By Kurt Jean: I took the time to clearly state that opinions are opinions .The article I wrote, happened to be mine. I based mine on several quantifiable metrics. In all seriousness, who cares who is the best, who is not the best? Judging the best is an exercise in futility. I can’t really say who is the best, only an all knowing, all encompassing calculator could gauge that.
It’s about pushing the envelope and the lens through which we discuss and see things. “Mayweather fanboy, Pactard “. The least you can do, if you profess your love for a thing, is to try to broaden your perspective and acquire discernment with regards to how you verbalize your appreciation for it. Even if it’s only the comment section, it reflects the state of mind of boxing fans.
It’s your responsibility and your duty to intelligently, thoroughly and methodically present your arguments for or about a given topic. You should go above the lies in your own mind and heart to state the truth how it’s supposed to be stated. So here are those truths, which I already mentioned in the first article, but to which many chose to turn a blind eye to, for reasons clearly only known to them.
Is Mayweather as challenged as some of the other boxing greats? No. Did he avoid fighting certain opponents? Yes. Did he fight some fighters later than he should have? In my opinion, yes. In my opinion, being that my opinion does not and cannot have an effect on the worth of the legitimacy of his choices. His choices are based on what he deemed appropriate for him. But as a fan, again, yes, just to reiterate.
Once you factor in all those obvious “flags” about his career, does that take away from all the rest? Could it be argued that he took an easy route? It can. And it should be discussed. Yet, again, in what manner and based on what? On the premise that you think he is a jerk and a show-off? Or on the totality of the circumstances that go into the making of a pro boxing career. No fighter is perfect. No fighter is TBE. As much as the article had Mayweather’s name all over it, it had nothing to do with Mayweather, per say.
Boxing soars above records, wins, punches, money or knockouts. That’s what I meant with the article. I am not implying that you cannot grasp it if you don’t practice it, that’s untrue. Nonetheless, veritably, practicing boxing goes along way in refining your taste palette for the nuances of the sport. Like in any science, we posit theories to try best to espouse the evasive body of this thing we call truth. Why do you feel the need to unload such hatred and immaturity in your comments? Passion? Your passion should allow us to see the world of boxing through your unique set of eyes. Share the richness of your individual awareness. Something that no one can do but you. To achieve that, you must first become a student of life. Instead of spewing unreflected, boring pseudo facts, show us boxing. Show me something that I have never seen. Show me, from a totality new angle, why and how, Manny Pacquiao can be termed the best or the greatest ever. Please, I would absolutely welcome any such article. I would embrace the facts of his greatness. Manny Pacquiao is also the best for the people who believe he is. There is no agenda. There is no attempt at creating polemic. It’s about self-expansion and growth. That’s what you should get out of practicing and following the sport of boxing. That’s what I get. Wouldn’t you rather be a mind with the capacity to internalize the greatness of many different fighters at the same time?
At least 15 other fighters of the same calibre can be argued to have faced better, I repeat, better opponents than Mayweather. No one is here to lie, and to amplify the talent level and danger that some of the guys on Mayweather’s record posed. Do I need to repeat? I call a square a square. If a guy was faded, past his prime, I see, and call him faded, past his prime. He doesn’t become Sugar Ray Leonard because he happens to be on Mayweather’s resume, no sir. If Mayweather’s resume isn’t on par with some of the all the all-time greats, his boxing acumen his vastly superior to theirs. The hyperbolic title was to highlight this fact.
A guy that is 40-0 with 37 ko’s isn’t necessarily a great boxer. He might not be a boxer at all. He is a physical specimen. A guy who is 25-10 with only 9 ko’s doesn’t automatically “suck”. He might be a much better boxer. What makes an elite boxer is the ability to fuse boxing abilities and athleticism. They are constantly analyzing what is going on and as they do, they are able to make their bodies do what the scouting reports suggest. To get to that point, they must first render the brute matter of the body malleable. That comes with tremendous physical extortion. A beautiful illustration of this fact is the alliance of Mike Tyson and Cus D’amato. The result is mind body coordination. Above that, it’s about mental quickness. It comes from thousands upon thousands of obsessive and grueling hours invested in highly intricate mental workout. This mental work is the ability to go beyond the instinctive and normal reactions of the body. Look at the Leo Santa Cruz vs Abner Mares fight. Both fighters are talented and physically able. Yet, when there was a close exchange, the majority of punches missed or didn’t land cleanly. Both guys had the chance of finishing the fight in the pocket. This is the difference between a good boxer, an elite one and a great one. While in the pocket, Mares did not know how fast and how hard Cruz was going to hit. And so he put his head down and swung similarly in an uncommitted and precipitated way. The result was hits and misses. A great fighter tirelessly practices those scenarios. In the heat of the battle, he will be able to plan is feet, keep his eyes up, calculate and anticipate the speed at which the punch is coming and land his own. With fear, the heart rate starts to accelerate, so, everything else seems to be faster. When that happens, you see to fighters swinging as if they were in a swim or sink situation. It’s the most under-appreciated art in boxing, the one of finding order amidst chaos. Most people do not have the patience and the will to learn boxing technique the right way. So, they develop horrendous habits. Those habits allow them to engender supplementary power, while using more strain. They knockout guys by the boatload making rookie mistakes. Those mistakes always catch on to you. When they fight in this manner, they “squander” their prime much faster. They have no choice but to fight in that manner. When they meet a boxer with better boxing skills, they are quickly exposed. Most boxers who fight that toe-to-toe style do it because that’s the only thing they can do. A slugfest is admitting,” I find no appropriate solution to solve the problem, I have to pound my way in, using brute force”. Remember, a boxer is like a doctor, always looking for symptoms and signs to detect a broken will. Breaking the body doesn’t necessarily break the will, look at Gatti vs Ward or Lamotta vs Robinson. The better the boxing mind, the more refined the techniques to break a fighters will and the ways to hide your findings. SR Leonard was one such fighter who mastered the art of putting away fighters without giving up much information. As soon as he sensed, not just tiredness, a particular form of it, he would storm his opponents like doomsday and take them apart with his flawless boxing technique.
