Floyd Mayweather, Jr. VS Emanuel Burton
BE's look back on the offensively thrilling fight of Floyd Mayweather, Jr. VS Emanuel Burton (Augustus) is a tribute to one of Floyd's most offensively brilliant fights and Emanuel Burton's most shining moments as an action-forcing warrior with nothing to lose and everything to gain. It is one of the few occasions that Floyd has been pushed to fight this hard and probably the best chance Emanuel has ever had to show the world what he's made of against a top notch fighter for the boxing history books. Let's look at the setup.
The setup:
The Fighters:
Floyd Mayweather, Jr.: Known as Pretty Boy Floyd, you may b*tch and moan about him-I have. Regardless, there is no arguing that Floyd is a born boxer. It's in his blood. To understand this, coming into any of his fights, you must know the following:
His father, Floyd Mayweather, Sr., was a fighter who went toe to toe with Sugar Ray Leonard and went on to train both Floyd Junior and Oscar De La Hoya. Floyd's Uncle Jeff Mayweather was a fighter who held the super featherweight world title and became a trainer, eventually training Steve Forbes and Sultan Ibragimov. Floyd's Uncle Roger Mayweather was a two time world champion boxer who fought Pernell Whitaker and Julio Cesar Chavez and became a trainer to Floyd also. Floyd is even half brother of amateur light middleweight Justin Jones.
So, then you've got Floyd Junior. Fighting out of Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA, he comes in to the Burton fight having won the national Golden Gloves championship twice in two different weight classes and Olympic Bronze Medal in his amateurs. As a pro he was 23-0-0, having already won the WBC Super Featherweight world title from Genaro Hernandez and defending it against Angel Manfredy (successfully, of course).
He is meeting Emanuel Burton at 134 lbs.
Emanuel Augustus (Emanuel Burton at that time): He came into the ring with a 22-16-4 record but he'd bravely been rumbling with the likes of Jesus Chavez and a then undefeated Ivan Robinson as well as Antonio Diaz and John John Molina. He took all comers with as little notice as he could get. He'd also won minor titles in the light welterweight division such as the WBO and IBF Inter-Continental championships. Everyone who knew boxing, understood that Burton was better than his record because of his fighting the best and taking the fights any way he could at any time. They also knew that he could be dangerous and upset fighters that were looking past him...even if the judges awarded it otherwise...ahem.
The Location: Cobo Hall, Detroit, Michigan, USA
The Date: October 21, 2000
BE's scoring and breakdown of the Floyd Mayweather, Jr. VS Emanuel Burton (Augustus) fight:
RD 1: For Mayweather: Burton is trying to work a good jab but Mayweather's speed is immediately proving to be a ridiculous test. Burton was smiling by the end of the round, as always, he could care less if he's losing. He'll keep fighting. He makes a gesture that is either blowing Mayweather a kiss or an Italian insult. It's hard to tell with the gloves and the mouthpiece.
RD 2: for Mayweather: Burton takes a load of power punches by Mayweather who is confidently on the offensive. He's marking Burton up and bloodying his nose. Burton tried to get inside and did land a few shots but no one with eyes would score the round for him. I wouldn't be particularly surprised if a judge had it 10/8 even though there was no knock down.
RD 3: for Mayweather: It may've been a Mayweather round but the gutsy onslaught of Burton who forced as much action as possible may've earned him one of the greatest rounds of his career. He forced Mayweather to brawl, a style of fighting that Mr. Mayweather has virtually never succumbed to in his career, nor had to. It's amazing that Burton brought it out of him but he did. He even landed some very good flush shots, which also cannot be said by many fighters. It's the most competitive round so far.
RD 4: for Mayweather: In between rounds, they tend to the cut over Burton's left eye and bloody nose the best that they can. If Floyd has any hand trouble in this fight, he's certainly not showing it. He lays into Burton numerous times with his most natural power punch, the overhand right. That amazing offensive tool of Floyd's that when he actually loads up with it, is as fast as a cobra and carries enough wait to knock much bigger men backward. Burton is suffering for making it a brawl but he's doing it anyway.
RD 5: for Mayweather: Mayweather is bleeding from the nose now. He knows he's in a fight. He lays into Burton like he's hitting the heavy bag and Burton waves him in, smiles, taunts him with showboating, let's his hands go, punching and counter punching. Floyd's usual cagey mambo and one at a time potshots will not work and Floyd's not even trying them. He's throwing two, three and four punches at a time and not emphasizing the jab either. He's in a war he knows he'll win but it doesn't make it easy.
