D.Rafael: "In his 6TH YEAR as a WW, it's about time that he faces a legit/elite opp."

depends on the boxers experience

actually, they both cherrypick, stop fooling yourself. shane does not cherrypick. floyd fighting shane is a huge step toward floyd reclaiming the rep he began building himself at 130,135. manny does currently have more wins over elite fighters at their weights and prime hof fighters than floyd, but its close imo. pac v barrera 1 trumps all of floyd's best wins imo. so does his second win v jmm Him blatantly turning down one of the fighters pbf "ducked" PW, and turning down fights against pbf is called what?

what i'm saying is, Dan's logic is flawed. Floyd was retired for 2 of those six years. At that time zab was still highly ranked dispite his loss to baldy. Before his lost to baldo Zab was considered the best challenge at WW for floyd. It can also be argued, that lost to baldy notwithstanding, at that particular time zab was an elite WW. I mean he did bit Spinks for the title, right? Zab had all the belts at welter at one point in time. In retrospect, it's easy to say Zab is salt, but at that time fans and journalist alike were singing a diff tune. Baldy was not elite but he was the lineal champ. How can you wrong a man for fighting for the lineal championship? I don't get that. He went up in weight to fight for the 154 trinket, then came back down and fought the best fight that could be made at that time: two undefeated lineal champs in vegas (the jr WW lineal vs the WW lineal), somebody's oh has got to go. C'mon, at that time, that was the best fight to be made. So in four years not six he fought two highly ranked welters (by everyones account at that time) a Junior middleweight at that weight and the undefeated jr ww champ. That's the reality of the situation. Dutty from the top ropes!!!!! Well put.

More hate. I promise, there's never been a fighter that received more blatant hate than Floyd Mayweather Jr..

This is stupid because during that time he beat Baldomir and Judah who were the top ranked welters, which would make them elite welters. They may not be elite fighters or elite welters in history but at the time they were the top ranked and one of them was lineal champion. He also went up to 154 in that time and fought an undefeated Hatton and was inactive for 2 years. 6 years is hyperbole regardless of whether you believe Mayweather fought top opposition in that time or not, because he was inactive for 1/3 of that time. good post....

elite is different than top ranked Please explain to us how "elite" is different from "top ranked." Does the term elite refer to the most popular? If it does Mosley wouldn't be elite because he can't draw flies. Does elite mean the person who has won the most titles? If so, that would not be Mosley because he won titles at two weight classes -- welterweight and lightweight. Hatton won titles at junior welterweight and welterweight just as Judah did, but neither of these are considered "elite" fighters. Also, Juan Manuel Marquez won titles at four weight classes, but I guess he is not considered "elite" either even though he moved up from 135 to 147 just like Mosley. Does elite refer to fighters who have lost to the best they have faced (Mosley lost to Forest, Wright and Cotto, while Judah lost to Kostya Tsyzu, Mayweather, Cotto, Baldomir and Clottey)? If so Mosley wouldn't be elite because both he and Judah are equal in that category. Please help us understand how elite differs from top-ranked!

Uhhh Floyd fought 4 times at WW and took a 2 year break. 2 were against the WW champion and....wait he knows this. He is just being the dick that he always is.

Dan is too hateful, I find it very hard to read his stuff.

http://a.espncdn.com/i/columnists/rafael_dan_m.jpg Hits: In his sixth year as a welterweight, Mayweather at long last will step into the crucible of a legitimate welterweight fight against an elite opponent who actually has a reasonable chance to win. He'll meet Shane Mosley on May 1 in the year's biggest fight so far. It's all we've asked for, and it's about time. Misses: Mayweather's disrespect and contempt for Mosley throughout the promotion is wearing a bit thin. The act is oh-so-old. http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/columns/story?columnist=rafael_dan&id=5121903 More bullshit from Dan Rafael. This clown was among those who were saying that Zab Judah had better speed than Mayweather and could outbox him. Of course, this was before Judah lost to Carlos Baldomir. He was also among those who claimed that Baldomir was too strong for Mayweather and had a good chance of winning. He also predicted that Oscar De La Hoya would beat Mayweather at 154. Now, he has forgotten about those comments and is claiming this is the first "welterweight" that has a chance of beating him. This man is a real crock of shit!!!:sucks:

http://a.espncdn.com/i/columnists/rafael_dan_m.jpg Hits: In his sixth year as a welterweight, Mayweather at long last will step into the crucible of a legitimate welterweight fight against an elite opponent who actually has a reasonable chance to win. He'll meet Shane Mosley on May 1 in the year's biggest fight so far. It's all we've asked for, and it's about time. Misses: Mayweather's disrespect and contempt for Mosley throughout the promotion is wearing a bit thin. The act is oh-so-old. http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/columns/story?columnist=rafael_dan&id=5121903 I think Raf is right. this is the 1st elite WW that floyd has fought at WW

I want to send Rafael to some Redneck f@ggots so they can make him squeal like a pig.

