Attention Welterweight Contenders: You Need to Stop Avoiding Each Other in Hopes Of Winning the Floyd Mayweather, JR Sweepstakes
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By Travis “Novel” Fleming
There is a disturbing trend today among the upper echelon of the welterweight division. Naturally, fighters are all hoping to land a big payday against Floyd Mayweather, JR., 48-0, 26 KO’s. The problem is that none of them are separating themselves from the pack as the most deserving challenger. As it stands, none of them have done a thing to earn a mega fight, but being that Mayweather is a welterweight, and has already fought all the proven fighters and big names around 147 (with the exception of Timothy Bradley, 31-1-1, 12 KO’s, who fights with Top Rank so he will not be considered), it appears that he has no choice but selecting one of these undeserving challengers as his final opponent in September.
Someone is going to score a mega fight for doing the exact thing we as fans dislike the most: playing it safe, with hopes that by not losing they will get the lucky call for a massive pay day. What they are doing goes against everything we look for in a rising contender. Instead of being brave enough to establish themselves as the most in-demand contender by beating an impressive string of fellow top contenders, they are facing opposition that is several levels below them, and notching easy wins with the hope that by not taking a loss, they will remain in the sweepstakes for a major payday. It’s disappointing, because these talented fighters are wasting their promising careers in meaningless fights, just so they can remain in the mix for a big payday, instead of doing it the traditional way of making themselves the most in-demand opponent by beating other top contenders.
If they were to take the traditional route, the fighter who emerged victorious would be the man that fans demand for the king, instead these new contenders seem content to just cruise by opposition that aren’t in their class to remain on an equal level with the four or five other contenders. In other words, they are happy to take the path to remaining a one in four chance over the path to being the only logical option, if it means they won’t have to risk facing anyone that stands a chance of beating them. They’re afraid to risk a loss against decent opposition, because a loss takes them out of the sweepstakes. It’s a cop out to land a major fight, and the sad truth is that it’s probably going to work for someone, which will lead to others employing the same cowardly path to riches. These guys are not building a legacy; they are ruining prime years of their careers just to have a one in four shot of landing a massive payday. The three worst culprits on this path of least resistance are Keith Thurman, 25-0-0, 21 KO’s, Kell Brook, 35-0, 24 KO’s, and Amir Khan, 31-3, 19 KO’s. All three are talented fighters who are in the running for a mega pay day versus Mayweather without having done a damn thing to deserve it.
Keith Thurman looks to have big power, a decent skill set and a solid chin. Unfortunately, he has wasted the last two years of his career. He is now 26, and turned pro back in 2007 at age 19. It took him six years before he would face decent opposition, and, to this date, he has yet to face a top contender. How the hell is a guy who hasn’t even beaten one top contender being considered by anyone as a candidate for the big money fight? So far Thurman has zero A-level wins, and only three borderline B-level wins against a faded Robert Guerrero, at the time 32-2-1, 18 KO’s, a past prime Julio Diaz, at the time 40-9-1, 29 KO’s, and Diego Chaves, at the time 22-0, 18 KO’s. He has looked impressive in most of his fights to date, but its hard to gauge if his power and skills are legit when they haven’t been tested against a top tier fighter. Instead of trying to earn the big fight by facing fellow contenders like Kell Brook, Amir Khan, and Shawn Porter, 26-1-1, 16 KO’s, he’s facing a washed up B level fighter again in Luis Collazo 36-6, 19 KO’s, who is coming off of a one sided whooping by Amir Khan. Hardly anyone that an easy win over would warrant anything more than a pat on the back for a top contender. But hey, if he doesn’t risk losing against a good opponents, he still has his one in four chance of landing the big pay day!
Kell Brook is likely the most talented of them all. He’s a big welterweight with good power, fast hands, great timing and he’s a very good technician. He also holds the only major world championship at welterweight that doesn’t belong to Mayweather, which might be enough to make him the leading candidate for September. In his only A-level win to date, he uncharacteristically left England, where he benefits from hometown judging, to take the only risk of his career by facing IBF champion Shawn Porter, at the time 24-0-1, 15 KO’s, in America, back in August of 2014. Brook proved his talent was legit in winning a clear decision, and he took the belt back to England with him. It was a career high that could have led to a big fight, had one been available at the time, but since that shining moment, he has stymied his own momentum by facing a couple of no-hopers in his first two title defenses against Jo Jo Dan, at the time 34-2, 18 KO’s, and Frankie Gavin, at the time 22-1, 13 KO’s. He easily dispatched of both fighters, showing the obvious gulf in class between an A-level talent and C-level talents. The ease in which he won his first two defenses only served to illustrate that he was fighting two guys that didn’t stand a remote chance of beating him. Brook turned pro in 2004, at 18, and after a string of impressive performances straight out of the gate, he was quickly pegged to be a future world champion.
