floyd mayweather jr- what more could he have done?

[Madison Boxing]

Sorry for the length of the post, just answer the title if you cant be ****ed to read it all...

So, With most sports, i think theres a tendency to overlook recent sportsman, in favour of past sportsman. Whether people view the past with rose tinted glasses, or see a bias towards past sportsman as being associated with being a knowledgable fan of the sport i dont know. But the trend seems to be there.

So the discussion about P4P number 1 in the other thread got me thinking, thinking about how weak the current CV's are compared to mayweather, who had an iron grip on the P4P spot for many years.

And not only did i think the current fighters CV's cant compare, i was then thinking, the vast majority of all time greats from the past struggle to match up with it too. At the very least mayweathers achievements have to be considered as some of the best in the sports history

When i think about fighters standing in the sport in an all time sense, i think one of the most important questions to ask is, 'what more could they have done?'. In the case of mayweather, im struggling.

Im not some big fan of floyd as for the most part i enjoy more attack minded boxers, but the list of fighters he has on his CV is tremendous, and to go 49-0, and not have a real off night or get knocked out by a fluke shot or anything like that is incredible.

Pretty much all the other fighters in the ATG category lost, they all had off nights. Unbeaten isnt everything, but to do it against world level competition that mayweather fought is something else.

I know the main accusations about mayweather is cherry picking (despite consistently fighting world level opposition and rarely fighting a bum with the frequency that other fighters do) but what more really is there to beat him with other than 'he could have fought pacquiao earlier' (mayweather was older), or 'he ducked margarito' (do people genuinely think margarito would have been able to beat mayweather?).

Mayweather had his struggles, with castillo and maidana, but he won the rematches clearly, and really, what fighter in history has won every fight clearly if theyve fought top class opposition?

So what do people think? Will mayweathers accomplishments look far greater in a few years? And if people do not see mayweather as one of the best fighters of all time, what more could he have done?

[eco1]

he solely put boxing in a coma with his diva demands that now all boxers seem to copy.
not even talking about his cherrypicking.

[LaidOut]

Never challenged himself. That's why he'll never be remembered that well. He had a masterful way of stinking up the joint with his presence.

[Sadiqkingofko]

I read the entire article and I have to say Mayweather has an argument for being #1 P4P all time

[Joe Beamish]

Best fighter of his time, especially at the lower weights where he was truly a badass.

Don't you losers miss Floyd? I do. Is there any fighter today with true P4P cred? Nope. I miss that.

Floyd is a descendent of Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard. Now today there's nobody left in that mold. And boxing is much the poorer. Did I like the WW version of Floyd? Nope. But come on, man. He had a great career.

[soul_survivor]

I read your post and you completely overlook the fact that his best win is a faded Pacquiao. It's a terrific win but it's almost 6 years after the fight should have been and 3 or so years after JMM already KOd Pac and drove him down the slope of an athlete's prime. Even then, if we are to say he beat the best version of Pac (which some will argue lol) the rest of his career doesn't stack up in quality to other greats.

His second and 3rd best wins are probably Castillo and Corrales. Neither man is a great fighter. Entertaining, HOF worthy (by modern standards) but far from atg material. There's Oscar but that fight was so close, against an almost shot fighter, it really needed a rematch. Then he missed fights against Marg, Williams, Kostya, Pac and Cotto at critical times, in their stead we got Baldomir, Ortiz, Guerrero and co. He couldn't even back up his promise of fighting a live dog in Khan or defend his belt at its proper weight against Canelo...a green Canelo at that.

None of this is to say Mayweather wasn't skilled or that he isn't great. Top 50 no doubt but there is a TONNE of stuff he could have done more, namely fighting the relevant fighters when those fights meant the most to the divisions and the sport as a whole.

It's like looking at Pacquiao's career if he had not faced Barrera, Morales and JMM until 2010 lol Or looking at Oscars career and the Tito fight was not in 1999 but 2004 or the Hopkins fight was 5 years later or if he had refused to faced Whitaker (no. 1 at 147 at the time) and instead fought Buddy McGirt for any of the other straps going at the time lol

Mayweather had sublime defensive skills but he knew his offensive limitations and shaped his career to best take advantage of the finances and the opposition available. He is quite possibly the greatest tactical promoter in the history of the sport but he is far from its greatest fighter.

[.!WAR MIKEY!.]

Cure HIV................

[Outwest Exp 355]

he solely put boxing in a coma with his diva demands that now all boxers seem to copy.
not even talking about his cherrypicking.

Child please you'd commit suicide without Floyd.

[Kigali]

Never challenged himself. That's why he'll never be remembered that well. He had a masterful way of stinking up the joint with his presence.

You better not be a Gigi fan.

To say a fighter that won titles from 130 to 154 starting at 21 years of age, never challenged himself, is Grade A trolling and World Class ignorance.

[AliBombaye]

1. Fight guys in or at least near their PRIME
2. No catch weights
3. Let fighters wear their own choice of gloves as long as it's legal
4. No illegal IVs at home

With that being said I do miss the whole event that comes with a Floyd fight.

I don't care if Victor Ortiz, Berto, Robert Guerro are 'World Level' or hold belts, we all knew the outcome of those fight.

Floyd's best wins are Hernandez, Diego Corrales, Ricky Hatton. NO ONE come up with chit like Mosley, DLH etc cuz we all know where they were in their career when losing to Floyd.

Compares Floyd's best wins to Manny or BHOP, not even close son.

Floyd had ATG skills but didn't test himself near enough, he is ATG top 50.