Anderson Silva, Floyd Mayweather JR, Canelo Alvarez & The Fall of the Perfect Record – Boxing News & MMA News
By Gina L. Caliboso
As we all know and love boxing and MMA. It takes just one punch for one to fall. This past Saturday night, I tuned into UFC 162 to watch Anderson “Spider” Silva, 31-4-0 take on Chris Weidman, 10-0-0. And, I always root for the underdog. I think if Silva’s opponents don’t do something in the first two rounds, there’s little chance for a win. Silva has always been a master of great timing and exhibits great speed, but something seemed off in this bout. Once I saw Weidman reach out to touch gloves and Silva didn’t acknowledge it, I thought, hmm, poor sportsmanship; I’m rooting for the other guy.
Then, the bell for Round Two rang. Yes, RSR fans, the Round Two, when champion Silva started clowning and playing around, leaving his hands down, moving his head in and out, egging his opponent to take a swipe at him – taking for granted he was in the middle of a championship MMA bout and he decides to taunt his opponent. It was an MMA equivalent flashback to the boxing bout between Ortiz vs. Mayweather, JR fiasco when Ortiz tried to reach out and hug it out to apologize for the head-butt. We all know how that ended. Then it happened. Silva got tagged with a punch and fell to the canvas hard – dazed and confused until the ref pulled him off and the only image is an overhead camera view of Silva lying down, dazed and confused, knocked out by a punch he saw coming. Or should I say, a punch he had coming to him.
Up to the point of this bout, Silva had been undefeated in 16 UFC bouts (10 fights by TKO/Referee stoppage from strikes, 1 KO, 2 by UD, and 3 by submission), covering 7 years. It was his first bout where he lost by KO. But it wasn’t just the bout he lost. Silva had been held up rather high by MMA fighter and fan standards as the untouchable and his fight record indicates he finished within the first two rounds.
Let’s face it, as combat sports fans, we have our favorites. And usually the favorite fighter is the one that remains undefeated. Love or hate the fighter, we still tune in to see what is perceived as perfect, undefeated records ready to be handed a loss. And it’s a tough fight to witness. We also root for the fighter that has a story of rising up from the bottom and finding his or her way to the top. Silva falls into the former. He remained the example of an undefeated fighter in MMA. But it’s a fact that I must allude to HBO Boxing Analyst, Max Kellerman, we tune in and watch the fights of the undefeated because that’s the story. We want to be able to witness when perfection eventually ends. Here are three boxers where the undefeated might get roughed up and suffer, gulp, a loss:
Floyd Mayweather, JR, 44-0, 26 KO’s: “Money” Mayweather, JR is the current #1 ranked welterweight, as well as the best pound for pound fighter. In his last bout against Guerrero, he shook off his jail time well, stepped into his shoulder roll defense, and convincingly defeated his opponent with excellent timing and connected. We saw the effect of his quick 1-2 punching and power punch effectiveness on Guerrero’s face.
There was a moment once Guerrero was inside to possibly give Mayweather trouble, but he didn’t do enough of it. With an understanding of the sweet science of boxing, there’s no denying the quickness of Mayweather and how his defense, however boring, makes his opponent think. Mayweather’s opponents are too wrapped up in what he’s doing to establish their own counters and punch combination. In fact, Mayweather’s shoulder roll defense is old school. Opponents against Mayweather have to counter him with speed and be unafraid of engaging. Otherwise, Mayweather will beat his opponent every time. Will I tune in on September 14th for his next PPV? Probably. Just have to find a place to watch the fight. And guess who else has an undefeated record?
Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, 42-0-1, 30 KO’s: On the night of September 14th, Alvarez is perhaps going to be in the fight of his life. Fighting at 152 lbs., the red-haired wonder from Mexico is a strong body puncher, but a notoriously slow starter. Fighting at the lower weight may affect his power. Up to this point, Alvarez has not fought against anyone that can even match Mayweather in speed and technical savvy. And let’s face it, Mayweather wouldn’t agree to fight an opponent unless he knows he can beat him. But that swag sounds awfully familiar. Either Mayweather or Alvarez will suffer a loss. I’m making my pick that Mayweather will come away as the winner. Alvarez will have a loss. But it won’t necessarily be a bad loss.
Timothy “Desert Storm” Bradley, 30-0, 12 KO’s: Bradley is set to up against Juan Manuel Marquez, 55-6-1, 40 KO’s on October 14th. He is currently ranked #3 in the welterweight division. In his last bout, Bradley showed, much like Alvarez, how strong he is as a fighter. Against Ruslan Provodnikov, 22-1, Bradley earned the 12 round unanimous decision, but just barely as he went down in the 12th round. From round one, Provodnikov did not back down once and connected well against Bradley that left the WBO defending champion a little dazed and weak in the knees. Bradley was clearly shook by Provodnikov’s rough fighting style. And, he also showed some openings for an opponent to continually land on his chin may affect his legs. I wonder why Mayweather didn’t choose to fight against Bradley.
I chose to focus on these three fighters because they are, arguably, the fighters whose spheres of potential match-ups might be intersecting quite soon. I question undefeated records because they don’t last long, but we all want to be witness to the eventual loss. Should Mayweather win, he should fight Bradley. Should Bradley win, he should fight Mayweather. Should Canelo win, he should consider staying at light middleweight, and potentially look for a fight with Andre Ward, or even Julio Cesar Chavez, JR. And let’s not forget Sergio “Maravilla” Martinez. But that’s another article – another weight division. Let’s just see how things fare on September 14th and who will walk away with the loss.
