By Dan Ambrose: Floyd Mayweather Jr. made a startling confession this week in saying that he never had to go to his A-game to beat anyone in his career. Mayweather says the most effort he ever had to put in for a single fight was against Diego Corrales in 2001. Mayweather knocked Corrales down five times before the fight was halted in the 10th.
Mayweather says he beat Ricky Hatton with his “D-game” and he still didn’t have to fight at his best when he fought the much younger, stronger and heavier Saul Canelo Alvarez in their fight in 2013.
If Mayweather feels he was never really challenged by anyone that forced him to bring his A-game, then why doesn’t he come back now and fight middleweight Gennady “GGG” Golovkin? You would have to think that Mayweather would need to bring his A-game at least for that fight, right? I couldn’t picture Mayweather fighting lazily with his back against the ropes, using his shoulder roll and trying to avoid incoming missiles from Golovkin for 12 rounds. If a fight like that couldn’t get Mayweather to bring his A-game, then I don’t know what would. It would be sad though if Mayweather thought he could beat Golovkin using a C-game, and he ended up getting knocked out cold for half-stepping it instead of putting in some effort.
With the way that Mayweather struggled in some of his fights in winning controversial decisions, it’s hard to believe that he didn’t need to use his A-game to beat them. When you look at Mayweather’s two fights with Jose Luis Castillo, his fights against Miguel Cotto, Marco Maidana, and Zab Judah, it’s difficult to not believe that Mayweather wasn’t fighting at his very best to beat them. A lot of boxing fans believe that Mayweather should have lost his first fight against Castillo in April 2002. I saw the fight recently, and believe that Castillo deserved the win against the more popular Mayweather.
If Mayweather couldn’t get out of third gear for a fight he appeared to be losing to Castillo, then what does that say about Mayweather? Was he a lazy fighter? It could be that Mayweather realized that a fighter as popular as him wouldn’t get beaten by a decision by less popular fighters. When you’re a very popular fighter like Mayweather was in his career, it’s very hard to beat you. It takes an incredible game to defeat you.
Mayweather said to esnewsreporting.com:
“I never knew how good I was,” said Mayweather. “I never reached my peak. I never had to beat a fighter with my A-game. I beat every fighter in boxing with a D & C game. I never even had to go to a ‘B.’ When I took it to C+, that was against Diego Corrales. With Ricky Hatton, I used the D-game to beat him. I never had to really dig into my bag of tricks to bring the best Floyd Mayweather. I didn’t have to bring my best out for Canelo. He’s a hell of a fighter. He’s a future Hall of Famer,” said Mayweather.
The confession by Mayweather of him not giving maximum effort in his fights tells me that he didn’t fight the best at all times. If you’re facing the best fighters each time out, then you’re going to be forced to bring you’re A-game. So instead of boxing fans seeing Mayweather fight Pacquiao while he was in his prime, we saw the fight happen when Pacquiao was 36, and no longer the fighter he was previously. We didn’t see Mayweather fight guys like Antonio Margarito, Paul Williams, Keith Thurman, Tim Bradley, Terence Crawford, Shawn Porter, Amir Khan, Jermall Charlo, Golovkin, Jermell Charlo, Demetrius Andrade, Austin Trout, and Daniel Jacobs. We didn’t see Mayweather fight the following fighters in their primes of their careers: Cotto, Oscar De La Hoya, Juan Manuel Marquez, Shane Mosley, and Andre Berto. You have to ignore those wins by Mayweather over those fighters because the fights took lace later in their careers when they were no longer in their primes.
I think a lot of boxing fans would like to see Mayweather return to the ring to fight Golovkin so that he can bring his A-game. If Mayweather wants to fight Golovkin with his C-game and brag about it beforehand, then that’s on him. It’ll be interesting to see how long Mayweather lasts resting against the ropes for 12 rounds trying to avoid the heavy shots from Golovkin. I think it would end badly for Mayweather. He has no excuse for not taking the fight against Triple G, because he already said he would melt down to 154 to take a fight against Mayweather at that weight. Mayweather can’t say the money wouldn’t be there for a fight against Golovkin, because it would likely give him a nine-figure payday. Who is Mayweather going to fight to give him that kind of money? It’s not going to be Canelo or Pacquiao, because the fans already saw those fights on pay-per-view, and they’re not likely going to want to pay for them a second time. Fans will want to see Mayweather someone new like Golovkin, who will force him to bring his A-game or else.
When I see Mayweather bragging about how he didn’t have to bring his A-game for his fights, I think I means that he really never challenged himself. Mayweather fought a lot of old guys. When he did fight young fighters like Canelo, he had him rain drain own to fight him at a catchweight.
