Fighters past and present that could/ve beaten Floyd Mayweather

[Walt Liquor]

I liked Tsyzu but I think Floyd would've handled him like 9 rounds to 3.

I think its even money prime for prime but im in the minority....i know this. Zoo was murder with that straight right.

Now whem floyd skipped over zoo, i dont think zoo was prime, at that time id slightly favor floyd.

[daggum]

I think Floyd could get a UD against Wright.

too bad floyd demanded a same day weigh in and other nonsense so the fight never happened. floyd wanted a rehydration clause in the contract hmmm i remember when false rumors of pac doing this made *****s go crazy. i guess they forgot when floyd wanted one. he seems to have a history of crazy demands when he doesn't want to fight elite fighters or as *****s would tell you winky ducked floyd!

[Pacquiao'd]

i think floyd beats whitaker.

agreed...............

[B.U.R.N.E.R]

too bad floyd demanded a same day weigh in and other nonsense so the fight never happened. he seems to have a history of doing this when he doesn't want to fight elite fighters or as *****s would say winky ducked floyd!

You unlike may other posters watched boxing back then so you know that fight wasnt serious. It was just posturing those guys were very good friends. I never took it seriously, a 140 Pounder jumping right up to fight Winky Wright in his prime? Made zero sense. Arum wouldve never let that happen.

[-Kev-]

Yeah, Arguello's poison was Floyd's style exactly. The two guys that beat him in his prime (Pryor was just at the end of his prime I think but past his best weight and years), fought quite similar to Floyd. Well, one fought very, very much like him and was a HOF featherweight great Ernesto Marcel and he beat Arguello the easiest. He had great speed, very slick and his lead right was just as good as Floyd's. The other guy was Vilomar Fernandez who took a close but clear MD decision over him but he was more like today's WW version of Floyd. Moved a lot, didn't engage much, lots of boxing whereas Marcel was much more like the 130 version of Floyd; engaged with his speed, was great on offense and defense etc.

So I think Arguello does get beat by Floyd in a close but clear UD. As great as Arguello was, this was a terrible style for him to fight. As for the other guys, it's funny but the only guy to beat both of those mentioned above was Roberto Duran. He was the only guy to really beat Ernesto Marcel too. Marcel, as champion, never lost. He had one or two close decision losses that could have easily have been a win for him but were fought in the opponents hometown, but Duran was the only guy that had the speed, power and most importantly counter punching and defense that allowed him to counter off a lead right, jab and use that to get inside and rake him to the body and head. He stopped Marcel when no one else got close or even really beat him properly.

While people bring up Leonard as some kind of comparison as to why Floyd might beat Duran, they really don't have a clue. Leonard is the worst example to use. First, he was much taller than Duran and Floyd. Second he fought very, very differently and when he beat Duran fought nothing like Floyd did, especially at 130/135. Floyd doesn't move nearly as much as Leonard did in the rematch against Duran. He fought much more like Leonard did in the first fight. Floyd always likes to rest in the pocket and on the ropes and that's where he'd get beat by Duran.

Hearns is the one guy that, in my opinion, couldn't have lost to Floyd. There is just no way Floyd could beat Hearns. He had everything you could possibly ask for to beat that style. Long, difficult to counter jab, brutal body punching, incredibly quick hands and feet, length and size and power to spare plus as good a set of skills offensively and defensively as could beat asked for. He would try to blow Floyd out, very possibly succeed, and iof he didn't would simply outbox him. Floyd couldn't get inside even if his life depended on it and he doesn't have a chance to outbox Hearns on the outside who had just as much speed and could keep Floyd at the end of everything, whereas Floyd had to get inside Hearns' range to get anything off. Also, he just didn't have anything close to the necessary firepower to hurt Hearns or even slightly stun him. Even Benitez at his best (whose defense is easily comparable to Floyd's) just couldn't handle Hearns' power, speed and boxing and Benitez was bigger and stronger than Floyd.

Leonard would beat Floyd too. Too big, too quick, too active, too skilled. But there guys are huge welterweights so it's kind of....meh.

The most skilled fighter we saw Floyd in with, Castillo, gave him some pretty major trouble and he doesn't come close to the greats in what he brought to the table but it's impossible to say as we haven't seen Floyd in with a great. We have seen the aforementioned guys in with other greats though and they have all come through on top as well as been beaten. Everyone can be beaten. Everyone.

