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In June 2022, fighting through tears at the banquet the night before his official induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, he nearly whispered the words.
“I’ve been waiting for this for 45 years.”
Friday, August 26th, marked the fifth anniversary of the final official fight in the career of Floyd Mayweather Jr. That last box-office bonanza against MMA superstar Conor McGregor. It’s been even longer since boxing fans saw Mayweather in the ring with Andre Berto in 2015 in his farewell contest with a competitive boxer.
The biggest attraction of his era, and one of the biggest the sport has ever seen, Mayweather’s presence still looms large. He is the promoter of prominent lightweight Gervonta Davis, still a magnet for media attention, and a source of fan debate all these years later. A champion from Jr. lightweight to Jr. middleweight, Mayweather earned his place among the greats.
Whether remembered as “Pretty Boy” or “Money,” Mayweather was never one to settle for just having a place at the table with boxing’s immortals. On the anniversary of the end of Mayweather’s career, it begs a question:
How good was the man who declared himself TBE, the best ever, measured against all time?
Mayweather’s career will be examined in five categories:
- Accomplishments
- Competition Faced
- Competition Not Faced
- Reaction to Adversity
- What Did He Prove?
Mayweather’s decorated career leaves lots to discuss in every category. Let’s start with…
The Tale of the Tape
Born: February 24, 1977
Height: 5’8
Hailed From: Grand Rapids, Michigan
Turned Professional: October 11, 1996 (TKO2 Roberto Apodaca)
Record: 50-0, 27 KO
Record in Title Fights: 27-0, 10 KO including lineal (26-0, 10 KO, WBC/WBA/IBF/WBO only)
Lineal World Titles: World Jr. Lightweight (1998-2002, 8 Defenses); World Lightweight (2002-04, 3 Defenses); World Welterweight (2006-08, 2 Defenses; 10-15, 6 Defenses); World Jr. Middleweight (2013-15, 1 Defense)
Title Reigns: WBC Super Featherweight (1998-2002, 8 Defenses); Ring/WBC Lightweight (2002-04, 3 Defenses); WBC Super Lightweight (2005); IBF Welterweight (2006); Ring/WBC Welterweight (2006-08, 1 Defense); WBC Super Welterweight (2007); WBC Welterweight (2011-15, 5 Defenses); WBA “Super” Super Welterweight (2012-15, 1 Defense); Ring Magazine Welterweight (2013-15, 4 Defenses); TBRB/Ring Magazine Jr. Middleweight (2013-15, 1 Defense); WBC Super Welterweight (2013-15, 1 Defense); WBA Welterweight (2014-15, 3 Defenses); TBRB Welterweight (2015, 1 Defense); WBO Welterweight (2015)
Entered Ring Magazine Ratings: March 1998 (#10 – Jr. Lightweight; Cover Date - July 1998)
Last Ring Magazine Rating: September 2015 (Champion – Welterweight; Cover Date December 2015)
Current/Former Lineal World Champions Faced: Genaro Hernandez RTD8; Diego Corrales TKO10; Jose Luis Castillo UD12, UD12; Zab Judah UD12; Carlos Baldomir UD12; Oscar De La Hoya SD12; Ricky Hatton TKO10; Juan Manuel Marquez UD12; Shane Mosley UD12; Miguel Cotto UD12; Saul Alvarez MD12; Manny Pacquiao UD12
Current/Former Alphabet Titlists Faced: Gregorio Vargas UD12; Carlos Hernandez UD12; Jesus Chavez TKO9; DeMarcus Corley UD12; Arturo Gatti RTD6; Sharmba Mitchell TKO6; Victor Ortiz KO4; Robert Guerrero UD12; Marcos Maidana MD12, UD12; Andre Berto UD12
Record Against Current/Former Champions/Titlists Faced: 24-0, 7 KO
Accomplishments
For Mayweather, boxing meant entering the family business. His father, Floyd Sr., was a contender at welterweight in the 1970s and his uncle Roger was a champion at Jr. lightweight and Jr. welterweight. Mayweather Jr. showed promise from early on, winning National Golden Gloves titles from light flyweight to featherweight, a US National title at featherweight, and earning a spot on the 1996 Olympic team. Mayweather settled for bronze at the Games after a highly controversial decision loss to Serafim Todorov.
