November '06 In This Corner Column

In This Corner

Mayweather Wins Unanimous Decision over Baldomir

Floyd Mayweather, (37-0-24 KO’s) of Grand Rapids Michigan won a unanimous decision over Carlos Baldomir (43-9-6, 13 KO’s) of Sante Fe, Argentina with capturing the WBC Welterweight Championship. The Mandalay Bay Event Center where the fight event was held had a packed house on Saturday. Dan Goosen of Goosen Tutor the promoter, said he was elated with this fight card and looks forward to next year when he introduces some new heavyweight fighters.

Floyd Mayweather lived up to his style of fighting, staying pretty as the crowd cheered him on but ended up hurting his right hand in the 5^th round causing him to fight more or less one-handed with his left. All-in-all he was quick enough to gather up points with the power shots and quick jams slipping in and out of Baldomir’s cornering tactics. It was clear that the brawler (Baldormir) was bewildered and frustrated while Mayweather was hyped up and physically far beyond Boldormir. After Michael Buffer declared Mayweather the winner, Larry Merchant of HBO asked him about the crowd booing him during the last two rounds.

Mayweather became upset and made some disgruntled remarks. “You never say anything good about me,” he told Merchant. “You stick to your commentating and I’ll stick to my boxing ‘cause you don’t know anything about boxing.”

The score card totals read 119-109 with Mayweather winning all 12 rounds with the exception to the last round which Judge Paul Smith gave to Baldormir. Despite the statement Mayweather made to Larry Merchant, he still feels that people are attacking him and his family in the media. Mayweather wants to take on Oscar De La Hoya but according to inside sources, that will never happen. In the meantime, his 8.5 million dollar purse will allow him to diversify until such time the young fighter says he will fight one more time and retire.

The semi main event had Orlando Salido (28-9-2, 18KO’s) of Obregon Mexico, win the 12 round IBF Championship belt against Robert Guerrero (19-1-1 12 KOs) of Gilroy, California.

This was a fight where Guerrero certainly had the reach on Salido but didn’t have the heart or the power that Salido had. One could see why judges clearly picked Salido as a new IBF Featherweight Champion by a unanimous decision. Since there are few major heavyweight fights on the calendar, one such fight was between Chris Arreola (18-0-16KOs) of Riverside, California, who took on Damian Wills (21-0-1 15KOs) of Hollywood, California. Arreola is a very slick and accurate puncher and certainly proves he had the determination to outbox Wills winning in the 8^th round of the heavyweight bout.

The next HBO fight will be November 18, 2006 when Manny Pacquagio takes on Erik Morales at the Thomas and Mack. For more information log on to www.hbo.com.