By Edward Chaykovsky
Former five division world champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. has been calling himself "TBE [The Best Ever]" for several years.
Mayweather, 40-years-old, retired from the sport in September 2015 after winning a dominating twelve round unanimous decision over former champion Andre Berto. He walked away with his undefeated record intact, with 49 wins and 26 of them by knockout.
Mayweather is pondering the possibility of fighting again, but for the moment he is only interested in facing UFC superstar Conor McGregor.
During his ongoing tour of UK, Mayweather discussed the subject of calling himself "TBE."
In the past, Mayweather has received a lot of criticism from historians for his claim of being the best fighter in the history of the sport.
While many historians have a high regard for Mayweather, they rate other boxers well ahead of him because some of them had far more professional bouts.
“When we talk about these champions, legendary fighters, we talk about how they have 100 and something fights, 100 and something victories - but when you look at the history books I still beat more world champions than any fighter in history. I respect these fighters because these fighters are the fighters that paved the way for me to be where I’m at, but there’s no fighter in boxing that accomplished what I accomplished at all. You can go back as far as you want to go back," Mayweather said.
Mayweather win over Berto, lifting his record to 49-0, which identical to heavyweight legend Rocky Marciano. But Mayweather believes there is a big difference between his record and Marciano's record, and he also holds himself above Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Robinson, Sugar Ray Leonard, and even Joe Louis.
“If we go back and look at Marciano’s record, he fought a bunch of ducks. Ali, he never beat Ken Norton..... this is the truth. There’s nothing cool about laying on the ropes, taking punishment - and being glorified for that [when discussing Ali's 'rope a dope' tactics]. If another fighter is known as the greatest fighter, they say, ‘oh he’s the greatest.’ Well, then I’m greater in other places. I’m the greatest business man."
"I’m going to always love Muhammad Ali, always love Sugar Ray Robinson, always love Sugar Ray Leonard, always love every legendary champion... Joe Louis and the list goes on and on - but one thing I’m not going to say is that they are better than me [because] that’s not true.”