RD 6: for Mayweather: Burton is giving Mayweather what is arguably the fight of his life up to this point. He's all pressure, he takes every punch, even lets his hands drop to his sides and invites them and fires right back. He hits Floyd with good, meaningful body shots but Floyd is still the dominant fighter landing sharp, crisp shots with more authority and frequency.
RD 7: for Mayweather: Mayweather and Burton are both still bleeding from the nose and letting their hands go. It's the same story, Burton is shockingly landing more on Mayweather than just about any fighter. Still, as before, Mayweather will not let him overpressure him. At times, Burton looks like he thinks he's dominating instead of Floyd because Floyd is backing up and going to the ropes but he's fighting off of the ropes like Ali with little trouble getting his shots in.
RD 8: for Burton: Burton gets angry when the ref pauses the fight to bring him to the corner to have the doctor look at him. Burton plays to the crowd as if to say ''Tell 'em to let me go back and fight again. I'm fine.'' The ref sternly instructs Burton to let the doctor look in his ear. Beyond the damage to Burton, the talk from the commentators is that Mayweather may've seriously damaged his right hand. I'd give this round to Burton or call it even. Floyd had a lot less action in this round and Burton maintained pressure. Emanuel does not cower and at one point looks frustrated when he has to stalk Mayweather down to get into more action.
RD 9: for Mayweather: In the corner, Burton's trainer Nelson Lopez tells Burton that he doesn't want to stop the fight but he will if Burton doesn't do something. I'm not sure what the hell he thinks Burton can do that he hasn't already done. Burton comes out and Floyd starts putting the pressure on him as if he sees it's time to try and get him out of there. Lopez waves the towel and Floyd sees it and immediately stops and walks away. It's declared a TKO victory for Floyd after a virtual shut out of a deceptively great fighter.
BE's Bottom line: On paper, Mayweather's shut out victory over Emanuel Augustus doesn't even come close to telling the real story of the competitive nature of this fight or the caliber of fighter which he fought. You can know the statistics but if you don't watch the fights, sometimes you never really understand. The fight ended up a great achievement for both fighters, though the stats would never clue you in on it.
After the fight:
Floyd Mayweather, Jr.: Mayweather went on to an unarguably tremendous career. After Emanuel, he fought one of the toughest opponents around in Diego ''Chico'' Corrales and despite a large disadvantage in size, defeated him in a completely one sided match by TKO. Then he won a controversial decision over the great Jose Luis Castillo in a highly pressurized fight. This won him the WBC World Lightweight world title. Mayweather won another decision against Castillo in a well accepted rematch. Floyd moved up yet again and completely outclassed and outgunned legendary blood and guts warrior, Arturo ''Thunder'' Gatti causing Gatti's trainer, Buddy McGirt to stop the fight because Gatti had no visible hope to win through the punishment.
Moving up in weight class again, Mayweather defeated Zab Judah in a chaotic fight by decision and took the IBO and IBF welterweight titles. He then won a defensive and fan unfriendly fight with the slow Carlos Baldomir for the WBC and IBA welterweight title. He then moved up yet again to light middleweight and fought Oscar De La Hoya to a controversial split decision victory, taking the WBC light middleweight world title. Following that, he fought Ricky Hatton to retain his WBC welterweight title and knocked Hatton out for Hatton's first ever professional defeat after Hatton put Mayweather under a great deal of pressure. All totaled, he retired having won world championships in five different weight classes-Super Featherweight, Lightweight, Light Welterweight, Welterweight and Light Middleweight and keeping an undefeated record of 39-0-0 with 25 kayos. There is little dispute that Floyd was the pound for pound best boxer at his recent retirement this year.
Emanuel Burton (Augustus):
Emanuel is still fighting under his new last name, Augustus. He went on to fight in one of the best fights I've ever seen with ''Irish'' Mickey Ward and to completely dominate Ray Oliviera in drunken master style. He also shocked Alex Trujillo to take the IBA light welterweight title. He's earned an ESPN cult following for his unusual antics in the ring as much as his determination. He now lives in Sydney, Australia and is the subject of a documentary slated to be called ''The Journeyman'' that will follow him until he retires or wins the world championship as I hear it. His current record is 38-29-6 with 20 kayos. He's boxed over 500 rounds and recently won the WBO Oriental light welterweight minor title.
I hope you've enjoyed BE's look back and will leave us a comment if you have something to add. Watch James Toney and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. talking about Emanuel in this quick youtube clip, courtesy of youtube.com and fightfan.com:
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