Photo courtesy of www.intheringboxing.com
Karim “Hard Hitta” Mayfield
Top Rank Promotions has secured another critical piece to its arsenal of championship contenders. NABO Welterweight champion, Karim “Hard Hitta” Mayfield is now on the rise to success.
Mayfield, who is ranked No. 2 by the WBO at 140 pounds and fights out of San Francisco, CA, started his professional career in November of 2006 and now stands firm at 17-0-1, 10 KOs. Mayfield was victorious over Patrick Lopez in October of 2011, securing his first title belt and has since successfully defended it twice.
Mayfield is known for his controversial use of social media, having recently called upon WBC champion Danny ‘”Swift” Garcia. The infamous “Run Danny, Run” slogan has been filtering through the web for the past few months and has generated much attention toward Mayfield and his camp.
During a recent interview with Mayfield, RBRBoxing asked what the so called “beef” with Danny Garcia was about. Mayfield had this to say, “The beef with Danny is, shoot, he’s got all the belts man, that’s the only beef.”
Mayfield expressed his appreciation, having been recently afforded the opportunity to be promoted by world recognized Top Rank Promotions. With a solid record, Mayfield has crossed a threshold where he can no longer simply be ignored.
The talented, orthodox fighter is unique in the ring. The hardest challenge when facing Mayfield is how one prepares. He is quick and explosive with his hands—having 10 of his fights decided by way of knockout—and has certainly shown that he is dangerous.
Mayfield’s foot work has proven that he is not an easy target to connect with either. When trying to compare his speed and style to well-known champion contenders, Manny Pacquiao comes to mind.
A “Mystery Fighter” video was released on YouTube, which shows a sparring session with Pacquiao, and one can argue that the “Mystery Fighter’s” speed, agility, and accuracy were worthy of being a top contender.
Rumors and names of who the unknown fighter is have been argued by fans and critics. Mayfield took credit for the sparring match, confirming that he was the person in the ring with Pacquiao.
Mayfield has stated that the video shown is only one of five rounds of sparring that occurred. He also stated that upon release of the video, the Pacquiao camp insisted that it be removed from YouTube immediately.
Some critics have argued that Mayfield is not a world champion contender. In looking at some of the critics’ views and reasoning, I did some comparisons to find fact in their claims.
One important comparison I came across was Mayfield’s caliber of opponents. Although many will argue that Mayfield has not truly been tested to determine if he is worthy of big fights, he has one solid victory that cannot be contested.
On June 17, 2011 Mayfield defeated Stevie Forbes by way of 10 Round TKO. The stoppage was setup by a straight right hand, followed by a series of combinations, which in turn caused the referee to stop the fight.
Forbes had previously fought big name fighters such as Oscar De La Hoya and Andre Berto. Although Forbes also lost to those opponents, Mayfield was and is still the only person to hand Forbes a defeat by way of knockout.
So what does this mean for Mayfield?
Can he truly be a future top named fighter in the sport of boxing? It is fair to say that he is now in a position to show just exactly what he is made of.
Outside the ring, Mayfield is already stepping up to the plate as a role model. He has been reaching out to fans and supporters offering his mentorship to youth in the community.
He expressed his interest in helping out youth saying, “I would just like to give back and show the youngsters that whatever you put your mind to do, you can do it”.
Up next, Mayfield expressed his interest in challenging Khabib Allakhverdeiv—who scored an 11 Round TKO victory on Saturday, July 13, 2013—for his WBA title in the fall of this year. Mayfield has made it clear that in the next three future fights, the fans will see just what he is about.
The very humble Mayfield is determined to sit at the top and it is apparent that despite the critics views, Top Rank Promotions has seen something in this potential future world champion that is worthy of a shot.
All quotes obtained firsthand by Gino Garcia for Round By Round Boxing. Gino Garcia is a contributing writer for Round By Round Boxing and the founder of Bang Hard Boxing. Follow Gino @BangHardBoxing on Instagram.