Giving up the ghost

A quick reflection on the two big boxing stories this week. First, Floyd Mayweather’s retirement. I was actually glad to hear this news. As I’ve written previously, Floyd appeared to be ducking all genuine contenders (most significantly Miguel Cotto), and was seemingly content to fight people he’d already beaten convincingly in the past (i.e. De La Hoya and Hatton). Although he is, without question, one of the best fighters in the world at the moment, if he’s no longer prepared to take part in truly competitive contests, I’d rather he didn’t fight at all. Of course, his ‘retirement’ may not last forever – but hopefully, if he does return, it will be to face someone like Cotto, rather than simply another easy money making exercise. And fittingly, a day after one of the sport’s biggest stars walked away from the game, Kelly "The Ghost" Pavlik confirmed, by destroying the vastly overmatched Gary Lockett, that he has the class to take over Mayweather’s ‘pound-for-pound champion’ mantle. A match up between Pavlik and Calzaghe would be tremendous – unfortunately, I have a feeling Calzaghe won’t take this fight (despite the fight he’d have a significant weight advantage, and would probably start as favourite). Let’s hope he proves me wrong.