Mayweather wasted little time rising to the top of the Jr. lightweight division as a professional, capturing the lineal throne and WBC belt with a stoppage of veteran Genaro Hernandez in October 1998. Mayweather was just shy of two years into his career and would defend the crown eight times. A January 2001 bout with Diego Corrales just missed being a unification contest. Corrales had given up the belt just months earlier, originally intending a move to lightweight.
Mayweather moved to lightweight in April 2002 and won the WBC belt from Jose Luis Castillo. Ring Magazine recognized the winner as their first champion since beginning to issue titles again the previous year and the bout can be viewed as the beginning of a new lineage in the class. If not the first fight, the second in December the same year would suffice as Mayweather and Castillo were widely seen as the consensus top two at 135 lbs.
Mayweather defended his lightweight honors three times before a move to Jr. welterweight. In his third and final bout in the division, Mayweather defeated Arturo Gatti for the WBC belt in June 2005. It was the only division of five Mayweather competed in where he did not lay claim to the lineal throne.
An April 2006 win over Zab Judah saw Mayweather win the IBF welterweight belt, a title he quickly abandoned. In November, Mayweather added the lineal and WBC welterweight titles with a unanimous decision over Carlos Baldomir. Mayweather would add a WBC belt in his fifth division, Jr. middleweight, in May 2007 with a split decision victory over Oscar De La Hoya. Tom Kaczmarek’s 115-113 card in favor of De La Hoya was the only official scorecard Mayweather lost in more than twenty years as a professional.
Following a retirement that kept Mayweather out of the ring for all of 2008 and most of 2009, Mayweather resumed his career at welterweight. Mayweather retired as lineal welterweight champion. His win over Shane Mosley in May 2010, despite a lack of sanctioning body title on the line, is regarded here as the beginning of his second reign as history’s champion.
CyberBoxingZone.com recognizes it as such as well. Mosley was coming off a win over the recognized top welterweight at the time, Antonio Margarito. Other sources identify different dates. Ring Magazine recognized Mayweather as welterweight champion again following his May 2013 win over Robert Guerrero. The Transnational Boxing Rankings Board (TBRB) did not recognize Mayweather as fully returning as singular welterweight king until his win over Manny Pacquiao in 2015.
All sources can agree that Mayweather was ultimately a two-time historical welterweight champion.
Mayweather won his second belt at Jr. middleweight in May 2012, unseating WBA “super” titlist Miguel Cotto. In September 2014, Mayweather added the lineal, Ring Magazine, and WBC belts at Jr. middleweight with a majority decision victory over Saul Alvarez. The Alvarez victory made Mayweather only the second fighter in the history of boxing, after Manny Pacquiao, to claim lineal crowns in four weight classes.
Mayweather would add two more belts at welterweight, winning the WBA honors from Marcos Maidana in May 2014 and the WBO belt from Pacquiao the following year. In the 2014 rematch with Maidana, Mayweather defended both his welterweight and Jr. middleweight titles, a rare dual division title fight. Mayweather retired as welterweight champion following a defense against Andre Berto. He returned officially for McGregor and occasionally dabbles in exhibitions to this day.
