBO, likely at 140. The problem is that Spadafora only got a draw against Dorin and then went to prison.

Floyd would win easily. Spadafora had a great style though and it pisses me off that we never saw him in many fights with guys at his level.

 

Floyd would pee on Spaddy.

 

An egregious draw, I might add.

Dorin won that fight 8-4, clear as day.

That draw seemed to completely kill Dorin's spirit for boxing.

He offered zero resistance in the Gatti fight.