Comments Thread For: Daily Bread Mailbag: Tommy Hearns at middleweight, the February 22 blockbuster, AI dream matches and Fury and the Hall of Fame

[Mark Elding]

Floyd Mayweather is not in the top 20 ATG? Seriously? I think he is in the top 10 easily based on his achievements and his resume and has a very good argument for even being No1. I have to declare my hand - I never liked Floyd. I was always hoping somebody would clip him and KO him or at least beat him. But, it never happened even though he fought literally who is who across multiple weight divisions. So I have to give him props and rate him at least top 10 ATG. I cannot rate fighters from history above him just because I never watched them fight live. Virtually all of them have lost a fight or three. Yes, Floyd had a few close calls, the fights I thought he lost, BUT he didn't.

Floyd is an all time great but was way more selective in his choice of opposition than almost any previous great of the ring. That counts for a lot. Still, I rate him amongst the top ten over the past fifty years. All time? Sure, maybe top twenty, but then we’re relying on anecdotes and statistics to assess certain fighters where hardly any footage exists, and I personally refuse to do that. I’m only comfortable ranking from early ‘60’s onwards.

[BirdSong]

Floyd Mayweather is not in the top 20 ATG? Seriously? I think he is in the top 10 easily based on his achievements and his resume and has a very good argument for even being No1. I have to declare my hand - I never liked Floyd. I was always hoping somebody would clip him and KO him or at least beat him. But, it never happened even though he fought literally who is who across multiple weight divisions. So I have to give him props and rate him at least top 10 ATG. I cannot rate fighters from history above him just because I never watched them fight live. Virtually all of them have lost a fight or three. Yes, Floyd had a few close calls, the fights I though he lost, BUT he didn't.

very good but wouldnt fight pac when he was going top guns & dont give e that crap pac was ready to fight and floyd eventyualy took the rest of the year off i remember it well and also retired for years when the WW division was hot with mosley williams margarito and maybe cotto if forget all there are going great he was veery good but very picky about his opponents and got them when he wanted them

[BrankoB]

very good but wouldnt fight pac when he was going top guns & dont give e that crap pac was ready to fight and floyd eventyualy took the rest of the year off i remember it well and also retired for years when the WW division was hot with mosley williams margarito and maybe cotto if forget all there are going great he was veery good but very picky about his opponents and got them when he wanted them

I used to say all those things as well - purely because I did not like Floyd and wanted him to get beaten so badly. At the end of his career, when he retired I had to admit to myself that in spite of my negative bias towards him - he was a great fighter as he always found a way to win.

[Roadblock]

Floyd is an all time great but was way more selective in his choice of opposition than almost any previous great of the ring. That counts for a lot. Still, I rate him amongst the top ten over the past fifty years. All time? Sure, maybe top twenty, but then we’re relying on anecdotes and statistics to assess certain fighters where hardly any footage exists, and I personally refuse to do that. I’m only comfortable ranking from early ‘60’s onwards.

Thats a media fan cooked narrative, if you actually analyze his resume and compare it to others in the same era and the circumstances surrounding fights being made, it was no more selective as anybody else on top of the game, dont kid yourself every top tier fighter in history when on top of the game fought only the fights that fans yelled loudest, they all had a strong business approach to opponent selection, they balanced the pay while trying to keep fans satisfied so their career kept moving forward its a juggling act by managers and advisors, you can pick any fighter in history and they ALL had a majority of average top fighters on their resume and made their name of a handful of greats, the irony is the claimed GOAT SRR had a proverbial truck load of cans that carried massive losing records, some great fighters never got the opportunity or weren't active while other greats were active, its easy for fans to sit back and talk, its not easy to be unbiased fact based.

When you compare Floyds resume to others its very strong across his whole career body of work.

[BrankoB]

Thats a media fan cooked narrative, if you actually analyze his resume and compare it to others in the same era and the circumstances surrounding fights being made, it was no more selective as anybody else on top of the game, dont kid yourself every top tier fighter in history when on top of the game fought only the fights that fans yelled loudest, they all had a strong business approach to opponent selection, they balanced the pay while trying to keep fans satisfied so their career kept moving forward its a juggling act by managers and advisors, you can pick any fighter in history and they ALL had a majority of average top fighters on their resume and made their name of a handful of greats, the irony is the claimed GOAT SRR had a proverbial truck load of cans that carried massive losing records, some great fighters never got the opportunity or weren't active while other greats were active, its easy for fans to sit back and talk, its not easy to be unbiased fact based.

When you compare Floyds resume to others its very strong across his whole career body of work.

I agree. It is a media cooked narrative, but there is one other thing. Floyd relished the role of a villain and promoted himself accordingly. He was not a human wrecking ball, nocking everyone out cold, but he still managed to get the greatest ppvs in history by being the guy most people hated. So when we hate somebody and they win anyway, we come up with a litany of excuses for why they are not that good anyway.

[MulaKO]

I used to say all those things as well - purely because I did not like Floyd and wanted him to get beaten so badly. At the end of his career, when he retired I had to admit to myself that in spite of my negative bias towards him - he was a great fighter as he always found a way to win.

Should of saw him live
You would of been blown away
8-10 punch combo you would only count six for how fast the mofo was
Not my favourite but had to respect him for specially when he was pretty boy Floyd
Afterwards it became a little excessive his bullchit but no one can say he wasn’t good at his craft

[ShoulderRoll]

very good but wouldnt fight pac when he was going top guns & dont give e that crap pac was ready to fight and floyd eventyualy took the rest of the year off i remember it well and also retired for years when the WW division was hot with mosley williams margarito and maybe cotto if forget all there are going great he was veery good but very picky about his opponents and got them when he wanted them

Don’t forget that he was willing to fight Pacquiao in 2009. And that it was Pacquiao who walked away because of a little drug testing, then years later like a hypocrite asked Juan Manuel Marquez to do VADA.

In regards to Miguel Cotto vs Sergio Martinez: I agree that Sergio was not the same fighter due to the knee. That win tends to get way overblown for Cotto.

[Roadblock]

I agree. It is a media cooked narrative, but there is one other thing. Floyd relished the role of a villain and promoted himself accordingly. He was not a human wrecking ball, nocking everyone out cold, but he still managed to get the greatest ppvs in history by being the guy most people hated. So when we hate somebody and they win anyway, we come up with a litany of excuses for why they are not that good anyway.

I agree not only did he relish the villain role he played he fed it, but it was a brilliant business move as it played the fans that hated him; Floyd was very polarizing and was first to do things and remaining undefeated gave him the bragging rights so he just kept rubbing their nose in it and made him a fortune, all of which combined added to his status, there are lots of ways of playing the game and Mayweather did it his way, I don't like trying to rate ATG fighters all I will say is Floyd is a genuine ATG and no easy beat for anyone in history.

I thought the guys summed it up pretty well in this chat.

[NihonJim]

Floyd was a truly special fighter, there hasn't been a boxer at any weight as good as him since he retired and it'll probably be 20 years until we see one.

I was not a fan of his style like at all, I wished he would be more aggressive but I recognized the skill was on a totally different level.

[DeeMoney]

You cite Canelo GGG 2 as one of the best wind of the past 20 years, but would be hesitant to consider a Crawford win over Canelo as one of the greatest wins due to Canelo's age?

Please note, Canelo is currently younger than GGG was for even their first fight- and younger than Crawford himself.