floyd By Gav Duthie: Everyone has an opinion on why Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao have not yet fought. It would be ignorant of me to try and convince anyone either way who is to blame as most are on one side or another and that won’t change.

If you blame Mayweather that’s fine, no problem, what I don’t like is the throw away comments about him ducking this or cherry picking that. With the exception of Pacquiao is there anyone else he should have fought in the past but didn’t? I thought I would have a proper look back at his career and assess the situation.

1998

Top 5 P4P

1. Oscar De La Hoya
2. Roy Jones Jnr
3. Evander Holyfield
4. Felix Trinidad
5. Mark Johnson

Floyd Mayweather debuted in 1996 after winning the bronze medal medal in the Atlanta Olympics. I start at 1998 because this was the first year that Mayweather was recognised in the top ten p4p by ring magazine featuring at #8. He achieved this goal when he stopped the normally durable Angel Manfredy in only 2 rounds to win the WBC Super Featherweight title.

2001

Super featherweight 130 lbs

1. Floyd Mayweather Jnr
2. Diego Corrales
3. Jong-kwon Baek
4. Robert Garcia
5. Lakva Sim
6. Yong Soo Choi
7. Jesus Chavez
8. Acelino Freitas
9. Derrick Gainer
10. Goyo Vargas

Mayweather stayed in the Super featherweight division for three years whilst he learned his craft. During this time his biggest fight was undoubtedly against the late giant Diego ‘Chico’ Corrales. Mayweather destroyed him over 10 rounds knocking him down 5 times on route to victory. Of this list he also beat Jesus Chavez and Goyo Vargas, another respectable win he had at 130lbs was against Carlos Hernandez where he controversially suffered the only knockdown of his career after a head butt.

Is there anyone else on this list that was a MUST fight. Not for me. Ironically you have Marcos Maidana’s trainer Robert Garcia in at number 4. Garcia was a decent boxer in his own right but even he would never have claimed to being able to beat Mayweather. Acelino Freitas was fairly dominant for a while after he beat Casamayor in 2002. A fight against Freitas or Casamayor would have been interesting but not box office.

2001 p4p

1. Shane Mosley
2. Bernard Hopkins
3. Jones Jnr
4. Marco Antonio Barrera
5. Floyd Mayweather

After the Corrales win Floyd went into the top 5 pound for pound for the first time and apart from his brief retirement has been there ever since. I remember at the time he was linked to fights against #4 Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales but again they were not avoided as neither mexican fought at 130lbs until 2004.

2002

Lightweight 135 lbs

1. Floyd Mayweather
2. Jose Luis Castillo
3. Stevie Johnston
4. Paul Spadafora
5. Leonard Dorin
6. Juan Lazcano
7. Angel Manfredy
8. Acelino Freitas
9. Artur Grogorian
10. Victoriano Sosa

In 2002 Mayweather moved up to the lightweight division and challenged tough mexican champion Jose Luis Castillo in his first fight. This bout if any is the one fight where I thought Mayweather had lost. Castillo’s size and strength advantages were apparent and he managed to bully Floyd for much of the fight landing some big shots. In fairness to Floyd he could have avoided the rematch after such a tough fight but he gave Castillo the second chance. The next instalment was once again close but “Pretty Boy” Floyd got the nod.

From the Ring Magazine lightweight list of 2002 the obvious name that jumps out is Paul Spadafora. Spaddy was also a lightweight champion when he outpointed Angel Manfredy. He and Floyd were already seen as rivals after Spadafora’s dominant sparring session over him in 1999. Floyd didn’t really hang around at 130 for too long as the Jnr welterweight division was packed with talent and he clearly wanted to be involved in these fights. Floyd started to call out Arturo Gatti after he destroyed dangerous puncher Phillip Ndou.

2004

Light Welterweight

1. Kostya Tszyu IBF
2. Arturo Gatti WBC
3. Vivian Harris WBA
4. Floyd Mayweather
5. Sharmba Mitchell
6. Miguel Cotto WBO
7. Ricky Hatton
8. Zab Judah
9. Lovemore N’dou
10. Jesse James Leija

I feel at this point Floyd was really coming into his stride. The light welterweight division was littered with talent and Floyd pursued many of the big fights. Of this top ten Floyd fought Arturo Gatti, Sharmba Mitchell, Miguel Cotto, Ricky Hatton and Zab Judah. In 2004 Kostya Tszyu was the main man at the weight but a fight between those two would have been on the Russian’s terms and he lost and retired after his fight with Ricky Hatton in 2005 which made the opportunity for this fight limited to a short space of time.