Dan is the man!!!! He speaks the truth. Who has Floyd faced??? Really

WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dumbass. Being highly ranked doesn't make an elite fighter. cristobal cruz and steven luevano are currently ring 3-4 at fw...are they elite? ryan rhoes is #4 at ww in the ring, is he elite????? kristoff wlaoderoff or whatever is #2 cruiser in the world, is he elite? molitor is #3 jfw, is he elite? Why would someone be considered an elite fighter? I could be wrong, but I thought if someone was one of the best boxers in the world they would be considered elite boxers. Now I don't believe anyone said that Zab or Baldomire were elite boxers, but that they were elite WWs. Which would mean they were considered to be the best WW in the world at the time. Fact of the matter is Dan Rafael does not care for Floyd at all and may be on Arums payroll. So he will try to find anyway possible to discredit Floyd's accomplishments.

i disagree entirely with this post and already spoke on it earlier in this thread, i'm not rewriting my post. the bold- most of your average sports fans had these opinions, but not knowledgeable boxing people. I can remember vividly Burt Sugar talking about how Baldomir could give Floyd a tough fight. I don't recall any expert really having an issue with that fight not even Kim or Fischer. Judah is bigger than Floyd and is more flashy so plenty of people expected him to do quite well, not to mention that people viewed Zab's biggest flaw as chin and did not think Floyd would cause him a real issues in that area.

this is just retroactive criticism. while i wouldnt say floyd is the GOAT because he fought baldomir and judah, most people were ok with the judah fight, AS LONG AS he fought baldomir who was the real champ. quite a few people gave judah a pass since people felt he overlooked baldomir and would still have the style to bother floyd. you can say whatever you want, but at the time these fights happened, nobody was trippin. infact i remember practically an exact quote from rafeal saying after the baldo win "if you dont think floyd mayweather isnt the best fighter in the world p4p you are likely just a straight hater" in almost those exact words. point is, nobody had a problem with the baldomir fight, he was the real welterweight champ. we all knew the oscar fight was next. whats crazy was, before the oscar fight, it was almost the same atmosphere as the fight we have now. people were saying the EXACT SAME THINGS, "floyd has never fought any great fighters, floyd is fighting a real challange, floyds chin will get checked, floyd hasnt fought anyone of this size" etc i disagree entirely with this post and already spoke on it earlier in this thread, i'm not rewriting my post. the bold- most of your average sports fans had these opinions, but not knowledgeable boxing people.

I'm not comparing floyd and pac. I'm trying to get at a definiton of elite fighters, using pac and other fighters to try and nail down what constitutes being called elite. Dan had zab as a top ww and in his p4p top 10 yet he says he wasn't elite when floyd fought him. How is that possible? My point is Zab has only lost to elite fighters or those much bigger than him. I said other than Baldo. That means he lost to Baldo and all the other guys. Clottey was much bigger than manny. Cotto rehydrated but lost a lot getting down to a weight he hadn't fought in 2-3yrs. Either way I would question calling him elite when he must get down to 145 to fight. Thats why its hard for me to say the win was impressive. Hopefully you can understand my pints and why I think Dan is full of sh!t when he makes the statement that began this thread I can agree with this. Manny should have never demanded that 2 pounds. It was freaking stupid and it puts a huge cloud over his victory. I agree with Dan that Floyd hasn't beaten an elite fighter in 6 years. I think he hasn't beaten an elite fighter in 8 years. But whatever, Flod can change all of that IMO with a win on 5/1, no way will I be one to shi t on floyd's win if he pulls it off. Shane at 38 and fighting at his best weight is still an elite fighter IMO.

actually, they both cherrypick, stop fooling yourself. shane does not cherrypick. floyd fighting shane is a huge step toward floyd reclaiming the rep he began building himself at 130,135. manny does currently have more wins over elite fighters at their weights and prime hof fighters than floyd, but its close imo. pac v barrera 1 trumps all of floyd's best wins imo. so does his second win v jmm What's really funny is Shane fights tougher opponents but Dan rafael used to diss him by calling it the "Shane Mosley school of Boxing" when he fought tougher guys for lower amounts or he priced himself out of the ODH rematch at first.

Morales was leftovers for the 2nd and 3rd fights with Pacquiao. After Morales had dominated Pacquiao the first time, He moved up to Lightweight and lost every round to a slick american boxer named Zahir Raheem. But did Pacquiao fight Raheem? No, He made Morales come back down to 130lbs which Erik practically had to kill himself to do and was still embarassing Pacquiao before his legs gave out. Cotto was a shot fighter because he had just been beaten to a bloody pulp by Margarito who was then beaten to a pulp by Shane Mosley. Yet Pacquiao fights Cotto not Mosley...Interesting... And now Mayweather is fighting Mosley who Pacquiao and Roach both admit was "too good" for them to accept a fight with. Don't get it twisted. It's clear who is the real cherry picker and it's not Floyd Mayweather. Floyd is fighting the guy who nobody else would fight yet he still wont get respect when he wins. actually, they both cherrypick, stop fooling yourself. shane does not cherrypick. floyd fighting shane is a huge step toward floyd reclaiming the rep he began building himself at 130,135. manny does currently have more wins over elite fighters at their weights and prime hof fighters than floyd, but its close imo. pac v barrera 1 trumps all of floyd's best wins imo. so does his second win v jmm

Ouch!! Truth hurts Mayweather fans doesn't it?? If floyd hadn't retired and fought Cotto,Margarito or Williams,Rafael couldnt make these statements. Floyd's chase for the $$$$ has hurt his legacy at welter. Even though he still has time to make up for it. Fighting Mosley is a step in the right direction. Beating dangerous opponents will shut up floyd's haters,which I am one of :****you: Legacy!! Floyd haters hate and no victory will change that.

god i cant stand this peice of sht.