Teddy Atlas: It's insulting to compare Mayweather to great fighters

[Kalion]

Say what u want,but Mayweather could have fought in ANY era and won titles

True, but when you match him up with guys like Robinson, Its a stretch to mayweather wouldve Licked him.

[pac oww]

Not a fan of Mayweather.

but to say he only relies on speed is a straight up lie. The dude can BOX.

[Breakbeat]

WARRRRRRR TEDDY!!!!!!!!!

Hahahaha..........so true!

[Boss Don]

why do people hate on Floyd's success he did what every fight should want to do stay undefeated, make the most money, and become the best fighter in the world where did he go wrong? I don't understand

[PRINCSHERPY]

Anyone with brain know that TEDDY is right.

[Bryght]

“You cannot get intoxicated to the point where you are comparing Floyd Mayweather Jr. to one of the great fighters of all time,” Atlas said. “I’m not taking anything away from Floyd, but I think it’s insulting to the great fighters and to the great history of the sport to make that comparison.”

Atlas is 100% correct.

[Crazylegs77]

The praise of Floyd Mayweather’s extraordinary athletic ability is not always matched by the critiques of his actual boxing skills or opponent choices.

Right or wrong, that is the sole curse upon his professional boxing career that must be addressed in choosing candidates for his past few opponents.

Increasingly, there is some question whether that will happen.

In an interview with a boxing Web site this week, Richard Schaefer, chief executive officer of Golden Boy Promotions, suggested an outside candidate for a 2010 fight with Mayweather is 19-year-old Saul Alvarez of Mexico, whom no one without an intimate understanding of the sport knows.

It is worth noting that Schaefer does not speak for Mayweather, whose past three bouts have been under the Golden Boy banner, although they have no promotional contract.

Schaefer just might be angling the undefeated Alvarez for a major bout and using Mayweather’s name to advance that cause.

Let’s hope so, because if that fight actually happened next year, in lieu of the major proposals on Mayweather’s immediate horizon, it only would serve to fuel criticism of the Grand Rapids native’s accomplishments.

In an outstanding book by Mike Silver, “The Arc of Boxing,” one section is devoted to dissecting Mayweather’s career.

Some of the most knowledgeable boxing figures of this era said Mayweather’s ability would not translate to the sport’s golden past because his superior speed and a diminished talent pool never required him to develop skills beyond natural athleticism.

Veteran matchmaker Bill Goodman said Mayweather benefits from an era of “unskilled labor.”

“They talk about Mayweather’s speed, but he isn’t as fast and as skillful as Bernie Docusen, who fought Sugar Ray Robinson for the title in 1948 and gave him plenty of trouble,” Goodman said in the book. “Would you say Mayweather’s going to give Ray Robinson as a welterweight plenty of trouble? There’s no comparison. But you go and tell that to a young boxing fan today and they think you’re a psycho.”

Television analyst and trainer Teddy Atlas cited the fight with Oscar De La Hoya as evidence that Mayweather was unable to create offensive openings until “De La Hoya made it easy for him and just opened the door for him by walking in with no jab and not offering up the answers and the resistance that he should have.”

“You cannot get intoxicated to the point where you are comparing Floyd Mayweather Jr. to one of the great fighters of all time,” Atlas said. “I’m not taking anything away from Floyd, but I think it’s insulting to the great fighters and to the great history of the sport to make that comparison.”

Former lightweight and junior welterweight champion Carlos Ortiz called Mayweather “just a regular fighter with great speed.”

The only way for Mayweather to temper some of those criticisms is to continue beating the best fighters of his era.

Mayweather probably won’t start negotiating seriously for his next fight until the Nov. 14 Manny Pacquiao-Miguel Cotto bout is completed. The winner is his best possible opponent and the loser might be second-best.

Failing that, a fight with Paul Williams or Shane Mosley is next on the wish list.

There is a substantial dropoff after those four.

Andre Berto is undefeated and has the World Boxing Council welterweight title that Mayweather abicated during his leave of absence, but may not be quite ready for such a big fight. Antonio Margarito has to recover from the loaded-hand-wraps incident, discovered before his loss to Shane Mosley, which clouds his achievements. Joshua Clottey must bounce back from his split-decision loss to Cotto.

Mayweather drew criticism for fighting blown-up lightweight Juan Manuel Marquez in his September comeback. But fans recognized Marquez’s skills and propelled Mayweather into a new strata of mainstream popularity with 1 million pay-per-view buys.

Whatever happens next, opponents with similar resumes to Marquez’s meet only the minimum requirement to step into the ring with Mayweather.

That does not include some teen-aged nobody with promotional ties masquerading as true qualifications.

http://www.mlive.com/mayweather/inde...s_top-not.html

I agree with Teddy but people like to get all carried away by the hype and the 0 om his record and forsake logic.

[Doorag]

the only one comparing him to srr is himself.

[Ray*]

I think its alway difficult to compare any fighter of this generation to past fighters, Its something that i dont really like to do, Fighters back in those days just get in the ring and fight, A featherweight in those days would fight a middleweight weigh-in has a featherweight not making his middleweight opponent drain himself by coming in has a lightweight etc

[Bogler]

true that about floyd-oscar. when oscar stopped jabbin, the fight started swinging to mayweather.