Among outside the ring honors, Mayweather was named as or in the following:
- Ring Magazine Fighter of the Year - 1998
- Ring Magazine Fighter of the Year - 2007
- Boxing Writers Association of America Fighter of the Year - 2007
- ESPY Best Fighter - 2007
- Ring Magazine Event of the Year - 2007
- ESPY Best Fighter - 2008
- Ring Magazine Event of the Year - 2008
- Ring Magazine Comeback of the Year - 2009
- BoxingScene Top 20 Jr. Lightweights All-Time #2 - 2009
- ESPY Best Fighter - 2010
- Ring Magazine Event of the Year - 2010
- ESPY Best Fighter - 2012
- Boxing Writers Association of America Fighter of the Year - 2013
- ESPY Best Fighter - 2013
- Ring Magazine Event of the Year - 2013
- ESPY Best Fighter - 2014
- Boxing Writers Association of America Fighter of the Year - 2015
- Ring Magazine Event of the Year - 2015
- Ring Magazine Greatest Living Fighters #7 - 2016
- International Boxing Research Organization All-Time Pound-for-Pound #22 - 2019
- International Boxing Research Organization All-Time Jr. Lightweight #3 - 2019
- International Boxing Research Organization All-Time Lightweight #18 - 2019
- International Boxing Research Organization All-Time Welterweight #13 - 2019
- International Boxing Research Organization All-Time Jr. Middleweight #9 - 2019
- Ring Magazine Fighter of the Decade - 2010s
- Boxing Writers Association of America Joe Louis Fighter of the Decade - 2010s
- Ring Magazine All-Time Jr. Lightweight #2 - 2021
- Ring Magazine Top 100 Boxers in the History of the Ring Rankings #6 - 2021
- International Boxing Hall of Fame Inductee - 2021
Competition Faced
Using the Ring Magazine and TBRB rankings (after their establishment in 2012) as a reasonable gauge of Mayweather’s professional years, the below are the men recognized as champions or ranked in the top ten when Mayweather defeated them. The rankings provided for opponents represent the most recent in Ring’s print edition or available through the TBRB archives prior to Mayweather facing them.
- 10/03/1998 - RTD 8 Genaro Hernandez (#1 at Jr. Lightweight)
- 12/19/1998 - TKO2 Angel Manfredy (#2 at Jr. Lightweight)
- 03/18/2000 - UD12 Gregorio Vargas (#10 at Jr. Lightweight)
- 01/20/2001 - TKO10 Diego Corrales (#1 at Jr. Lightweight)
- 11/10/2001 - RTD9 Jesus Chavez (#4 at Jr. Lightweight)
- 04/20/2002 - UD12 Jose Luis Castillo (#1 at Lightweight)
- 12/07/2002 - UD12 Jose Luis Castillo (#1 at Lightweight)
- 11/01/2003 - TKO7 Phillip N'Dou (#4 at Jr. Lightweight)
- 05/22/2004 - UD12 DeMarcus Corley (#5 at Jr. Welterweight)
- 06/25/2005 - RTD6 Arturo Gatti (#1 at Jr. Welterweight)
- 04/08/2006 - UD12 Zab Judah (#3 at Welterweight)
- 11/04/2006 - UD12 Carlos Baldomir (Welterweight Champion)
- 05/05/2007 - SD12 Oscar De La Hoya (#5 at Jr. Middleweight)
- 12/08/2007 - TKO 10 Ricky Hatton (Jr. Welterweight Champion)
- 09/19/2009 - UD12 Juan Manuel Marquez (Lightweight Champion)
- 05/01/2010 - UD12 Shane Mosley (#2 at Welterweight)
- 09/17/2011 - KO4 Victor Ortiz (#2 at Welterweight)
- 05/05/2012 - UD12 Miguel Cotto (#1 at Jr. Middleweight)
- 05/04/2013 - UD12 Robert Guerrero (Ring #3/TBRB #5 at Welterweight)
- 09/14/2013 - MD12 Saul Alvarez (Ring Champion/TBRB #1 at Jr. Middleweight)
- 05/03/2014 - MD12 Marcos Maidana (Ring #8/TBRB #6 at Welterweight)
- 09/13/2014 - UD12 Marcos Maidana (Ring/TBRB #5 at Welterweight)
- 05/02/2015 - UD12 Manny Pacquiao (Ring #1/TBRB #2 at Welterweight)
There are additional quality wins to be found on the Mayweather ledger. Carlos Hernandez, his second of three opponents in a memorable 2001 campaign, was unranked by The Ring prior to their fight. Hernandez would go on to win a title at Jr. lightweight after Mayweather left the division. Sharmba Mitchell, in 2005, and Andre Berto, in 2015, were unranked at welterweight when Mayweather defeated them. Mitchell was a former Jr. welterweight titlist and Berto a previous beltholder at welterweight.
