This was the case in all of the fights over the weekend. Derrick Gainer left his heart at home when got in the ring with Juan Manuel Marquez. It might have been one of the all time worst fights I've ever seen so I won't waste anyone's time writing about it. All I say is shame on Derrick Gainer, 20 years from now he'll look back at this fight and he'll be sick to his stomach and regret the effort -or lack thereof- he put forth.

Over the weekend I had the pleasure of watching Goyo Vargas dismantle Gary Balletto to win a majority decision in Balletto's hometown of Providence, R. I. The sad thing was Vargas almost got robbed of the decision, which would have been a travesty because he out landed Balletto by at least 150 punches, dropped him once and had Balletto in big trouble, dropped on at least 5 other occasions.

The key to this fight was Vargas who as seasoned a veteran as you'll come across in the sport simply outclassed Balletto who just couldn't deal with Vargas' boxing skills. Vargas fought a smart fight; he traded when he needed to but left his left jab control the pacing and tempo of the fight. What was even more impressive to me was that this is the same Goyo Vargas who got absolutely blown away by a "flashy" Floyd Mayweather, Jr. losing every around but one and even getting dropped with a body shot in the 9th round.

Now Phillip N'dou was no push over, he came into this fight known as a volume puncher with a lot of pop and a record of 31-1 with 30 KO's. He also clearly wasn't afraid of Mayweather, Jr. and unlike a so-called champion (Derrick Gainer) who fought on the undercard he brought his heart to this match. What did come as a bit of a pleasant surprise to me was seeing Floyd Mayweather, Jr. standing in front of N'dou for much of the fight, which I would have thought would have given N'dou his only shot to win, but Floyd didn't seem to care. The fight was very exciting and the 5th round in particular -a round in which N'dou was seriously hurt- was probably the best, with N'dou realizing that his offense would be his best chance, he threw a whopping 100 punches with at least 85 of them coming in the last 1:50 of the round. Rather than just jab away and look cute, Mayweather really committed to all of his punches; his jab was a thing of beauty but so were the body shots that really seemed to take all the steam out of N'dou, and oh yeah his right hand was down right nasty. Now N'dou's defensives skills won't remind anyone ever of Willie Pep but Mayweather Jr. was still very sharp landing 58% of his power punches. In the 7th round Mayweather Jr. finished off N'dou with four straight right hands to now push his record to 31-0 with 21 KO's.

Floyd Maywether Jr. plans to move up to 140 pounds to try and draw Arturo Gatti into a fight. I love to watch Gatti fight, he's a true warrior and I will say Gatti is fighting better now than at any point of his career, yes, even when he beat Tracy Patterson to win the IBF 130 pound title, and with that being said he shouldn't fight Mayweather Jr. I'd give Gatti a better shot vs. a ring rusty and harder punching Kostya Tszyu than I would against the lighting quick Mayweather. Many old timers have taught me that in boxing "styles make fights" and in this writer's eyes Mayweather Jr. with his air tight defense and body shots would be too much for Gatti. I don't think he'd stop Gatti but I do think he'd win a decision pretty easily.

The sky is the limit for Mayweather Jr. and at 26 years old he's got plenty of good fights left and should be able to carry the sport over the next 4 maybe 5 years. I'm sure at 140 pound he'll find some true challenges out there but I also think he'll be up to the task. He's changed my mind over the years; right now I'd have to say he's the second best fighter in the world after Roy Jones, Jr.

11-03-03

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