Floyd Mayweather Jr. Outclassed Juan Manuel Marquez

I recently picked Juan Manuel Marquez to upset Floyd Mayweather Jr. I figured, because of Mayweather's long absence from the boxing ring, he would definitely have some rust to shake off. How wrong I was. As I've said before, every time I went against the grain and picked against Mayweather, he made me eat crow; no different this time!

Floyd Mayweather Jr. started off quickly and looked like he never went anywhere. He pretty much dominated from the opening bell to the last round.

It was a case of a great bigger man beating a good smaller man. We have to put Marquez's size into perspective; just 18 months ago, he was fighting at 130 pounds. Marquez fought Mayweather at the highest weight he's ever had to fight at. Juan's punches didn't have the same snap, and he obviously didn't carry all that extra weight as good as Manny has, for example.

But take nothing away from Mayweather's performance; regardless of his size advantage, I figured it would at least be a competitive fight, in large part because of Floyd's long lay-off. That certainly wasn't the case. I'm not shocked that Mayweather won, but I am surprised at how he dominated. He made it look like a walk in the park.

Even after such a brilliant display of boxing from Mayweather, he will still have his hard-core critics. They'll say he beat a smaller man yet again; his cherry picking continues. If that's the case, should Mayweather bypass a match-up with Manny Pacquiao, should he come away victorious against Miguel Cotto, and opt to fight the winner of the Mosley-Clottey fight? These are legit questions to ask yourself. If Mayweather fights AND BEATS Manny, his critics can still use the size advantage angle - but if he goes on to face Clottey or Mosley, he'll be belittled for ducking Manny. I guess some of these questions will be answered after we find out who wins between Mosley-Clottey/Cotto-Pac.

Whatever the case, I'd favor Mayweather against all 4 challengers. I know styles make fights, but Mayweather is on a whole different tier than the rest. After watching him fight Saturday, after going against Mayweather, and after eating crow AGAIN, I'm going to be hard pressed to ever pick against him again. That much I know.