By Stephen "Breadman" Edwards

The Daily Bread Mailbag is back with another edition, as Stephen 'Breadman' Edwards discussed WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto, WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder, WBC/WBA/WBO welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. and more.

One of the stupidest comments I've read in a while.  Loses badly to Pacquiao (ran the second half of the fight), Mayweather, and Trout.  Loses to Margarito.  And another significant win makes him an all time great?  He beat an overrated, washed up Martinez, one eyed Margarito, and over the hill Mosley.  Wow.  Gift decision against legendary Clottey though

Bread’s Response: Thanks for the kind words but I don’t think you realize how good Cotto’s resume is. I don’t view him as an all time great especially not by the eye ball test. There are lots of junior welters and welters I think beat him. But his accomplishments are starting to add up.

If I’m not mistaken he’s the first Puerto Rican fighter to win titles in 4 divisions. He is also one of the few junior welters champions to win a middleweight championship. Off the top of my head I can only think of Oscar De La Hoya as the other.

Cotto has also defeated 14 ex world champions, thats nothing to sneeze at. He has 6 victories over undefeated fighters, which is a lot in this era. I know he loss to the two best fighters of this generation but it’s no shame in that. If he somehow can beat GGG or avenge his Mayweather loss then he would hover around all time great status in my opinion. Let’s see what happens he would be the underdog against both.

Bread, my grandfather and I had a conversation about same day weigh-ins. He believes that if they were still happening now, we would get better quality fights now. His opinion on it that it would force fighters not to balloon up so much in between fights and force them to stay in the gym to work on there craft and really become full-time fighters. He believes guys on there way up should be fighting once every 6 weeks and once they're a household name should be fighting no less than 3 times a year. Your take?

Also I looked at James Toney early career record and from October of 1988 to May of 1991(his first title shot) he had 26 FIGHTS! I believe his style allowed him to fight often because he didn't get hit clean. Man if he had a Bernard Hopkins discipline he would've been.....

Mason Voorhees

Bread’s Repsonse: Over the course of time the fight quality may pick up. But if we switched back to same day weigh ins tomorrow the fighters would still try to shrink down and they would hurt themselves. 90% of fighters are stubborn and not educated enough to realize how bad they damage their organs by shrinking down 20lbs a training camp. But trust me 90% of them do it and will keep doing it. It’s the best kept secret in boxing. I agree 100% on how often they should fight. It sharpens the iron. People always claim the fighters of this era last longer but they don’t factor in number of fights per year. With the recovery methods of modern technology, illegal ped use and low number fights they should last longer. But there is no doubt in my mind that the fighters who fought more often had higher peaks and better technical skills.

James Toney had as good as a run that I have seen in the last 20 years in his first 6 years as pro from his pro debut to the Roy Jones fight. His peak was special. He gets overlooked a little bit now but I always knew how special he was. And you are correct for as good as he was if he would have been more disciplined he would be Mt Rushmore type of special. Oh well it’s the way it goes sometimes.

I can see by your social media you are a huge basketball fan. So I want to know if you think today’s athletes get slighted because it always seems that the greatest is an athlete from the past. Even you seem guilty of ranking Jordan over Lebron James and Sugar Ray Robinson over Floyd Mayweather. I know you think Robinson is the best fighter ever but tell me what one thing you think Floyd is the best at. It has to be something. And do you think Lebron has a shot at passing Jordan? Do you rank any athletes that you have lived to witness as the absolute best?

Bread’s Response: I’m actually a huge sports fan. I love boxing, basketball and football. And I follow the history or baseball and horse racing. I’m the type of person that just simply wants to be fair. So if a current athlete is the best I will say it with no problem. I actually love it when I get to witness the best as it occurs in my lifetime.

Football is the ultimate team sport so you have to break it down by position. I am convinced that I have witnessed the best quarterback in Joe Montana, best wide receiver in Jerry Rice, best outside linebacker in Lawrence Taylor, best inside linebacker in Ray Lewis, best corner back in Deion Sanders and best safety in Ronnie Lott.

In baseball unfortunately I am not old enough to have witnessed most of the greats as they have performed. Especially with the better players of this era being linked to PEDS.

