Mayweather’s struggles do not compare to the struggles of the greats

By Anthony Mason - 05/05/2014 - Comments

floyd666333By Anthony Mason: Floyd Mayweather Jr’s last performance against an ordinary opponent in Marcos Maidana last Saturday night was hardly impressive. Roger Mayweather himself stated that Maidana had not beaten anyone that impressed him. Despite his own uncle and trainer admitting the ordinary status of Maidana, Floyd clearly lost four to five rounds. And it’s not like Floyd is well past his prime, either.

Floyd was coming off a win against a solid average opponent in Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, and sustained absolutely no damage in that fight. Many considered his win over Canelo to be one of the finest performances in his career, so it is ludicrous to immediately switch to saying that Floyd is getting old and slowing down. Although he is 37, several fighters have peaked in their mid-30s, while others peaked in their early 20s, so age is not indicative of a fighter’s prime.

Also, it does not take a genius to tell that Floyd is bluffing when he claims that he intended to make it a competitive fight to entertain the fans. Floyd has emphasized for 18 years that his health is important over all else and that boxing is to hit and not get hit. I highly doubt Floyd woke up one day and said “I think I’m going to abandon what I’ve been doing for 18 years and intentionally fight a style that makes me get hit more often just to entertain the fans.” Given the near robbery that took place in the one-sided Canelo fight, it is ridiculous to believe he would intentionally fight a style that puts him at great risk to lose rounds. The fact is that Maidana made Floyd look ordinary. Not that Floyd chose to fight a style that made him look ordinary.

Mayweather’s struggles against Maidana are not the first sign that Floyd is a good but not all-time great fighter. Castillo showed the first signs of this in 2002. Jose Luis Castillo won the first fight only to get robbed, and still gave Floyd a tough fight in the rematch. Castillo is also far from the caliber of fighters that gave struggles to past greats. With Floyd being only slightly superior to Manny Pacquiao, there is no reason to mention either of them in the discussion of the greats.

Duran himself has stated that Floyd (as well as Pacquiao) would be ordinary in his era, and given Floyd’s struggles against an average Maidana and Castillo, there is no argument against this. Barely being able to withstand the pressure of Maidana makes one wonder how badly a Roberto Duran, Aaron Pryor, Sugar Ray Leonard, or Tommy Hearns would massacre Mayweather. Emanuel Steward also noted that he saw no way that Floyd could have competed with fighter as high-caliber as Hearns.

It is true that all great fighters struggled against inferior competition, but this mediocre performance does not hide the fact that Floyd does not belong with those greats. It seems that several people are tempted to compare Floyd’s struggles against Maidana and Castillo with the struggles of other great fighters in an attempt to validate his all-time great status. There are a few reasons that this is not a legitimate comparison.

Firstly, the vast majority of opponents that gave problems to great fighters are much higher caliber fighters than Maidana or Castillo. With Roger Mayweather himself stating that Maidana beat no one impressive, let us look at Maidana’s wins. His best wins are Adrien Broner and Josesito Lopez, neither of whom have beaten anyone elite. Aside from that, he was out-boxed for the most part against Khan and nearly shut out against Devon Alexander, two second tier boxers.

Secondly, the great fighters of the past, despite any struggles against lower competition, accomplished much more in boxing than Floyd. Duran, for example, despite losing most of his big fights past 147 was a natural lightweight that beat up natural middleweights like Iran Barkley. Floyd won’t even fight a prime Sergio Martinez at 154, let alone at 160. Lennox Lewis, despite losing to Mccall and Rahman, beat superior competition like Evander Holyfield, Razor Ruddock, and Wladimir Klitschko. Even when great fighters of the past fell to lower competition, they cemented their great status with accomplishments vastly superior to Floyd’s padded record. Floyd’s best wins are

  • 1)Marquez who was undersized by two weight classes
  • 2)Oscar De La Hoya, Miguel Cotto, and Shane Mosley, who were all shot well beyond their primes
  • 3)Diego Corrales, Ricky Hatton, Castillo, Canelo, Zab Judah, Genaro Hernandez, none of whom have beaten A-class fighters near their prime (Hernandez beat Azumah Nelson when he was well past it)
  • 4) The rest, such as Victor Ortiz, Robert Guerrero, Carlos Baldomir, Arturo Gatti, etc are all extremely weak competition. In Floyd Mayweather’s own words, Gatti was “a C+ fighter.”

