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Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Sharmba Mitchell
Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Sharmba Mitchell, billed as Pound for Pound King: Battle of Champions, was a professional boxing match contested on November 19, 2005.[1] BackgroundIn his previous fight, Mayweather had defeated reigning WBC super lightweight champion Arturo Gatti in dominating fashion to capture his third world title in his third different weight class.[2] Following his victory over Gatti, Mayweather engaged in negotiations with 2-time light middleweight champion Ronald "Winky" Wright that would see Mayweather jump up two weight classes and Wright, who was then fighting in the 160-pound middleweight division, drop back down to the 154-pound light middleweight division. However, the fight fell through when Wright insisted on an even 50-50 split of the fight's purse which Mayweather refused.[3] Ricky Hatton, who held the IBF's version of the super lightweight title expressed interest in a unification bout with Mayweather, but his offer was declined and he instead pursued a unification with the WBA's super lightweight champion Carlos Maussa.[4] In October 2005, it was announced that Mayweather would face former super lightweight champion Sharmba Mitchell on November 19 at the Rose Garden in Portland, Oregon. Initially, it was announced that Mayweather would be defending his newly won title against Mitchell, but the fight was later changed to a non-title bout that would see Mayweather make his welterweight debut.[5] Mayweather, who in addition to Wright and Hatton was also in talks with Miguel Cotto, Zab Judah, Antonio Margarito and Shane Mosley, was criticized for choosing the now 35-year old Mitchell as an opponent being that Mitchell's career was on the decline and he had been dominated in his last major fight against Kostya Tszyu the previous year. Mayweather defended his choice of Mitchell stating that he felt Mitchell had "a lot left." Though Mayweather had previously vowed after his pay-per-view debut against Gatti that he would fight exclusively on pay-per-view going forward, his fight against Mitchell was aired on a standard episode of HBO World Championship Boxing. This would be Mayweather's final non-pay-per-view fight.[6] The FightMitchell was the more active fighter, throwing 274 punches compared to Mayweather's 231, but struggled to penetrate Mayweather's defense and landed just 31 punches through six rounds. Mayweather, meanwhile, landed 85 punches, all but 20 being classified as power punches. Mayweather sent Mitchell down to the canvas twice; first in the third round after Mayweather caught Mitchell with a short right hand just under a minute into the round, and the second in the sixth round when a body shot Mayweather landed forced Mitchell to take a knee. Mitchell remained on his knee in pain while referee Richard Steele counted to 10 before getting back up at the count of nine, however, as Mitchell had been badly dominated up to that point, Steele decided to stop the fight. Mayweather, though initially declared the winner by a standard knockout, was officially named the winner by technical knockout at 2:06 of the round.[7] Fight cardConfirmed bouts:[8]
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