As early as 2008, people were predicting big things for Brook. Five years later, the same people who were predicting big things for Brook were getting frustrated as they had still not seen Brook angle his way to a world title fight. Brook looked the part, but he was fighting easy opponents that did nothing for his development, or his chances of landing a world title fight. Finally in 2013, after nine years of fighting no-hopers, Brook would face his first B-level opponent in former champion Vyacheslav Senchenko, at the time 34-1, 23 KO’s. Brook impressively stopped the Ukrainian in round four to earn his shot at the IBF world title. Essentially, Brook has only two wins worth talking about, and since those, he has reverted to fighting at home against opponents that don’t even deserve to share the ring with him. He took his risk to get the belt, and it now appears that he’s happy to hold it hostage in England without facing any fighters that stand a remote chance of taking it from him. His stock rose with the Porter win, but then fell right back down when he showed his unwillingness to fight other top contenders. He already spent nine years fighting weaker opposition, there is no need to fight at that level anymore.
He is wasting his prime, and hoping that by not risking a loss against a top tier fighter he will keep his one in four chance of winning the Mayweather sweepstakes. He could have faced someone like Keith Thurman, and established himself as the most in demand contender if he were to win. Next, instead of facing a top tier welterweight, Brook is rumored to be making his third defense, once again with home advantage in England, against Brandon Rios, 33-2, 24 KO’s. In facing Rios rather than any of the plethora of better welterweights, Brook is attempting to pull the wool over our eyes. Rios is a popular fighter who has been in many entertaining fights. He’s a poor man’s Arturo Gatti, of sorts. The problem is that he hasn’t done a damn thing, at either welterweight or junior welterweight, other than a series of entertaining fights with Mike Alvarado, 34-4, 23 KO’s. To make it even less significant, Rios is tailor made stylistically for Brook and was comprehensively schooled by lightweight Richar Abril, 19-3, 8 KO’s, who is smaller, much less powerful, and not as talented of a technician as Kell Brook. Rios is a wild fighter with virtually no defense that will be easy pickings for a much bigger technician like Brook. It’s another garbage defense, that team Brook is trying to disguise as a top tier opponent and a risky fight. Again, nothing that should warrant a mega fight. At 29 years old with only two significant wins, the extremely talented Brook is hurting his potential to leave the sport with an impressive legacy in choosing to chase the big money fight by not losing, rather than earning it the traditional way by beating top contenders.
Amir Khan is by far the most accomplished of the three contenders discussed in this article. If all three were to retire today, there is absolutely no question that Khan would have the best career of the bunch. Khan might have the fastest hands in the sport, he’s got a ton of warrior spirit, and he was an excellent amateur that won a silver medal at 2004 Olympics. He has beaten a lot more solid opponents than the other two, and holds the single best win of the lot over Marcos Maidana, at the time 29-1, 27 KO’s. The Maidana win is A-level stuff. Unlike Thurman and Brook, Khan has taken several risky fights and he stepped up his level of opposition five years sooner than Brook, and two years sooner than Thurman. He is still only 28, having turned pro ten years ago at 18. He’s suffered losses, but that’s because he has done what’s expected of young champions in facing top contenders that pose a serious threat.
Khan’s first step up resulted in a brutal knockout loss to Breidis Prescott, at the time 19-0, 17 KO’s, which led most to believe that he couldn’t take a punch when coupled with the fact that he was dropped by lesser opponents in his early career. He has lost twice by KO, and been visibly hurt too many times to count, but the man has a ton of heart, and always tries to fight back after getting put on the canvass. Thurman and Brook are undefeated, but I give Khan a lot more credit than them, because, even though he has suffered knockouts, at least he fought high level opponents instead of avoiding them altogether like Brook and Thurman. Had Brook and Thurman stepped up their opposition level as early as Khan, and fought Khans level of opposition, they very well might have taken some losses as well. Khan has faced three A-level opponents in Maidana, Danny Garcia, at the time 23-0, 15 KO’s, and Lamont Peterson, at the time 29-1-1, 15 KO’s. He has the one A-level win over Maidana, while he got knocked out by Garcia, and lost a razor thin controversial decision to Lamont Peterson in Peterson’s hometown. Khan deserved the decision in the eyes of many, and to make it even more controversial, Peterson tested positive for a banned substance that could have given him an unfair advantage. Khan has also beaten B-plus level fighters in Zab Judah, at the time 41-6, 28 KO’s, and Devon Alexander, at the time 26-2, 14 KO’s, and B-level fighters such as Andriy Kotelnik, at the time 31-2-1, 13 KO’s, Paulie Malignaggi, at the time 27-3, 5 KO’s, Julio Diaz, 40-7-1, 29 KO’s, Luis Collazo, at the time 35-5, 18 KO’s, and Chris Algieri, at the time 20-1, 8 KO’s. Going through the resumes and accomplishments of the three contenders discussed in this article, Khan appears to be the clear choice out of the three for the big money fight, especially when you consider he is by far the most well known of the three. The problem with Khan falls in the “what have you done lately” category.