Competition Not Faced
As always, this section is concerned with what did not occur, and not why it did not.
The volume of belts available during the Mayweather years means plenty of men who overlapped with him as titlists. Some of the names will stand out more than others during Mayweather’s championship years between 1998 and 2015. Fighters who held titles but later faced Mayweather in other weight classes were excluded as were titlists whose reigns only briefly overlapped with Mayweather as he moved through ultimately five weight classes.
The names are broken down by weight class, include only primary titlists, and exclude Jr. middleweight as Mayweather never engaged in consecutive bouts in the weight class. The names include:
Jr. Lightweight
- Takanori Hatakeyama (WBA)
- Lakva Sim (WBA)
- Jong-Kwon Baek (WBA)
- Joel Casamayor (WBA)
- Roberto Garcia (IBF)
- Steve Forbes (IBF)
- Anatoly Alexandrov (WBO)
- Acelino Freitas (WBO)
Lightweight
- Leonard Dorin (WBA)
- Paul Spadafora (IBF)
- Javier Jauregui (IBF)
- Artur Grigorian (WBO)
Jr. Welterweight
- Kostya Tszyu (Lineal/Ring/WBC/WBA/IBF)
- Carlos Maussa (WBA)
Welterweight
- Antonio Margarito (WBA/WBO)
- Paul Malignaggi (WBA)
- Adrien Broner (WBA)
- Joshua Clottey (IBF)
- Issac Hlatshawyo (IBF)
- Jan Zaveck (IBF)
- Randall Bailey (IBF)
- Devon Alexander (IBF)
- Shawn Porter (IBF)
- Kell Brook (IBF)
- Paul Williams (WBO)
- Carlos Quintana (WBO)
- Timothy Bradley (WBO)
Also notable among opponents Mayweather didn’t face is former lightweight titlist Stevie Johnston. Johnston lost the WBC belt to Jose Luis Castillo in 2000 but was still widely regarded as one of the best in the division deep into 2003.
Reaction to Adversity
One of the great defensive boxers, Mayweather’s experiences with serious adversity were limited. When they arose, Mayweather showed the reservoir of grit below his immense skill and grit. Of all Mayweather’s fights, his first with Jose Luis Castillo is still the most debated outcome. HBO’s unofficial scoring favored Castillo that night as did many fans. It was the first remotely close contest of his career and Mayweather responded first by taking the immediate rematch and then by showing the ability to solve a real rival.
After seven rounds of the rematch, all three judges had Castillo ahead four rounds to three. His pressuring style was making for another tough night but Mayweather solved the riddle down the stretch, sweeping rounds 8-11 on all three cards. Mayweather showed the ability to learn and adjust in real time.
In 2004, Mayweather showed off what happened if someone hurt him. Former Jr. welterweight titlist DeMarcus Corley was a crafty, quick southpaw who came to win. He wobbled Mayweather in the third round with a right. Corley nearly dropped him in a more dramatic fourth round. A right hand stiffened Mayweather’s legs and sent him to the ropes where Mayweather gathered himself, used his defense to stop Corley’s follow-up attack, and then Mayweather was back on the offensive before the first minute of the round was up. An aggressive Mayweather would have the fight fully under control by round’s end. Knockdowns in the eighth and tenth rounds came as Mayweather dished out a vicious beating. He showed the world he could take a big shot, had world-class recuperative ability, and a mean streak when wounded.
