Did Floyd "retire" in 2007 because he was shook by the 147 division heating up?

[BrometheusBob.]

While I thought taking that time off was kind of a weak and unusual move, I am surprised at the degree of onesidedness of the poll results and of a few posters I considered Floyd stans until they posted condemnation of this move by Floyd in this thread.

Whatever his true reasons were, it's a shame that he took a year of his prime off. I think some people are ranking him a bit too high in ATG list (Mosley said some **** like top 5), but nonetheless an ATG. That year could have added a bit but it turned out to not be career ruining.

Let's remember that the man is fighting now at 38. Plenty of boxers who did not take a year off in their best days did not fight in their late thirties (or if they did, their success in those years often went down notably). In other words, it could be argued that the time he was off then was essentially made up for by fighting into his late 30s with the same degree of success as he had in the days before he initially retired, albeit in much less exciting fashion.

[PAC-BOY]

He DID NOT want to rematch DLH!!!!!! Plain and simple!!!!!

[SunSpace]

Floyd Mayweather blatantly ducked a prime Cotto by retiring at that time. I remember he was even questioned by Merchant on fighting Cotto, immediately after beating Hatton, to which Mayweather responded something along the lines of, "I'm not going to let boxing retire me. I'm going to retire from boxing." Essentially, Mayweather appeared to be of the opinion that he had made enough money to go and didn't need to take the risk of a Cotto fight. Ironically, economic trouble forced Mayweather to return, or so it seems, not too long after. Mayweather was clever, though, and let these top fighters take each other out in the meantime. In the Cotto-Margarito case, it couldn't have worked out better for Mayweather. Margarito's cheating was soon exposed, but not before Cotto suffered a career-altering beating. Mayweather came back, fought Marquez, and everyone knows how he carefully selected fights. The man is smart.

[MPX309]

Yeah that break/retirement really hurt his legacy, He could have had some more names on it, and in better times of their carrier.

[The Hammer]

Floyd Mayweather blatantly ducked a prime Cotto by retiring at that time.

Yes, and Margarito, Williams, and Mosley too.

Mayweather waited until he was sure Mosley had faded with age before he agreed to the fight a few years later.

[Pac=Duran]

He DID NOT want to rematch DLH!!!!!! Plain and simple!!!!!

Or Margarito or Mosely or Cotto or Williams. All prime and all ready to go.

[Mukuro]

He basically said "**** this, I'm not gonna survive unless I start juicing and buying people".

[2shameless]

10 years he's been hiding out at WW, cherry picking the occasional SWW at a CW. Now that WW is heating up again with Brook, Thurman, Khan, Garcia and Ali, he's "retiring" again. TBE doe.

[Tyler_Durden]

He wasn't just shook he was scared ****less, that fu*cken fraud coward.

[rocky_balboa23]

yeah plus he wants to do some extra medication, if you know what i mean. hahahhaha