Manny Steward speaks on Cotto/Mayweather

Here is an article i read that showed what Manny thought about mayweather. Arum also speaks, but we allknow he hates mayweather. Manny's stuff is about half way down. I agree with manny 100%. What do you guys think?

Mayweather draws critics
By Robert Morales, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 12/06/2007 11:17:06 PM PST


var requestedWidth = 0;
if(requestedWidth > 0){ document.getElementById('articleViewerGroup').style.width = requestedWidth + "px"; document.getElementById('articleViewerGroup').style.margin = "0px 0px 10px 10px"; } Floyd Mayweather Jr. said he no longer has to fight for respect.


"I feel I'm not fighting for respect," said Mayweather, who on Saturday will defend his welterweight championship against Ricky Hatton at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. "I feel that I've earned my respect. Just to get rated, pound-for-pound, the best fighter in the world, it's obvious you had to do something right and somebody had to respect you to put you on that plateau."

Many people consider Mayweather (38-0, 24 KOs), who has won titles in five weight classes, to be the top pound-for-pound fighter today.
But others wonder how a fighter who rarely goes toe-to-toe and has not fought the best in his division can have such an accolade bestowed upon him. Bob Arum, chairman of the board of Top Rank Inc., promoted Mayweather for the first several years of his 11-year professional career.
"Mayweather is a damn good fighter and he has a lot of boxing skills, but I think his deficiencies are his reluctance to mix it up, his lack of punching power, his persona in the ring," Arum said. "I would never vote for him as the best pound-for-pound fighter."


Not only doesn't Arum believe Mayweather is the most impressive fighter in the world, he doesn't think Mayweather is the best in his division. He said that there are three, perhaps four, other welterweights who would defeat Mayweather. He included his fighter, fellow world champion Miguel Cotto, in that equation.
Arum passionately tried to prove his point.


"Look at his opposition," Arum said. "He fought (Zab) Judah, and he struggled with Judah. He then fought (Carlos) Baldomir, if you could call it fought. Baldomir is slow as molasses. Once Mayweather piled up enough points, he didn't engage against Baldomir.


"And he fought Oscar (De La Hoya), if you want to say he fought. Oscar ran out of gas chasing Floyd and Floyd won a very close fight. And now he is fighting Hatton, who, for a welterweight, is a midget."
Hatton, at 5-foot-6, is better suited for the junior welterweight division; Saturday will be just his second at welterweight.


Trainer Emanuel Steward, like Arum, is in the Hall of Fame. He doesn't understand all the fuss about Mayweather, either. In his mind, Mayweather has gone about avoiding all of the other true top welterweight fights.
Steward mentioned Cotto, Antonio Margarito, Paul Williams and "Sugar" Shane Mosley as fighters Mayweather should be trying to fight, but won't.
"I think a guy who fights against the best competition, and has his performance against the best," Steward said, describing his idea of a great pound-for-pound fighter. "How can you be pound-for-pound (best) when you don't want to fight the best?"


Mayweather, 30, was offered $8 million to fight Margarito some time back. Turned it down. Mayweather has scoffed at the idea of fighting Mosley. When asked about fighting Cotto, Mayweather refused to entertain the notion.

"This isn't Cotto's thing," Mayweather said, meaning he was on the call to talk about Hatton.


Arum has said that Mayweather will never fight Cotto because it's too dangerous of a fight for Mayweather.
Steward intimated that Mayweather needs to fight Cotto, as well as the others, if he wants to truly be boxing's pound-for-pound king. Steward noted that the welterweight division is the most talented in the sport today.


"To me, the guy that's out there who nobody may want to look at, I look at Miguel Cotto," said Steward, who trains one of the other welterweight champions, Kermit Cintron, but did not bring up his name. "Here is a guy who fought the best that he could at 140 (junior welterweight). And he whipped everybody. He's been knocked down, always finds a way to come back and win fights.


"Then moving up to 147 and fighting the best up here. Never dodges anyone."

Never runs from an opponent, either. To Steward, that's all Mayweather does; run from the best and avoid the best.

"You don't want to fight any of these guys and still you want to be considered the top welterweight when you won't even fight welterweights?" Steward said. "I just don't see it. I mean, you got people like Cotto who is out here fighting his (butt) off with the best.


"Great fighters like (Muhammad) Ali, he wouldn't have said, `Well, I don't want to fight this guy because he doesn't mean anything.' He fought everybody, went all over the world, fought all the best fighters in their countries. (Sugar Ray) Robinson did the same thing. Joe Louis. Those were great pound-for-pound fighters. I've never known a great fighter who picked and chose his fights."


Arum said he can't figure out how so many people could put Mayweather at the top.

"Here is a kid who has done a great job of talking about how he is not only the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, but that he is the best fighter in history, which has to make people barf," Arum said. "He has convinced all these writers he is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.

"Based on what? We promoted him most of his career and who the (expletive) did he beat? The only fight he looked great in was against Diego Corrales because Diego Corrales was dead (tired) from the weight. So what are people talking about?"

Mayweather also has two victories over Jose Luis Castillo, though many thought Castillo won the first fight.
Mayweather is trained by his uncle, Roger, who said that his nephew had a bad hand in the first fight with Castillo. But he said he proved his worth by agreeing to an immediate rematch.
"And what did he do the second time he fought him?" Roger Mayweather said. "That's what the best fighter in the world do."

 

I agree with you say about Arum, but I do believe that Manny has a point.

At the same time though, Arum does make a little sense with his statements b/c while Floyd was fighting under Arum, he was a much more exciting fighter. It was then when he fought everyone.

 

I feel what you are saying. But again, you have to remember that Arum was promoting floyd before moving up to 140 and 147. At that time, Floyd had shown that he was on his way. But since 140 and 147, FLoyd has not done much to make him an all time great. I do think Arum does go overboard b/c of his dislike for for floyd and he definitely goes overboard with Margarito.