By Yan D: Floyd Mayweather Jr is often viewed by his “haters” as a boxer who rose to glory by dodging all the best boxers. They keep saying he never fought this guy or did everything he could to avoid that one in his prime but what they seem to forget is between 2000 and the fight with Oscar De La Hoya, he was the most avoided guy in boxing.
“Pretty boy,” as he was called back then, was the very definition of a high risk/low reward fighter. He wasn’t a crowd-pleaser, even though his KO ratio was sky high, because of his humble attitude, which led him to create the personae “money” during his fight against De la Hoya.
Mayweather knew Oscar was a fan favorite so what better way to promote yourself then becoming the “bad guy”, but let’s get back to our topic of discussion, “who” did Floyd actually ducked during his career, haters come up with new name every year, and once Floyd beats them a new “beast” rises from the ashes to become the “next one” to beat Floyd.
Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera are two Mexican all-time greats who were “ducked” by Floyd in his younger career, but nothing can be more false. They actually NEVER fought in the same division EVER. Floyd started his pro career as a super featherweight (130 lbs) in October 1996. At the same time Morales and Barrera where both competing and actually facing each other in their first match up (in 2000) at super bantamweight, they reached the super featherweight class in 2004 in their third bout while “Pretty Boy” was already a light welter (140lbs). So in what universe did Mayweather duck those guys? I don’t know.
Acelino Freitas and Joel Casamayor are two other names associated with people Floyd “ducked”, what the “haters” fail to recognize is both of them where not big names when Mayweather was the Lineal champ at 130lbs (except for Joel who had a gold medal but that was years ago), they both made a name for themselves fighting each other’s in January 2002. The winner was supposed to meet Mayweather in a huge unification clash later in the year, but the controversial result should have resulted in a rematch that never came. So Floyd, who was still surfing on his amazing win against an undefeated Diego Corrales, didn’t lose any time and went on to challenge the number 1 guy at lightweight Jose Luis Castillo. Casamayor then went on to lose against both Corrales and Castillo, and Freitas would be knocked out by the same Corrales. The public interest for a Mayweather showdown disappeared and Floyd had bigger fish to fry like the big name of the sport Dela Hoya and Shane Mosley.
A young Mosley was really something, he had it all, speed, power, stamina, charisma but when his name was mentioned for a potential fight against the smaller Floyd, guess what was his answer? HELL NOOOOO!! This is when he gave his famous interview (Go look it up for yourself), about having to take a long vacation and having a…. Wait for it….. Toothache. He never mentioned Floyd has a future opponent until Floyd became “Money” and he could see the dollar signs. So who really ducked who here?
Now let’s look at a young Miguel Cotto. Did Floyd duck him?? I’ll let Bob Arum answer for me : ” I’m sorry, I don’t see this fight happening since Miguel is still too green” (real quote you can look it up). Funny when Miguel left Top Rank, the fight was made in less than two weeks and even with more experience, Miguel was still too green for Floyd. So I guess Arum was right all along for not matching his top fighter against Floyd.
Kostya Tszyu was the undisputed light welterweight champion when Mayweather jumped to 140lbs in 2004, but he suffered a shoulder injury in 2003 and never was the same again. Two great fights were made in 2005. Money faced the popular Arturo Gatti in an effort to gain some visibility in the sport while Tszyu took on the young gun Ricky Hatton and sadly Kostya lost that fight and retired right after, so Money never had a chance to fight him. Mayweather fought Hatton later on.
Antonio Margarito is probably the name I see the most when it comes to people Floyd ducked. However, the story is well documented; Bob wanted Floyd to face Margarito, while Floyd wanted none other than the Golden Boy himself who was the champ at 154lbs. Floyd left Arum, buying out of his contract, to face Carlos Baldomir, who was the lineal champ at welterweight after defeating Zab Judah, and moved up one more weight class agreeing to all of Oscar’s demand to make a name for himself. Margarito went on to lose to Paul Williams in 2007 and later on to Shane Mosley killing his chance at a fight against Mayweather.
Paul Williams has only himself to blame for losing to Carlos Quintana after his win against Margarito, costing him a shot at Floyd who went on and retired almost 2 years, and by the time he defeated Winky and Sergio Martinez to get his glory back he was at 160lbs.
Sergio Martinez was the 160lbs champion when he was relevant and I don’t care how many times he said he could make weight for a fight against Floyd he never did, heck even Hopkins says he can make the weight. It doesn’t mean it is true, but if there is one guy in the list Floyd could have fought anyway it would be him.
Winky Wright, please they never once were in the same weight class.
Gennady Golovkin – Again, he’s not in the same weight class as Mayweather, and if he could actually make 154lbs, well let’s see him do it first. Golovkin has been fighting at 160 for over 10 years now. There’s no way he can he make 154 without dehydrating himself. If Floyd moves up again for a middleweight title and doesn’t face GGG, I will be the first to say he his ducking.
Let’s finish with the main course instead of the dessert. Manny “Pac Man” Pacquiao. Everything has been said about those two fighters, and neither of them are afraid of each other. Floyd actually signed in 2009 a 50/50 split (Look for the Kevin Iole article), and Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach is on record saying it was their fault the fight wasn’t made. Arum is protecting his investment (He built up Pacquiao’s popularity as the man who can finally beat Floyd), and Floyd was being the diva he is, but If they are truly ducking well both are to blame and no facts can deny that.
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