The Mayweather handpicking myth is a lie

[DuckAdonis]

He ducked until he saw them decline significantly. Floyd HIMSELF admitted that he waited on opponents until he saw his best chances of winning. Perhaps you know more about Floyd than the man himself.

Thats not ducking bro, because he still fought them when they were at the top

[hugh grant]

He never ducked or dodged anybody, he beat everyone people were saying he was scared to fight or would beat him. He did it all and still couldnt get the credit

But Floyd retired so people thought Floyd was scared to fight everyone that's nothing to be proud of. Floyd's always been favourite so Floyd was unlikely challenging himself too much.
If your noit fighting the toughest opponents available you are hand picking.
Why noit fight brook, thurman, spence, crawford or Danny garcia even and fighting maidazna and berto instead?
If that's not hand picking what is?

[!! Shawn]

Truth. If Margarito beats Cotto in their rematch he might have been lined up to face Mayweather, but he got his ass kicked. IF Paul Williams hadn't gotten his ass kicked he might have eventually been able to get that fight too. Keep winning and you get to fight the best, lose and you have to start over most of the time. Kostya Tszyu doesn't get his butt kicked by Hatton and he might have gotten the fight eventually. Of course, then people would be saying he ducked Hatton to fight Tszyu after Hatton had smashed him. They'd say he ducked the lineal champ on a huge win streak in Baldomir had he not fought him too.

Remember when they said he'd never fight Marquez after Marquez called him out? Remember when they said he'd never fight a young undefeated bull like Canelo? And on and on.

21 years, he fought them all and beat them all. These pathetic losers would love it if he fought Ward in 3 years at 175 just so they can say that Mayweather lost.

I don't know why you are so convinced that everyone wants Floyd to lose.

Some of us are just rational, and realize that there are definite Fights that Floyd either chose to wait on, or not take at all.

That doesn't mean he wouldn't have won those fights if he took them when they would have been the most meaningful. It just reality that he didn't take them when he they were the most dangerous option.

[DuttyAlacrity]

Big facts. So objectively I'll say he wanted no parts of PW He would have if the price was right but that was high risk low reward. Margocheato was told "later will be greater" (his focus was on landing ODLH). If marg wasn't a piece of scum and destroyed by SSM he would have gotten his shot. PAC could have been sooner too but ariza and crew knew what was up. Other than that I don't want to hear it.
When ppl look back at the era they will say the kings were Canelo, SSM, pacquiao, Cotto, maybe Jmm and Floyd. There's only one guy that beat them all. Top that with him being the only guy that has faced 7 currently ranked p4p guys while earning 4 lineal titles. There is no fighter more decorated.

[Michael1437]

I think that the boxing world has changed so much and that's the reason people use the terminology like cherry picked or avoided. Boxing is now a business, it's a way for boxers to make an insane amount of money, back in the day, boxers fought for glory and to see who was better, the money came as they won, but it wasn't the focal point. Now, a boxer can say that the person who is asking for a fight is not well known enough and that may be true, but back in the day, they fought a lot and they fought everyone, just a different boxing world.

[Deeznuts]

Actually his cherrypicking was so obvious. I remember predicting him fighting Guerrero for a cherrypick and the *****s went nuts on that thread. Then he picked him as his next fight lol. Can probably still find the thread if you search.

[DuttyAlacrity]

also lol @ shane "my tooth hurts and i need a vacation" mosley being mentioned.

big factsssss ether. Green k

[JK1700]

Truth. If Margarito beats Cotto in their rematch he might have been lined up to face Mayweather, but he got his ass kicked. IF Paul Williams hadn't gotten his ass kicked he might have eventually been able to get that fight too. Keep winning and you get to fight the best, lose and you have to start over most of the time. Kostya Tszyu doesn't get his butt kicked by Hatton and he might have gotten the fight eventually. Of course, then people would be saying he ducked Hatton to fight Tszyu after Hatton had smashed him. They'd say he ducked the lineal champ on a huge win streak in Baldomir had he not fought him too.

Remember when they said he'd never fight Marquez after Marquez called him out? Remember when they said he'd never fight a young undefeated bull like Canelo? And on and on.

21 years, he fought them all and beat them all. These pathetic losers would love it if he fought Ward in 3 years at 175 just so they can say that Mayweather lost.

You nailed the point right there, all these guys had their chances to fight Floyd. The guys they say they wanted him to fight could've got the fight if they just kept winning. Margarito got beat to death by Mosley so didn't get the fight, Cory Spinks was lined up to fight Floyd but lost, Tszyu would've got the fight if he didn't ask for too much money then lose to Hatton etc. People just come up with this propaganda looking back. At the time Baldomir (Lineal champ, hadn't lost in 8 years) was a much better win than Margarito who nobody had heard of and nobody cared about until he started loading his gloves. Mayweather beat the best guys in every single division he fought (Hernandez, Corrales, Chavez etc at 130, Castillo, Ndou at 135, Gatti and Hatton from 140, Judah, Baldomir, JMM, Pacquiao, Mosley, Maidana at 147, De La Hoya, Cotto, Canelo at 154. That's an amazing resume.

And to those who claim he should've fought Cotto, Pacquiao and Mosley earlier he tried to with all those guys but The Bobfather didn't want Floyd to take down his cash cows until he felt they were ready and until he had already made a ton of money off them. Floyd also offered to fight guys like Prince Naseem/Casamayor/Freitas/Tszyu and none of them really wanted it. They all knew he would've beat them. Look at the records of the guy's he beat at 130, 135, 140. Even the lesser known guys he beat were really good like Phillip Ndou who was 31-1 with 30KO's. He beat guys who were like 35-1. 44-2, 33-2 etc.