Those qualities were displayed again in 2006 when Zab Judah appeared to score a glove-scraping knockdown of Mayweather, though it wasn’t ruled as such, and in 2010 when Shane Mosley had Mayweather reeling in the second round of their contest. Against Judah, Mayweather stayed within his game, slowly turning up the heat in a fight that grew increasingly one-sided. Against Mosley, Mayweather was badly wobbled twice but wisely grabbed onto Mosley and kept himself off the floor. Mayweather recovered and may not have lost another round, taking Mosley apart and again showing off his mean streak, punching an overly polite Mosley who tried to touch gloves one too many times during the heat of the action.
As was the case with Castillo, Mayweather responded to a close contest with Maidana by granting an immediate rematch. The first fight didn’t have the same scoring debate as the first Castillo contest but it could have reasonably been scored a draw. Mayweather decisively won the return, weathering one particularly nasty bomb but avoiding similar turbulence over the course of the fight.
In the biggest fight of his career, Mayweather had some moments of vulnerability where Manny Pacquiao rocked him near the ropes in the first half of their fight. Pacquiao was never able to follow up with another big shot in those sequences as a disciplined Mayweather used his defensive prowess to contain Pacquiao.
No fighter is invulnerable but Mayweather handled his moments of vulnerability as well as anyone could ask for. He showed the ability to take big shots, shake them off quickly, and the fire of a great fighter in punishing opponents with the audacity to make him sweat.
What Did He Prove
From 1998-2015, with a retirement and some spells of lengthy inactivity along the way, Mayweather remained a fixture at the championship level of the sport. If longevity is one measure of greatness, seventeen years near the top is more than enough proof.
That sort of longevity proved how much more Mayweather brought to the table than talent. His work ethic was rivaled by only a handful of fighters in his time. Bernard Hopkins, Pacquiao, and the Klitschko brothers all showed a similar ferocity about their professionalism but none got out unscathed and few in any era were as consistent for as long as Mayweather.
That sort of dedication requires rare mental toughness, as does the ability to stay cool in the eye of the storm. Mayweather endured one of the best efforts of Miguel Cotto’s career in 2012, suffering a bloodied nose for his trouble, and yet it was Mayweather at the end who had Cotto reeling. Mayweather’s physical toughness was proven over the course of his career as a compliment to the focus he maintained in and between camps.
Great fighters win when the lights are brightest and Mayweather always excelled in pressure situations. He was never overwhelmed by moments. He seized his chances to shine against Hernandez and Corrales. He stayed cool and precise against De La Hoya in the fight he had to win more than any other to fulfill his aspirations for lasting megastardom. De La Hoya wasn’t his best outing, but he was disciplined with an eye toward victory over all other things. Contests with Saul Alvarez and Manny Pacquiao had the world’s attention and there was no doubt in either contest about who the better man was.
Mayweather proved he was a winner when winning mattered most.
Mayweather also proved he could win in different ways at different times. Stepping into his first title fight, Mayweather smoked past Genaro Hernandez with a brilliant display of speed and youthful skill, aggressively taking the veteran apart. At the age of 36, Mayweather used his wealth of experience to befuddle a younger, stronger Saul Alvarez in a fight that could have been scored a shutout. According to Compubox, Mayweather landed almost as many punches (221) in eight rounds against Hernandez as he did in 12 against Alvarez (232), averaging less than ten power punches landed per round in the latter. Many fighters struggle as they age because they don’t know how to change their approach. Mayweather never stopped finding ways to win, proof of a rare ring intellect.
Measured Against History
Fighters who don’t stay in one weight class can sometimes be easier to rate across the board than at any particular stop in the scale. Mayweather’s career played out in a way where one can do both.
His talent and the nature of his wins at lightweight and Jr. welterweight could be enough for some to rate him among the greats in both classes. As noted above, the International Boxing Research Organization highly regarded his limited bodies of work at lightweight and Jr. middleweight in their 2019 polling and he was just outside the top ten at Jr. welterweight too. Had he been able to add a Paul Spadafora or Johnston at lightweight, or Tszyu at Jr. welterweight, to his win total, Mayweather’s work at lightweight or Jr. welterweight weight class would made it easier to measure his accomplishments against more established bodies of work in either class.
