By Sizzle JKD: Muhammad Ali was 56-5. Joe Frazier was 32-4. George Foreman was 76-5. Lennox Lewis was 41-2. Sugar Ray Leonard was 36-3. Roberto Duran was 103-16. Marvelous Marvin Hagler was 62-3. Tommy Hearns was 61-5. Sugar Ray Robinson was 173-19. Joe Louis was 66-3. Evander Holyfield was 44-10. Julio Cesar Chavez was 107-6. Bernard Hopkins is 55-7. Manny Pacquiao is 57-5.
The moral of the story? All of the boxers who are widely considered as the greatest fighters in the history of the sport have lost.
The common denominator between these legends? Boxing greats weren’t afraid to fight their equals, they took on all comers, and not once were they ever concerned about protecting an undefeated status as much as Floyd Mayweather Jr. has.
Everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief when Mayweather decided sometime between September 2014 and January 2015 that he would finally give himself the ultimate test and exchange punches with his arch nemesis. The mega fight is less than four weeks away and Mayweather’s supreme confidence remains undeterred.
“I just feel like when you get to this level, you’re making nine figures in 36 minutes, you have to be a winner,” Mayweather said recently in an interview with David Mayo of Mlive.com. “If a fighter lost before, losing is in the back of his mind. For me, all I’ve done in my career is win, so winning is always in my mind.”
At first glance, one would think that Mayweather is trying to justify his mentality as an undefeated fighter and what makes him a winner. In actuality, Mayweather is simply taking a shot at Pacquiao in an effort to play psychological mind games.
What hurts the most is what you don’t see coming.
If Mayweather loses on May 2nd, as many are suggesting, it will be the best thing that could’ve happened to his career. Mike Tyson, Holyfield, Duran, and Ali, among others, are predicting a Pacquiao win.
How Mayweather will react and what he will do after he takes a beating from Pacquiao will show the world his true character as a champion. Will he retire and walk off into the sunset and continue to claim he’s “TBE?” Or will he bounce back like the great legendary fighters that preceded him and come back an even greater fighter and re-capture his glory?
There are several “bounce-back” scenarios after a Mayweather loss on May 2.
Floyd could have a rematch with Pacquiao, defeat Manny in the rematch, which would eventually set up a rubber match sometime in 2016 to cap off a thrilling trilogy. But there is no rematch clause in this current contract, and what if Manny decides he doesn’t want to give Floyd a rematch after he defeats Mayweather? This could perhaps seal Floyd’s fate and spell eternal doom for Mayweather, knowing that he would never have the opportunity to avenge his only loss to Pacquiao. Manny’s legacy, in turn, would forever be held in greater regard than Floyd’s because he would be known as the fighter to give Floyd his lone loss.
If Manny doesn’t give Mayweather the privilege of a rematch, Floyd could rejuvenate his career by going after the young, up and coming champions in the welterweight division. Floyd could target current WBA (Regular) welterweight champ Keith Thurman and try to capture Thurman’s belt in hopes of setting up another unification bout with Pacquiao in the future, or Floyd could go after current IBF welterweight champ Kell Brook and fight Brook at Wembley Stadium. A victory over Brook would give Floyd a title and perhaps another shot at Pacquiao for a unification bout.
Or Floyd could set his sights at junior middleweight and attempt to clean out the 154-lb division, although this is highly unlikely since there currently aren’t any exciting potential prize fight opponents at 154 save for Canelo Alvarez. In addition, I highly doubt Mayweather would risk his health against considerably bigger opponents who pack considerably bigger punches.
Nonetheless, victories over talented young pugilists such as Thurman and Brook would certainly catapult Mayweather to new heights in terms of his legacy and greatness. Fans would gain a whole new different respect for Mayweather because Mayweather will show the world that he isn’t afraid to challenge himself against the current best crop of new talent at 147, and beating them would prove to the world that Mayweather is still able to perform at an extremely high level in spite of losing to Pacquiao.
The current consensus belief is that if Mayweather were to lose to Manny, his career, his legacy, his cache, and his reputation would be tarnished forever because his entire career has been based on his perceived greatness resulting from being undefeated.
“His whole identity is that zero,” Freddie Roach said in an interview published in Mayo’s article on MLive.com. “He’s still a great fighter if he loses, but people will look at him completely different, and especially at his age, I don’t know how he would come back from that.”
The greatest and most illustrious boxers in the history of the sport have all come back from defeat and tested their mettle to re-capture the glory they once lost.
How Mayweather bounces back after losing to Pacquiao will go a long way in proving how remarkably impressive and distinguished of a boxing legend Floyd really is. We have never seen Mayweather in survival mode. We have never seen how Mayweather reacts to misfortune in the ring. We have never seen Mayweather challenged and tested to his limits.
A wise man once told me: “It’s not who you are or what your marketing strategy is that determines your greatness, it’s what you do through adversity that defines you.”
47-1 is coming. Is Floyd ready for it? Happy Easter to all.
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