People's memories are foggy at best. I remeber Floyd calling out the best but they were too busy "cherry picking "themselves. And like I said in the initial post, most of the fighters Floyd fought because people wanted to see it.

Merchant said he couldn't beat Gatti. Emmanuel Stewart said he couldn't beat sharmba. Two fights later they both saying it's a mismatch before it starts yet both fighters were on a streak when he fought them.

Boxing analyst been spreading propaganda for years.

Exactly, Floyd was calling Mosley and DLH out several years before they agreed to do it. Those guys were the A-Side at the time and didn't want to risk that knowing they would get beat. But then as soon as Floyd became the biggest draw in the sport all of a sudden these guys decided they wanted to fight him. Which is why Floyd clowned them so bad leading up to those fights.

He never ducked or dodged anybody, he beat everyone people were saying he was scared to fight or would beat him. He did it all and still couldnt get the credit

Exactly, dude fought all the top guys and people who were willing to fight him. The only guy I would've liked to see him face who he didn't was Vernon Forrest but can't put any blame on him for that as they were in different weight classes. Everyone who the public demanded, he made it happen and when they were coming off big wins too so you gotta respect it.

Big facts. So objectively I'll say he wanted no parts of PW He would have if the price was right but that was high risk low reward. Margocheato was told "later will be greater" (his focus was on landing ODLH). If marg wasn't a piece of scum and destroyed by SSM he would have gotten his shot. PAC could have been sooner too but ariza and crew knew what was up. Other than that I don't want to hear it.
When ppl look back at the era they will say the kings were Canelo, SSM, pacquiao, Cotto, maybe Jmm and Floyd. There's only one guy that beat them all. Top that with him being the only guy that has faced 7 currently ranked p4p guys while earning 4 lineal titles. There is no fighter more decorated.

Wiliams is an interesting one, but before his accident he was actually scheduled to fight Canelo (This was before Floyd fought Canelo) so the fight would've happened if he won. There's always going to be "what if's" and people guys could've fought. Hell, even the guy widely considered the GOAT Sugar Ray Robinson has one (Charley Burley). SRL didn't fight Aaron Pryor or rematch Hagler. Floyd fought 25 world champs, it's only haters/idiots who complain about his career at this point.

To me the most impressive thing about Floyd's resume is that he's been facing world class opposition since fight 19 and in these 32 fights only 2 of them have been close. So that's 30 top guys who he basically dominated and beat easy. And the guys who made it close got shut down badly in the rematches. The De La Hoya fight really wasn't close at all, but Floyd even offered to rematch him. It didn't happen because Oscar still wanted the majority of the money despite losing the first fight handily. 32-0 and only 2 close fights. To me that makes him the most skilled fighter ever. Never seen anyone as complete, smart and dominant.

[Metho_4u]

He ducked until he saw them decline significantly. Floyd HIMSELF admitted that he waited on opponents until he saw his best chances of winning. Perhaps you know more about Floyd than the man himself.

You all are like broken records with all this stuff lol #50-0 #floydruinedyourlives

[Code Red]

Dispelling the myth that Mayweather fought his opponents at the wrong time. The short sightedness of fans is off the charts. One fan says it and All the boxing analyst run with it.

Genaro hernandez. Only lost to delahoya in the mid 90s before Floyd was factor

Angel Manfreddy. Was a feared boxer at the time and hadn't lost in years before Floyd. Lasted two or 3 rounds

Diego corralles. Undefeated and Floyd was considered the underdog.

Castillo went on to beat corralles and Joel Casamayor afterwards.

Chop chop. This was his first fight at jr welter and he went toe to toe with him Chop chop had two losses at the time and one was to Judah. This is notable since in this fight Larry Merchant and the HBO cast said Gatti and sharmba Mitchell would beat Floyd and Floyd would not fight him. 2004(watch it on YouTube to hear, it was a good fight anyway)

Gatti 2005. Only took one fight before this. But By the time this fight started regardless of what was said and forgotten two fights earlier- Floyds now the favorite. Gatti was still on his win streak since Mickey Ward2003. What changed ?

Sharmba. 2005 Coming of lost to Tzu but still everybody said Floyd Couldn't beat him 3 fights earlier and e had already lost to Tzu back in 2003

Judah was coming off loss to Carlos baldomir. This was floyds first fight at welter. Hardly cherry picking when moving up in weight

Baldomir. Had just beaten Judah and Gatti. Had no recent losses. Only the losses he already had prior to beating Judah

Delahoya. Was partially inactive before Mayweather other than a tuneup. Had been fighting at super welter and middle in his fights before being inactive

Ricky Hatton. Was undefeated and had beat the feared kosta tzu

Shane mosely had just beat the breaks of margarito one fight prior to Mayweather.

Cottos only losses were PAC and margarito at the time

Guerrero only had one loss and back then people on this forum thought he was the second coming. Had no recent losses.

Victor Ortiz had beat berto and Nate cambell prior to the fight

Canelo. Was undefeated. Had beaten cintron and mosely

*** never fought TZU who was done after Hatton in 2005. Two years after Floyd entered the jr Welters
*** never fought margarito at 147 who was proven to be a cheater later
*** never fought Vernon Forrest, Quintana, Paul Williams
*** mosely, Trinidad, and Vargas were in the welterweights when Floyd fought corralles at featherweight/lightweight

The only the knock on Floyd is that he didn't fight PAC at the time when PAC destroyed Cotto. People just wanted Floyd to loose. He faced most of his biggest opponents within 2 fights of people calling them out for him. With the exception of Judah and PAC the handpicking myth is a lie. The real issue is that Floyd had a 13 year prime while most fighters primes only last 5 years.

If these are cherrypicks then who the hell is everybody else fighting?