Karim Mayweather Case Study

Rising boxing star Karim "Hard Hitta" Mayfield (19-2-1, 11 KO's) thinks he has what it takes to deal the undefeated Floyd "Money" Mayweather (48-0, 26 KO's) the first loss of his career, joining a long list of possible September opponents for the sport's pound-for-pound king.

Who is Karim Mayfield, you ask? That's a great question -- one that Mayfield himself has yet to answer.

The San Francisco, California native has yet to score a career-defining victory over a big name but could possibly end up landing a mega bout against the sport's finest pugilist.

Mayweather recently singled out Mayfield and former titleholder Andre Berto, in addition to Bolton boxing superstar Amir Khan, as frontrunners for landing the big fight later this year.

If he ends up landing the Mayweather fight the decision would be based on pure skill rather than on merit.

Mayweather chooses fights based on neither of those factors, but instead based on revenue, which makes Khan, who has a huge fan following, the most sensible choice by Mayweather's standards.

At 38 years old, Mayweather is certainly no spring chicken, with visible physical decline in speed and reflexes, particularly with movement -- but he's still one hell of a ring tactician and perhaps the most intelligent fighter in the history of the sport.

Mayweather's last few fights were against a string of high calibre opponents which include Miguel Cotto, Robert Guerrero, Maidana (twice) and Pacquiao. Indisputable victories over these future hall-of-famers didn't come easy, but Mayweather certainly made it appear that way.

Maidana and Cotto in particular did the most damage. Pacquiao, who was expected to give Mayweather the toughest fight of his career, ended up underperforming, citing a shoulder injury as the root cause.

Maybe Mayfield knows something we don't, or maybe not, but give him brownie points for unbridled