The Best Wins of Floyd Mayweather's Career

Floyd Mayweather goes into his mega-clash with MMA star Conor McGregor next month bidding to win his 50th professional contest. The American went into retirement following his victory over Andre Berto in 2015, where it looked like he was going to end his career unbeaten with 49 wins. A huge money-making fight with McGregor now beckons, though, which promises to include trash talking from both men, interest from non-boxing fans and a clash in fighting styles.

The bookmakers have already shown their hand in the McGregor vs Mayweather betting markets, with the unbeaten boxer the early -700 favorite to win the contest. McGregor is +450 to cause an upset, which could lead to the UFC star remaining in the sport in the future.

Here is a look back at Mayweather’s three best ever wins in the professional career that started back in 1996 when he made his debut in Las Vegas.

Oscar De La Hoya

In 2007, Mayweather took a huge risk by going up in weight to fight one of the legends of the sport in Oscar De La Hoya at light-middleweight. Many boxing pundits advised against it, but Mayweather is his own boss and rejected the advice.

It turned out to be for good reason, as well, as he claimed the WBC belt in the division with a split-decision victory over the champion. Both men were involved in trash talking ahead of their contest and remain rivals to this day as promoters. The victory for Mayweather, though, earned him an enormous amount of respect and also helped cement his legacy as one of the best pound-for-pound boxers of his generation.

Saul Alvarez

Mayweather once again fought at light-middleweight when he took on at the time the unbeaten Mexican Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez in what was, at the time, a huge contest. Alvarez was regarded as one of the best boxers in the middleweight divisions and had a heavy punching game that looked set cause the American huge problems.

However, as he has done throughout his career, Mayweather rose to the challenge to win as he dominated the contest. Since then, 'Canelo' has been able to rebuild his career and is once again regarded as one of the best middleweights on the planet – which goes to show how good of a victory this was for the man who likes to call himself 'Money'.

Manny Pacquiao

It looked like Mayweather vs Pacquiao was never going to happen, but in 2015 it was announced that the two men had eventually agreed to fight each other in what was being billed as the ‘fight of the century’. What made this contest so fascinating was the different styles from the two boxers. Mayweather is a smart boxer who likes to move around the ring, while Pacquiao, on the other hand, prefers to dominate the middle of the ring from the front foot and is never afraid to get into a brawl.

Sadly it did not end up being the classic we all expected and that was due to the excellence of Mayweather, who was simply spectacular on the night to win. The American was rarely hit and inflicted one of the most one-sided losses of Pacquiao’s career.

A victory over McGregor next month could help earn Mayweather respect from non-boxing fans, but there is nothing more he needs to do within boxing to ensure he ends his career as one of the greatest there has ever been.