Now, let’s get back to the topic at hand and examine the tough challenges of some fighters who can truly be considered great.

1) Muhammad Ali – Ali had major problems with Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, and Jimmy Young. His fights with Cooper and Spinks were in the very beginning of his career, and when he was completely shot past his prime, so there is no point in discussing them. Floyd even struggled badly against Emanuel Augustus early in his career, so comparing fighter’s struggles in their early stages (or well past their prime) is not a smart thing to do.

Joe Frazier’s status really does not need to be explained. Ken Norton gave the great Larry Holmes one of his most difficult fights, and beat Jimmy Young and Jerry Quarry, all of whom are vastly superior to Maidana’s wins. He lost to one of the greatest fighters of his era in George Foreman, who is no Alexander or Khan. His losses to two solid fighters, Gerry Cooney and Earnie Shavers, occurred at the very end of his career. Jimmy Young, on the other hand, is the only man besides Ali himself to beat a 1970s Foreman. Clearly, Floyd’s struggles with Maidana are nowhere near comparable with the vastly superior competition that Ali faced.

2) Joe Louis – He never lost when he was in his prime, the Schmeling knockout occurring early in his career. The rematch with Schmeling confirmed that a prime Louis was far out of Schmeling’s league. He struggled against Jersey Joe Walcott, a fighter far greater than even Floyd himself, and even his struggles against Walcott occurred when Louis had lost several steps. Billy Conn’s career is also superior to Floyd’s, and a fighter that has the status of Billy Conn can hardly be used to draw comparisons between Floyd’s struggles against a vastly inferior Maidana or Castillo.

3) Tommy Hearns – His losses to Leonard and Hagler don’t even need to be discussed, as anyone with an ounce of boxing knowledge can see that no one in the past twenty years can rank higher than Hagler or Leonard. His biggest upset came against Iran Barkley. Hearns was a natural welterweight fighting a much larger middleweight. There is a difference between being a natural middleweight and rehydrating to 165 pounds like Maidana did. Barkley gave tough battles to elite competition such as Duran and Michael Nunn, so there is no point in trying to compare Maidana or Castillo to someone like Barkley.

4) Roberto Duran – He moved up two weight classes to beat an undefeated Ray Leonard, so that alone is vastly superior to anything in Floyd’s career. His lightweight reign is arguably the greatest of all time, beating competition like Esteban De Jesus and Buchanan. His losses came against Wilfred Benitez, Leonard, Hearns, and Marvin Hagler – all of whom are much higher level than Maidana or Castillo. He did lose to shockingly inferior competition like Laing, but this was when he had moved well beyond his natural weight, and as mentioned before his previous accomplishments vastly outperform anything that Mayweather has done.

I in great detail could go on and explain how every great fighter and their struggles do not compare to Maidana or Castillo’s exposure of Mayweather. You could look at Langford vs Wills, Hagler vs John Mugabi, Holyfield vs Michael Moorer, Larry Holmes vs Michael Spinks, George Foreman vs Ron Lyle, Willie Pep vs Saddler, Sugar Ray Robinson vs Jake Lamotta, Bernard Hopkins vs Jermaine Taylor/Chad Dawson, Roy Jones vs Montell Griffin, and it does not take an expert to see that the likes of Wills, Mugabi, Moorer, etc are all vastly superior challenges than Castillo or Maidana.

The fact that Floyd struggled badly against Maidana and Castillo, not to mention his close but clear victory over a shot Oscar De La Hoya, getting cut up against a rapidly fading Cotto, getting nearly dropped by an almost 40 year old faded Mosley, and getting knocked down against Zab Judah only show that

  1. Mayweather has not fought competition that is remotely close to the competition that the true greats fought
  2. The fighters that Floyd has struggled against do not draw comparisons anywhere close to the fighters that the legitimate greats have struggled against

It is obvious that many fans have been deluded into believing that Mayweather is actually one of the greatest ever, when he cannot even be considered close to an all-time great. They will continue to believe so, as they are blind sheep that follow the herd. They can deny the truth all they want, but it is irrefutable. Mayweather does not even belong in the conversation. End of discussion.



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