Since getting viciously knocked out by Danny Garcia in 2012, Khan has avoided fighting anyone with enough power to knock him out, and has still been wobbled and hurt several times. He has beaten some B-level fighters, but hasn’t fought the same high level opposition that he was facing before the Garcia fight. To make things worse, in his last fight, he purposely chose notoriously feather-fisted Chris Algieri as opponent, figuring that an impressive performance would guarantee him a shot at Mayweather. This was terrible logic, because beating someone of Algieri’s caliber is not enough to get a big money fight, he should have fought his domestic rival Kell Brook and the winner would have been all but guaranteed to be named Mayweather’s final opponent. Not only was Algieri considered a safe pick that Khan would easily dominate, but Khan watched his stock plummet as he struggled to win a decision over the New Yorker, and was actually visibly hurt on a few occasions by the light punching Algieri. This was enough to turn most fans against his bid for a Mayweather fight, and, although he’s a bigger name with a better resume than Brook or Thurman, after his performance against Algieri, most felt that if Algieri could wobble him that Khan would get brutally knocked out if those same punches landed for Thurman or Brook.
Now, as a result of these top contenders being unwilling to face each other to establish a clear cut choice for a big money fight, we are left with three undeserving candidates being considered. Brook has only one A-level win, one B-level win, and he is coming off of wins over two C-level opponents, but he does hold the IBF belt. Thurman has three B-level wins, and is scheduled to fight a washed up Collazo. Khan has one A-level win, one A-level loss, and one A-level controversial loss, along with two B-plus level wins, and five B-level wins. Khan is also the biggest name of the bunch, but he has avoided anyone with enough power to crack his glass chin since his 2012 knockout loss to Danny Garcia, while also looking underwhelming in his most recent fight against Chris Algieri. There are a couple of other fighters that could get the call to be Mayweather’s last opponent, who might be slightly more deserving, in Shawn Porter and Danny Garcia. Porter is coming off of a career high, in a dominating win over Adrien Broner, but he lost clearly to Brook last year, so its hard to argue that he deserves it more than Brook. Garcia was red hot in 2012-2013, with impressive upset wins over Amir Khan and Lucas Matthysse, at the time 34-2, 32 KO’s, but has since had a controversial decision win over Mauricio Herrerra, at the time 20-3, 7 KO’s, that most felt he deserved to lose, and a controversial win over Lamont Peterson earlier this year in a fight that was so close it could have been a draw. Not exactly the type of stuff that gives anyone confidence in their chances against Mayweather. It would seem that there are four, possibly five, welterweights who are crossing their fingers and hoping that they get the call, rather than beating each other to earn it.
Whoever gets the call for September is as equally undeserving as the rest, and these are the only logical options being that Miguel Cotto, 40-4, 33 KO’s, and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, 45-1, 32 KO’s, are fighting each other, Timothy Bradley is a top rank fighter, and power punching middleweight champ Gennady “GGG” Golovkin, 33-0, 30 KO’s, is a ridiculously stupid fight to expect as a last fight from a welterweight who is almost 40, and started out in the pro ranks almost 40 pounds lighter than “GGG ” as a super featherweight. I’ve heard people try to justify their unrealistic expectation of Floyd fighting GGG by saying “Sugar Leonard went up to challenge Hagler”. This is not even comparable, as Hagler and Leonard are much closer in size, having turned pro just 13 pounds apart as opposed to nearly 40 pounds apart, and Leonard was seven years younger than Floyd at 31. “GGG” is in his prime, while Hagler was past his best days, and in his final fight. Floyd facing “GGG” would be equivalent to a 38 year old Leonard facing a light heavyweight James Toney in 1993. It’s ridiculous to even consider.
Khan is avoiding Brook because he feels his career accomplishments are beyond Kell’s, and he’s right, but he is deluded into believing he is next in line for the Mayweather sweepstakes, he’s actually believed this for nearly two years, and a risky fight against Brook where a loss would kill his chances, while catapulting his domestic rival to the top, is a risk he’s not willing to take. Brook and Thurman won’t fight each other because it’s a genuine pick’em fight where a loss is a very real possibility for both. They’d rather face easier opponents and take their chances at being one of four, or five, potential big money opponents.
Let’s hope this doesn’t spawn a generation of contenders who aim to “not lose” their way to a payday against the king, rather than earning their right by beating their fellow contenders.
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