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I just feel that he's the greatest because he fought and beat the best in his era and never ducked anyone. He silenced the skeptical public by completely shutting down fighters in rematches. He easily beat the supposedly greatest fighter of this generation after years of making excuses and ducking Olympic style ped testing. Retiring undefeated after leaving no doubts is, to me, worthy of being the greatest fighter of all time.
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He is nowhere near being GOAT. Barely top 15. Pac is nowhere near too. Both are overrated cucumbers with forced arguments. bUt bUt 50-0, bUt bUt 8 division champ. Floyd's resume is weak and Pac is too flawed as a fighter.
In fact, only Canelo came close to being GOAT and he was just three fights away from GOAT level. Bivol, Beterbiev and Usyk wins would made him GOAT by good margin but he failed in reality.Comment
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the greatest attention seeker of all timeComment
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The greatest can never be defined and to even try boils down to the same result its always been, opinion. Look at all the haters jump in to say no and then tell you why with not a single aspect of their reason focusing on the art of boxing, probably because they have never boxed a round in their life so they don't know anything about the boxing, its all coming from the hype machine and a fans mentality of likes and dislikes like they are watching a soap opera.
Greatest to me is more about what they do outside of the ring as in influence on the sport combined with achievement and ring ability, in that respect, I think Ali is the greatest icon boxing will ever have, even today you could say every soul on the planet knows the name, Muhammad Ali. Floyd had a massive influence over the sport that hasn't finished evolving and probably more than Ali in changing the sport, but he doesn't have that iconic public stature that Ali has, maybe because today is more flash **** plastic, the bic throwaway age where greatness doesn't shine very long and can easily get drowned out when everyone has a flashlight.
The best boxer puts Floyd right up there with anybody in history, skill wise Floyd was a freak, but if you go through history pretty much all ATGs are freaks, the top one-percenters of any sport are freaks of nature, which is why I feel the best boxer in history is a moving target where there are many that on a particular night was unbeatable on that night, nobody can be this pinpoint best every night, its impossible so the greats that have these occasional nights happen to have a very high second gear which they hit like clockwork and ultimately build their career of that.
The best is not one its a group, that group is the one-percenters, and any one of them could beat the other on their best night at their best weight, if both are on their best night we are back into a fantasy opinion so the circle goes round again, another hater vs fan waste of time thread.
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In a sport like boxing, it is difficult to statistically claim this fighter or that fighter as being the greatest of all-time.
In other sports where you can in some ways measure greatness? It is easier to claim who is the greatest.
Carl Lewis is still pretty much the greatest ever track and field athlete of all-time.
Why? Well first sprinter to defend his 100m Olympic title, in 1984 & then 1988. 16 years Olympic Domination of the Long jump.
Carl Lewis won Olympic Gold in the Long Jump at the 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996 Olympics.
Carl Lewis was the second track and field athlete ever to win 4 Olympic Gold Medals at one games. In 1984 he won the 100m, 200m, Long Jump & 4 x 100m Gold.
Carl Lewis was also two time World Champion over the 100m, and Former World Record Holder. He has also won world titles in the 200m.
Carl Lewis, Michael Johnson, Usain Bolt, Jesse Owens, those four for me are above the rest.
In boxing, I don't think it is right to compare era's 'It is not right in any sport, but sometimes it is easier'. I think you have great fighters from each era. Floyd Mayweather Junior, was the greatest fighter of his era 'That is what we know for a fact'.
You cannot compare him to Sugar Ray Robinson as he did not compete in the same environment. How many fights did Robinson go unbeaten, was it 90+ fights unbeaten? The frequency of the fighting back then was intense.
Greatness can also mean more than just winning. It is how you win, the influence you have upon society.
Steve Prefontaine is not a Olympic or World Champion, but he is one of the greatest track and field athletes of all-times.
Last edited by PRINCEKOOL; 06-02-2022, 06:02 PM.Comment
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The frequency back then was the result of much lower level competition, way way lower that's why they fought so regular, a top guy could beat C-D graders every weekend, Robinsons' resume is made of 90% C-D level guys, nobody can compete against the very best more than 2-3 times a year and even that depends on how hard the fights were you maybe only fight once a year after a war, competing today takes more out of the body than it did back then because the level of comp is so high, the peak of human conditioning is more obtainable today which they reach much more than the old-timers got close to, athletes today are much more highly trained prepared beast, and like a F1 car the faster they go the easier it is for things to break.Comment
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No he didn't. This has been gone over so many times...
Had Bob Arum been willing to give Floyd a higher guarantee on a De la Hoya bout, Tony and Cotto were future opponents in his newly worked contract with Top Rank.
When that fell apart, so did any potential fights with Top Rank opponents. It's been documented.Comment
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