2007

Welterweight 147lbs

1. Floyd Mayweather
2. Miguel Cotto
3. Paul Williams
4. Shane Mosley
5. Antonio Margarito
6. Zab Judah
7. Kermot Cintron
8. Luis Collazo
9. Joshua Clottey
10. Oktay Urkal

After Zab Judah’s stunning knockout victory in a rematch against Cory Spinks there was a big call for a fight between him and Floyd Mayweather. Unfortunately a certain Carlos Baldomir hadn’t read the script and beat Judah in what was considered no more than a warm up fight. Floyd did the only thing he could do in my opinion which was to keep his obligation to fight Judah and then fight Carlos Baldomir. There were probably a few other fights at 147 he could have taken like Margarito or Paul Williams but he understandably took a bigger challenge in moving up to 154lbs to fight Oscar De La Hoya. Mayweather won a close controversial split decision and then went back down to Welterweight for another career defining fight against Ricky Hatton 43-0. After his tenth round stoppage win he retired and for me there was no real fights that he hadn’t taken at this stage.

2010

Welterweight 147lbs

1. Manny Pacquiao
2. Floyd Mayweather
3. Andre Berto
4. Miguel Cotto
5. Shane Mosley
6. Joshua Clottey
7. Jan Zaveck
8. Vyacheslav Senchenko
9. Rafal Jackiewicz
10. Tim Bradley

During Mayweather’s 2 year hiatus from 2007-2009 the baton was firmly passed on to Pacquaio. He won a second fight with Barrera and a split decision rematch against nemesis Juan Manuel Marquez. In 2008 he bettered both of Mayweather’s performances with an 8 round dismantling of De La Hoya followed by a destructive second round knock out over Ricky Hatton. Mayweather then came back in 09 getting one back after he dominated Marquez over 12 rounds something Pacquiao has never been able to do. Then we all thought that it was primed for the two to meet in the ring. That clearly didn’t happen and as I said before this article isn’t about that its about Mayweather in general and if he ducks big fights.

Again on this list from 2010 some have drifted into obscurity (Zaveck, Jackiewicz) some have went backwards (Berto) and some have improved (Bradley). Again of this list probably Tim Bradley is the only fight that could have happened but we know this was impossible due to Floyd’s relationship with Bob Arum. He followed the Marquez win with Shane Mosley after he had beaten Margarito.

Today

Welterweight 147

1. Floyd Mayweather
2. Manny Pacquiao
3. Tim Bradley
4. Juan Manuel Marquez
5. Marcos Maidana
6. Kell Brook
7. Keith Thurman
8. Shawn Porter
9. Devon Alexander
10. Amir Khan

Light Middleweight 154lbs

1. Floyd Mayweather
2. Saul Alvarez
3. Erislandy Lara
4. Carlos Molina
5. Demetrius Andrade

Floyd has drifted between 147 and 154 over the last few years at a very advanced age to try and get the biggest fights. He beat Ortiz and then Guerrero after wins against Andre Berto and facing Canelo was a big risk considering the size difference.

If you learn anything from these rankings it is that they change so quickly with flash in the pan fighters and overhyped prospects but Mayweather always remains. There is always someone else to fight but not all of them can happen. Some might say Mayweather should fight Keith Thurman next, UK fans might say he should fight Brook or Khan, or maybe Danny Garcia deserves a chance, perhaps he should move up and fight Andrade or Kirkland. There are some that even say he should fight Golovkin but how do we know where these guys will be in another two years and he cannot fight them all. I wasn’t convinced by Maidana as an opponent but his win against Broner put him in that position.

Conclusion

Perhaps Mayweather these days does look at fights with dollar signs first but nobody can truly say he doesn’t still fight quality opponents. Trying to remain as neutral as possible summarizing his career I don’t think he has really ducked anyone. Besides the Pacquiao situation, where I’m not sure who to blame, he has fought at a great level his whole career. Yes there are other fights that perhaps should have happened but did he duck them.

Potential fights

Spadafora (2000)
Freitas (2002)
Tszyu (2004)
Pacquiao (2010)
Bradley (2013)

Still you could go through any fighters resume with a fine tooth comb even Mohammed Ali, Ray Leonard and Ray Robinson and find fights that could have happened but didn’t. If the Pacquiao fight never happens that will always be a blight on his record but as for the rest of it hats off to an amazing career so far.