floyd mayweather jr- what more could he have done?

[Cracaphat]

How many guys did Mayweather fight in their prime? Not many if any.That 'O' is the weakest ever.

[Mammoth]

He could have fought Vernon Forrest and Kostya Tzsyu

[DeadLikeMe]

So we are all in agreement, the only people he didn't fight were Top Rank fighters after he left Top Rank. Even Manny Pacquiao's trainer admits they ducked the fight in '09. Getting schooled by Floyd would have stopped Pacmania before it even started. Arum knew what he was doing.

[Larry the boss]

Corrales? You mean the guy whose training camp was in the court dealing with divorce then going to be sent to prison? And also, who did Corrales beat? Castillo? He got KTFO by Casamayor. And Hatton fought at 147 after got a gift against a B-level fighter in Collazo. And who did Bradley beat at 147? Marques who was just coming at a KTOY against Manny Pacquiao, and was 2 levels above Rios and Vargas in his showcase fights. Hell, Danny Garcia refused to fight him!

I know you like Mayweather man, but the Illusion of his undefeated record is fighting the right person at the right time. Mayweather never fought an A-level fighter in his prime.

Corrales was undefeated and p4p top 10 right?? and he was prime right??? is it Floyds fault how his training camp went? No??

Hatton was a 2 division champ undefeated prime and p4p top 10 right??

Jmm's record at 147 is 2-3..how is that a great win at 147?Bradleys 147 wins include Rios,Vargas,Jmm and Ruslan..all who have done nothing at 147

[MurkaMan]

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?

This dude is the greatest BYFAR in history.

He was 15lbs lighter than 80% of his opponents, and retired, came back at 33, and was figthting men half his age, as well as twice his size.

You have plenty of smaller men in history who have allot of power, like Pac and SRR, who were able to blitz and batter bigger men. But a guy like Floyd who had no power, and physically shouldnt even be able to win, was so SKILLED, that he HUMILIATED THEM.

To put into perspective, take SRL's power, size, and age at the backend of his career, this man would get killed in the ring.

In fact, some of Floyd's fights shouldnt have even been sanctioned. If you took every fighter in history, and placed them at Floyd's disadvantages, NONE of them would be able to do what he did.

And he didnt start running until those last few fights when he was old. People want to rewrite history, because if we're honest about what he was doing in the ring, we may say things about him that we dont want to say.

That he is MILES, greater than RR, RL, Hagler, Ali, I mean all of them combined. Their wont ever be a fighter this sharp, against this level of opposition, and at these circumstantial disadvantages, to EVER EVER come along EVER!

Best to ever do it, as far as Im concerned.

[FlatLine]

He ducked Khan way too many times but other than that he's a great fighter. He did however time his fights very well indeed for the most part - Mosely after Shane had 18 months layoff, Pacquiao after being KOd by Marquez, Judah after he lost in his previous fight, De La Hoya after Oscar had 1 year lay off and so on.. You could pretty much say that 90% of Floyd's best opponents were not even in their prime, or were not entering the fight under normal or advisable conditions.

[alexguiness]

After his 'comeback' (i think 2009?) Floyd was a cherry picker.

He was VERY careful in who he picked, their style and experience.

Before the comeback I think he fought more guys in or around their prime.

Although this is debatable as well.

[satiev1]

He did unify 147..had the WBO,WBC,WBA,RING,LINEAL...

The IBF he did not.

[satiev1]

Cant GGG move up and take risks?

Floyd moved up because he could no longer make the weight and 147 was the money division. Floyd also turned pro at 19. GGG would have gone through 3 weight classes if he turned pro at 19 as well. The canelo fight with mayweather is similar to what ggg would do now. Move up to 168 for a big money fight and come down weight again.

[Mike D]

Aside from ducking Mickey Rourke his entire career Floyd had a pretty decent career.