The focus here won’t be guesswork on what he did versus would have done with more work in those three divisions. Mayweather had his most substantial bodies of divisional work at Jr. lightweight and welterweight. Let’s start with the former.
While not one of the so-called ‘original eight’ weight classes, Jr. lightweight is one of boxing’s oldest active divisions. Its early incarnation featured the great Kid Chocolate and Sandy Saddler laid a claim to a version of its crown later. Since its emergence as a permanent fixture in the early 1960s, it has featured a tremendous roster of great fighters. Being in the running for the greatest Jr. lightweight of all time is a significant accomplishment.
Mayweather was 9-0 in title fights at Jr. lightweight. Five of those wins came against men ranked in the top ten by Ring Magazine. Two wins came against men ranked number one in the division (Hernandez, Corrales) prior to the fight and another came against a Manfredy ranked second to Mayweather. Jesus Chavez was also ranked in the top four.
How does that compare, relative to era, to the two men who may be his closest historical peers in the class? We can look to research conducted by this author for a series for The Ring magazine centennial edition.
Alexis Arguello held the WBC title from 1978-1980. Like Mayweather, Arguello was 9-0 in title fights in the division. Seven of his defenses came against men ranked in the top ten by Ring, six ranked at Jr. lightweight and another (Ruben Castillo) who was ranked second at featherweight. Of the ranked Jr. lightweights Arguello defeated in title fights, five were ranked in the top five. Among his victims, Arguello twice defeated Alfredo Escalera and also bettered future division titlists Bobby Chacon, Rolando Navarette, and Rafael Limon. Arguello lost one fight during that title run, a non-title affair at lightweight to Violmar Fernandez, before moving on to lightweight for good. Arguello was never able to face lineal and WBA titlist Sammy Serrano but was widely regarded as the best Jr. lightweight in the world at the time.
Julio Cesar Chavez reigned as WBC titlist from 1984-87, posting a mark of 10-0 in title fights. Among Chavez’s ten title fights, seven came against ranked opponents (five at Jr. lightweight and two at featherweight). Of the Jr. lightweights defeated in title fights, four were ranked in the top four of the division including a blowout of the dangerous Roger Mayweather (Floyd’s late uncle and trainer). However, there were also two closely contested contests to Rocky Lockridge and Juan LaPorte that could easily have gone the other way. This is particularly true of the LaPorte fight, a hotly debated outcome at the time.
Both Arguello and Chavez hold the advantage in total number of ranked wins but the numbers narrow considerably when looking at men ranked in the top half of the top ten. Mayweather never had a night in the division like Chavez did with Laporte and was every bit as dominant, if not as concussive, as Arguello in title fights. Arguably Mayweather’s greatest performance, a five-knockdown shutout of Corrales, came at Jr. lightweight. Mayweather was more offensive at lower weights and just as hard to hit with a frame that was comfortable higher on the scale than either man.
There are compelling cases for each man as the all-time best at Jr. lightweight. Mayweather measures up to both. Among fighters he didn’t face in the division, both Joel Casamayor and Acelino Freitas stand out from the titlists of his era as opponents that would have deepened his case.
What of Mayweather’s body of work at welterweight?
Mayweather entered the division in 2005 and spent most of the rest of his career there. Mayweather was 9-0 in welterweight title fights, 10-0 including the Mosley win as a lineal contest. Seven of his welterweight title fight wins came against fighters ranked at welterweight as champion or in the top five by TBRB and Ring; only two of those wins came to men ranked by either outside the top five. Mayweather also stopped the reigning lineal Jr. welterweight champion Ricky Hatton in a 2007 title defense and shut out lineal lightweight champion, Juan Manuel Marquez, in a non-title contest in 2009. While there will always be debates about how long the fight took to make, Mayweather also soundly defeated his chief rival in Manny Pacquiao.