There are many fighters throughout history that could and would have beaten Floyd. He's just been unfortunate (or lucky as many of his fans might look at it sadly) to have been in a pretty weak era of boxing all around.

It would have been great to see him in a different era of boxing and getting the fights that would have tested him again and again like he was against Castillo. He would have stayed at his best weights too. Often, the reason the older fighters didn't move up in weight was because they never needed to. There was enough truly difficult competition in their own weight close to test them across their whole career. Haven't people noticed that it's only as boxing has gotten weaker and weaker overall and the competition and numbers thinned out immensely that fighters have suddenly started jumping up in weight as the norm?

Good informative post.

But you think Castillo is the most skilled fighter Floyd has fought?

I would say even the 2007 Oscar De La Hoya was still the most skilled fighter Floyd fought. More skilled than Castillo. Now, both were close fights, DLH vs Mayweather, and Castillo vs Mayweather were both close, and like you said Castillo and De La Hoya don't come close to the guys mentioned in the OP, although I see prime DLH putting up a much better fight against all 3, than Castillo. And I mean, you can take this with a grain of salt, but Floyd was supposedly hurt in the first Castillo fight with torn rotator cuff and it was a close fight. In the rematch where he was 100% in, despite closer scores than the first fight, I thought Floyd pretty much proved that at 100% Castillo does not beat him.

But anyways, at least IMO, DLH skills>Castillo skills. I also think Shane Mosley knocks out Castillo and I would go as far as to say Castillo would make Mosley look like a better boxer than he really is.

Anyways, I like your post, very informative.

[-Kev-]

I think its even money prime for prime but im in the minority....i know this. Zoo was murder with that straight right.

Now whem floyd skipped over zoo, i dont think zoo was prime, at that time id slightly favor floyd.

At exactly what point in Floyd's career did he skip Kostya Tszyu? What fight did he take instead of taking a Tszyu fight?

Floyd had a total of 2 fights at 140, when Tszyu got stopped by Hatton and retired. Floyd's first fight at 140, was against top 5 JWW Demarcus Corley, his second fight was against top 10 JWW Henry Bruseles. In the Bruseles post fight, he called out Kostya Tszyu, Mosley, Gatti and De La Hoya. He got Gatti, Tszyu got HAtton, both fights took place in June 2005. Floyd won his fight by TKO, Tszyu lost his fight by TKO, Tszyu retired, Floyd moved up to welterweight division chasing Mosley and De La Hoya.

So when did Mayweather skip Kostya Tszyu?

[Toney Loc]

Julio Cesar Chavez would whoop that boy at 135. I also think Hearns, Wright, Leonard, Duran, and Whitaker beat him. He beats Arguello, though.

[T.Horton]

well I was listening to this one boxing show after Mayweather-Mosley where the expert guy said Floyd is the best one he's seen in the last 30 years and the only one around the weight class he gave a shot to beat him was SRL. He said he thought Floyd was too fast for Hearns

too fast for hearns? i don't know about all that, he was a rattlesnake!

[BoyFloyd]

pacquiao>mayweather.

[daggum]

At exactly what point in Floyd's career did he skip Kostya Tszyu? What fight did he take instead of taking a Tszyu fight?

Floyd had a total of 2 fights at 140, when Tszyu got stopped by Hatton and retired. Floyd's first fight at 140, was against top 5 JWW Demarcus Corley, his second fight was against top 10 JWW Henry Bruseles. In the Bruseles post fight, he called out Kostya Tszyu, Mosley, Gatti and De La Hoya. He got Gatti, Tszyu got HAtton, both fights took place in June 2005. Floyd won his fight by TKO, Tszyu lost his fight by TKO, Tszyu retired, Floyd moved up to welterweight division chasing Mosley and De La Hoya.

So when did Mayweather skip Kostya Tszyu?

still having trouble with reality? floyd wanted no part of tszyu. he fought in 2 elminators just to force a fight with gatti. tszyu was waiting for an offer from floyd the whole time(look it up) but it never came. he didn't need any eliminators to fight tsyzu. so he fought corley, brusseles(top 10 in what universe?), and gatti instead of tsyzu. why fight the best when you can fight the rest? i believe that's floyd's motto. normal people call these tune ups but *****s call them career defining fights.