In basketball I got to see the best in Michael Jordan. I have studied basketball as much as I have boxing. And trust me when I tell you Michael Jordan is the best basketball player ever. I love Lebron James and if he wins this series he’s approaching top 5 with a bullet. James can surpass Jordan but I don’t think he will. Going 6 for 6 in the finals would be hard for James to overcome but let’s see how his career plays out.

Floyd Mayweather is phenomenal. I just don’t think a fighter of this era can be the best with as many misses as Floyd has. Because of all of the advantages the current fighter has, day before weigh in, glove sizes and texture, youtube, recovery technology, more available belts and less fights. So when you have these luxuries I just feel it’s difficult to compare to a man like say Ray Robinson who had to give up 17lbs to an all time great middleweight in Jake Lamotta with 6 oz gloves on. I know it’s not Floyd’s fault when he was born….But For a current fighter to be the best he has to have James Toney’s and Evander Holyfield’s I will fight anybody and anywhere type of attitude. He has to look like Roy Jones with the eye ball test. And he has to have Floyd Mayweather and Ricardo Lopes type of glossy numbers.

What Floyd does better than anybody else is concentrate, he has as good as “mental stamina” as anyone around. I don’t know if it’s the best ever but he’s in the argument. He hasn’t had to fight in 15 round fights but for a 12 round fight he’s as good as you will see. I don’t have a stat for this but I am willing to bet that Floyd has won at 95% of the rounds on the official judges scorecards of the second half of his fights through his career.

So if he had a fight that went 6 rounds, I would bet he won rounds 4 through 6. If he had an 8 rounder I would bet he won rounds 5 through 8. Floyd can just concentrate and perform mentally as time goes on in bouts and it kills his opponents. I can only think of 1 fight in his career where he didn’t get the better of the fight in the 2nd half and that was his 1st fight against Jose Luis Castillo. Every other fight in his career he was the dominant fighter in the 2nd half of the fight. Floyd’s greatest gift is his mental stamina.

What do you think of Danny Garcia vs Paulie Malignaggi? Do you think Danny is cherry picking? Will this fight be at a catchweight?

Bread’s Response: If this fight is at 147 I think it’s a solid fight for Danny to make his full welterweight debut. And guess what, I think it’s a trap fight for Danny.

Because of what Shawn Porter did to Paulie if Danny does not win a similar fashion he will get discredited. I don’t know what Paulie has left but Paulie can box and I think he has enough IQ to steal some of what Mauricio Herrera did to Danny. Also Danny is not really a tracker. He’s not a pressure fighter. What Danny really is, is a stalking counter puncher. He stalks you squared up, invites you to hit him and when you do he opens up with you. His best performances come when fighters do just that. Amir Khan and Lucas Matthysse.

The less you give Danny to counter punch the more choppy his performance. Danny can also be hit with a jab and that’s Paulie’s best punch. I’m not saying Paulie will win, but Danny has been really taking a lot of heat lately and I think if Paulie is competitive Danny will take more heat. I think Paulie will be very competitive.

How do you think Nicholas Walters will do this weekend? I hear he has a tough fight on his hands. It seems like every weekend we have something to look forward to. I love it. Also who does GGG fight next?

Bread’s Response: With the NBA finals and boxing every weekend I will be ok until my Eagles get back in action. 2015 has been awesome.

Nicholas Walters is in a real fight vs Miguel Marriaga. Marriaga can fight and he beat Walters as high ranking amateurs. But I look for Walters to get revenge in a shoot out. Sort of a Miguel Cotto vs Ricardo Torres type of shootout. We also have Deontay Wilder and Erislandy Lara in action. Both guys are in showcase fights and I expect both to score kos. Wilder early and Lara late.

And yes next weekend Adrien Broner is fighting Shawn Porter. I still don’t have a definitive winner in this one. What I do find interesting is that Vegas has Porter as the favorite. They are usually right about 80% of the time.

It does not seem that too many middleweights want to fight GGG. He has to wait for the winner of Cotto vs Canelo and that’s no guarantee. I think the next best avaialbel guy is the winner of Ndam vs Lemieux they haven’t fought yet. A solid fight would be against Tureano  Johnson.

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