Floyd Mayweather, Jr: Last 5 Fights (part 2)

Previously we tackled Floyd Mayweather's matches, against Zab Judah and Carlos Baldomir, of which we obviously know that he won both (of course, he's undefeated right). Next up, Floyd's fights against Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton and Juan Manuel Marquez.

De La Hoya vs. Mayweather|The World Awaits

Mayweather's next match was the long-anticipated superfight against six-division champion and current WBC Super Welterweight titleholder Oscar De La Hoya on May 5, 2007. De La Hoya's belt was on the line, which required Mayweather to move up in weight from 147 pounds to 154.

Despite De La Hoya's insistence that money was not a factor, the Mayweather-De La Hoya bout set the record for most PPV buys for a boxing match with 2.7 million households, shattering the record of 1.95 million for Evander Holyfield-Mike Tyson II. Around $120 million in revenue was generated by the PPV, which set another record. With the percentages factored in, Oscar De La Hoya ended up earning $58 million for the bout, the highest purse ever for a fighter. The previous record was $35 million, held by Tyson and Holyfield. Floyd Mayweather earned about $25 million for the fight.

At one time, Floyd Mayweather, Sr., Mayweather, Jr.'s father, was in talks to train Oscar De La Hoya and be in his corner during the fight but he decided to train with Freddie Roach.

Mayweather won by split decision in 12 rounds, capturing the World Boxing Council (WBC) title though most saw the fight as being fairly one-sided on his behalf.



Mayweather vs Hatton|Undefeated!

Floyd Mayweather decided to relinquish his WBC junior middleweight championship and kept his WBC welterweight championship. On July 28, 2007, it was announced that Mayweather would come out of his short retirement to fight light welterweight champion Ricky Hatton which was promoted by Oscar De La Hoya's promotion company Golden Boy Promotions and Floyd Mayweather's "Mayweather Promotions." The bout was labelled "Undefeated" and took place on December 8, 2007, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada, in a fight which was the biggest welterweight showdown of two undefeated fighters since Oscar De La Hoya and Felix Trinidad met in their 1999 superfight. In the build up to their fight, Mayweather claimed that he was the greatest boxer ever, saying: "I respect what Robinson and Ali did for the sport. But I am the greatest, and this is my time."

Mayweather controlled the fight from the start and knocked Hatton out in the 10th round to retain the welterweight championship. Hatton suffered a cut over his right eye in round three from the punches of Mayweather, and it seemed that it was at this point that his pace and movement began to slow. In round six Hatton lost a point for punching the back of Floyd's head as he was caught draped on the ropes. Mayweather had a huge eighth round, landing a number of clean, effective power shots.

In the 10th round Hatton was caught with a check left hook thrown from Mayweather's hip, fell forward head first into the turnbuckle and hit the deck.

Hatton managed to make it to his feet, but was clearly dazed. Two more big lefts in a flurry put Ricky down again and Cortez stopped it at 1:35 of round 10.

After the fight, Mayweather said that Hatton was one of the toughest fighters he had ever fought, that he just kept coming and coming, and that he wants to promote fights, with Hatton being his first client. Mayweather announced a two-year layoff from boxing to concentrate on his promotional company.

On March 18, 2009, it was reported that Mayweather was "ready to dance again" according to a source from within the Mayweather camp. Announcing his return to the ring seemed to be somewhat of a formality at this point, as even his estranged father, current trainer of Ricky Hatton, Floyd Mayweather Sr. stated, "He's gonna fight again."



Mayweather vs Marquez|Number One/Numero Uno

On May 2, 2009, it was confirmed that Mayweather was coming out of a 21-month retirement to fight lightweight champion Juan Manuel Márquez at a catchweight of 144 lbs. on July 18 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on HBO PPV. The fight was postponed due to a rib injury Mayweather received during training. HBO's reality series 24/7 was also postponed to start on August 29. Mayweather/Marquez 24/7 turned out to be one of the best shows of the series. The fight took place on September 19, 2009 in conjunction with Mexican Independence Day, traditionally a big boxing weekend.

During the official weigh in for their 144 lb bout, Mayweather failed to meet the required limit by weighing in at 146 lbs, two pounds heavier than Marquez. He was subsequently fined as a result. However it was later revealed that the contract was changed so that Mayweather could make weight within the welterweight limit of 140-147 lbs as long as Marquez received a large guaranteed sum of money. Mayweather won a unanimous decision after 12 rounds in one of the most statistically lop sided fights between 2 world class opponents. Marquez only managed to land 12% of his total 583 punches while Mayweather landed 59% of 490 total punches.

This fight marks only the fifth time in boxing history that a non-heavyweight fight sold more than 1 million pay-per-views, with the official HBO numbers coming in at over 1 million buys equaling a total of approximately $52 million. Four of those fights all featured Oscar De La Hoya as the main event, making this fight the one of two events where a non-heavyweight fight sold over 1 million PPVs without Oscar De La Hoya. The other fight was seven-division world champion Manny Pacquiao versus Miguel Cotto which sold 1.25 million PPVs.