Given the historical depth at welterweight, those impressive numbers are not overwhelming. It’s less win volume against the welterweight top ten than Sugar Ray (Robinson and Leonard), Emile Griffith, or Jose Napoles, and others, achieved among the division's great champions. Mayweather competes with more of the great welterweights than he doesn’t but there isn’t a compelling case to put him in the debate for the greatest welterweight of all time.
That doesn’t mean he doesn’t compare to any prominent welterweights of the past. Mayweather faced and defeated more top ten opponents at welterweight than Felix Trinidad, Pernell Whitaker, or Oscar De la Hoya. Did he face better welterweights than them? One can critique Mayweather’s era at welterweight as too flush with fighters who rose to the weight class and were less natural to it.
Welterweight has periods of ebb and flow where the class can be dominated by full bodied welterweights who often to middleweight or higher (think Walker, Leonard, Hearns, Robinson) and welterweights who got there after ample success lower on the scale (think Ross, Napoles, Armstrong). Mayweather also didn’t benefit from the sort of dense four-way rivalry a Leonard did with Roberto Duran, Wilfred Benitez, and Thomas Hearns but few in any weight class ever have.
Mayweather may not have been the greatest welterweight of all time but he was still a great welterweight and can easily be ranked in its top 25. Wins over Tim Bradley, Paul Williams (with whom he only briefly overlapped in the division), or in a unification with Kell Brook after the Pacquiao fight could have increased his resume but would it have moved the needle that much? Welterweight is thicker than almost any division in history at the top.
Moving past single divisions, we can look at the full body of work and how Mayweather ranks against the greatest across the scale. Was his total body of work TBE? It’s difficult to make that case without being overawed by his career undefeated mark or career earnings.
The undefeated record comparison has its fun points. Mayweather’s run to unbeaten is deeper and higher in volume of top opposition than Joe Calzaghe, Rocky Marciano, or Ricardo Lopez. It’s closer to the legendary early twentieth century run of Packey McFarland than any of those men are to him.
Given the era he fought in, Mayweather simply doesn’t have the depth of professional outcomes men like Sugar Ray Robinson (who fought from lightweight to light heavyweight) or Ezzard Charles (who fought from middleweight to heavyweight) compiled at their best. They lost, but both fought substantially more often and long past their best which added misleading defeats that Mayweather was successful enough to avoid.
Mayweather was a remarkable 23-0 against ranked opponents or champions recognized as champion by TBRB or Ring. Robinson defeated nearly twice that number of contenders and in an era without a Jr. lightweight, Jr. welterweight, or Jr. middleweight division to draw on.
How difficult could it be to crack the top ten at welterweight in Robinson’s era? Future welterweight champion Marty Servo was unranked, at 42-0, when Robinson handed him his first loss. Almost half of Mayweather’s ranked wins came against fighters from those in-between divisions. Thin out the rosters with three additional weight classes in the 1940s, adding thirty-plus more fighters to the rankings, and it's conceivable Robinson doubles his number of ranked wins.
That doesn’t mean all champions and leading contenders are equal in any era. Robinson defended the welterweight title against both Bernard Docusen and Kid Gavilan when they were his top ranked contender. Gavilan is recalled as the far greater fighter. Mayweather won lineal crowns against Genaro Hernandez, Jose Luis Castillo, Carlos Baldomir, and Saul Alvarez; one of these names is not like the others.
It also doesn’t mean there aren’t points where Mayweather compares favorably against the bulk of boxing history. Mayweather’s 23 ranked wins in fifty starts is strong. It’s stronger when one looks at when it started. Mayweather’s first ranked win came in his eighteenth start against Genaro Hernandez. From that win in 1998 through the farewell contest with McGregor, Mayweather faced 23 ranked foes in 33 bouts. That’s a mark of nearly seventy percent encompassing all but just less than the first two years of his career.
Not bad for a fighter detractors often accused of not fighting anyone.
