I am not going to beat around the bush, I don't like Mayweather and in my personal opinion he helped in perpetuating the risk/reward model because he was so successful at generating the highest reward possible for the lowest risk possible. He did take risks and he fought good fighters but there were many instances where he didn't fight the best fighters at the divisions he was in and took on lesser fighters. Due to his success a lot of fighters are starting to implement this strategy or so it seems (Canelo vs. Kahn anyone?). i just recently looked at the top 10 super welterweights and to my surprise most of them haven't fought in 3-5 months and have no fights lined up. These are top guys, Charlo brothers, Lara, Andrade, Vanes (though vanes is a bad example because he has fought majority of the top super welterweights) etc.
I can't blame Floyd for applying the basic human instinct of taking the least amount of risk for the highest reward. We all do it, however as a fan of a sport, i want to see the best fight the best and usually that doesn't always translate for fighters as the risk and reward don't match. The reason why i bring Mayweather to the conversation is because he was the one and only guy who successfully executed this strategy to the extend that he did and was the fighter who earned the biggest financial rewards, no one will remember 20 years from now the small things like the catchweight vs. Canelo or the gloves vs. Maidana, or why the fight with Margarito and Paul Williams didn't take place etc. But they will remember that he beat Paquio, and moved up 5 weight classes and made the most money.
Some time ago Floyd said he did a lot of the sport, in my eyes he did more damage than good. Floyd is a great boxer and has top notch skills but he did more harm to the sport than good. There are others fighters who in my opinion did harm to the sport but Floyd did something that would negatively effect the sport for years to come, other fighters negative effects would end or have ended ie Wlad Klitschko hurt the sport as due to his extremely boring fighting style he turned off many fans, and he was my favorite fighter pre-Emanuel Steward.
This thread isn't to debate how good Mayweather is or how he would or could have beaten fighters he didn't fight. Its a simple question of did Floyd help the sport or make it worse.
I can't blame Floyd for applying the basic human instinct of taking the least amount of risk for the highest reward. We all do it, however as a fan of a sport, i want to see the best fight the best and usually that doesn't always translate for fighters as the risk and reward don't match. The reason why i bring Mayweather to the conversation is because he was the one and only guy who successfully executed this strategy to the extend that he did and was the fighter who earned the biggest financial rewards, no one will remember 20 years from now the small things like the catchweight vs. Canelo or the gloves vs. Maidana, or why the fight with Margarito and Paul Williams didn't take place etc. But they will remember that he beat Paquio, and moved up 5 weight classes and made the most money.
Some time ago Floyd said he did a lot of the sport, in my eyes he did more damage than good. Floyd is a great boxer and has top notch skills but he did more harm to the sport than good. There are others fighters who in my opinion did harm to the sport but Floyd did something that would negatively effect the sport for years to come, other fighters negative effects would end or have ended ie Wlad Klitschko hurt the sport as due to his extremely boring fighting style he turned off many fans, and he was my favorite fighter pre-Emanuel Steward.
This thread isn't to debate how good Mayweather is or how he would or could have beaten fighters he didn't fight. Its a simple question of did Floyd help the sport or make it worse.
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