If a boxer’s greatness is measured on the wars that he’s had with guys of equivalent skill and the epic moments that resulted in the clash of their “prime energies”, for example, SRL and Roberto Duran, what about a guy who barely had to, because he built his boxing foundation on absolute striving for perfection? We resort to calling Mayweather TBE because people won’t give him is due. If the feats were separated from the man, maybe they would be appreciated. If Mayweather was a fighting monk, then surely he would be praised as being a Zen master in the ring. That’s what he is, a Zen master. A black, young, flashy, Bugatti driving, wealthy and brash master. That’s it. Fans and critics alike fall for one extreme or the other. And while they do and nonsensically go on bickering unknowingly on ephemeral details, the beauty of his timeless accomplishments goes on undeciphered. I take a stand as a lover of the art of boxing. Pure boxing. His critics dismiss absolutely everything he does and everything about him. His “fans”, just as drastic, distort and play with historical facts to give him credit and make him look great for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with his “best-ness.” People crowd the truth, either with praise or with dismissal, never letting it live on it’s own merits.
Mayweather isn’t forced to engage and he isn’t forced to trade with guys? Think about that. Did he beat a past his prime Manny Pacquiao? Assured. However, realize that in a very distant past when dinosaurs roamed the earth, there was a thing called hooks that Mayweather used to throw. Not a check hook, a fully offensively engaged hook. No matter how you slice it, cut it or dice it, he neutralized the great Manny Pacquiao. Yes, Mayweather that is slower, that gets hit with way more punches and that rarely throws any combinations, that throws 20 punches per round, you know, that one, neutralized Manny Pacquiao. Oh,” What if Pacquiao was in in prime”? Pacquiao couldn’t beat this version of Mayweather, on what planet would he beat prime Mayweather? And that’s scary. For all the doubt and suspicion about Mayweather, he made Pacquiao look average. Like a side note. If people are so quick to put Pacquiao amongst the greats, where does Mayweather rank? This is the point to emphasize. Mayweather’s resume doesn’t stack up against a lot of all-time greats, but the mastery he derived from his complete submission to the sport is unmatched.
Every fighter’s career is defined by this one giant, the guy that would bring the best out of him and force him to fight for his survival. The type of opponent that is as good as you, as skilled as you, where your strengths and weaknesses annul each other. The one that forces you throw caution to the wind, press on the survival button and fight with your guts. À la Hagler Vs Hearns. Mayweather, never found such guy. The only one that could was Manny Pacquiao and so much for that. What does that tell you? Mayweather sat on his greatness and no fighter ever got Mayweather to do more than to be on cruise control. Will Floyd retire untested? Yes. But his work ethic gave him that. His mind gave him that luxury. His body responded well to virtually every situation, because he trained to be in that position. He went where only a handful of guys went, in any discipline. He passed the threshold of individuality and worked in full faith with the laws of physics.
Could he have given more, could he have given everything that he had? To what avail? When you see the amount of depressing stories concerning pro athletes and what they become after their careers. “Well, they get paid for it”. Compared to the risk involved, how many truly make a living? Even when they do, the risk is proportional to the rewards. “Mayweather has tons of money and is ripping us off”. That’s called marketing, offer and demand, advertising dollars. See it like this, for all the fighters that left addicted to drugs, depressed, suicidal, broke, brain damaged or dead, Mayweather is doing the right thing. Those men are humans and not machines, the aura of invincibility around them and skewed. Boxing is barbaric. The after career of a brain-damaged athlete is lonely. You are no more than a commodity. They chew you, then they spit you out, unconcerned. Why would you give the diamond of your person to ungrateful people? Do fans open trust funds for fighters and help their childhood heroes? Boxer are treated like war vets, with all that patriotic oopla they still end up on the streets. Much respect to Floyd Mayweather Jr for not succumbing to the pressure. Much respect for saving his “prime” for his family and loved ones, still managing to dominate a whole era. That, that takes a wise man to do. How much did Mayweather pay me to write the article? People’s questions only reflect where their minds are. I have the privilege of witnessing a master boxer, a master mind. That is more than enough of a payment. The beauty that emerges from the display of his skills goes above any dollar amount. What he, Mayweather does is even above Mayweather himself. But, you wouldn’t understand that.
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