His ranked win total compared to fighters in or near his era, with the same numbers of weight classes, is elite. Mayweather is comparable with Chavez, Bernard Hopkins, Roy Jones, and Manny Pacquiao in terms of total ranked wins. The rivalry and comparisons between him and Pacquiao endure long after they resolved their issues in the ring. A multi-part study and comparison of the pair from 2015 can be found in the BoxingScene archives.
Of Mayweather’s 23 wins, 14 came against men regarded as champion or top two in their division by Ring or TBRB when Mayweather defeated them. Chavez, Jones, and Hopkins overlapped with a 1990s decade where Ring didn’t recognize champions. Even adjusting out to top three contenders for those years, only Hopkins had similarly ranked wins in the double digits.
None of them came away without a loss.
It might not be an apples to apples comparison because of the difference in the number of divisions, but Robinson’s win total against reigning champions or top two contenders was less than twenty so not a dramatic gap. If we’re comparing reigning, former, or future lineal champions defeated, Robinson also holds the edge with slightly more than Mayweather’s dozen individual men. Robinson beat several of them multiple times, including Jake LaMotta, Sammy Angott, and Bobo Olson. For a little extra fun, Muhammad Ali’s win total over champions and top two contenders, like Mayweather’s, was 14 including a win over light heavyweight champion Bob Foster.
There are those who will point to Mayweather’s negotiating strength after his star-making win over De La Hoya, the frustration of the wait for some contests, and some of the contradictions that made up his public personality as points against him. For instance, he spoke against catchweights…until it was time to fight Alvarez.
Those things matter less in the big picture. Personality and performance are two different things.
Did Mayweather fight them all? No, and it’s hard to find many in history that did. He beat far more of the top men of his time than he missed. Mayweather can sometimes have things held against him other fighters don’t. The Hatton and Marquez wins at welterweight were exceptional and he’s far from the first man who rose to welterweight before adding quality wins against highly regarded names from his previous domains. Armstrong did it. Robinson did it. Pernell Whitaker’s finest hour came in a dubious draw at welterweight against Jr. welterweight king Julio Cesar Chavez.
Look closely at what some of his best opponents went on to do after Mayweather defeated them. Corrales and Castillo both went on to lay claims to the lineal lightweight crown, Saul Alvarez and Miguel Cotto went on to win history’s middleweight crown, and Manny Pacquiao resumed beating quality welterweights like Tim Bradley and Keith Thurman in the years after the loss to Mayweather. Mayweather had wins over lineal champions or men ranked number one in their weight class in every division from Jr. lightweight to Jr. middleweight.
The way the Pacquiao win has aged has been of benefit to Mayweather’s legacy. Proving the better of his most significant rival, and that rival going on to add substantially to his own legacy, speaks to how great both men still were in 2015. Head-to-head, Mayweather was just greater.
To date, six Mayweather opponents (Miguel Cotto, Oscar De La Hoya, Arturo Gatti, Juan Manuel Marquez, Shane Mosley) have been inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Pacquiao and Alvarez will join them and a couple others could over time. Gatti is the only name really worth debating in terms of Hall of Fame merit. All but De la Hoya were the champion or number one ranked fighter in their division by TBRB or Ring when Mayweather beat them. He might not have caught them all on their very best day, but he caught them at a point where they were still highly regarded.
While this analysis might not arrive at Mayweather being the absolute best ever, there is a strong case for him as at least boxing’s best since Sugar Ray Leonard. It’s easier to make a case for Mayweather as one of the ten best fighters of all time than it is to argue him outside the top 25. There is no one since the dawn of the new millennium with the same winning consistency, durability, and longevity Mayweather displayed. Five years after his farewell from the game, almost twenty-five years into the 2000s, Mayweather stands out as this century’s standard of excellence.
Verdicts: All-Time Great and the Greatest Fighter of the 21st Century (So Far)
Author’s Note: This is an occasional series which will examine the most accomplished of modern fighters in seeking to establish how their careers stack up with history’s finest.
Previous Measurements:
Bernard Hopkins – Extended Cut
Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene, a founding member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com
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