By Rameez Haider: After my most recent article surrounding the heavyweight division and the lack of top quality fights on each fighter’s record, it got me evaluating boxing overall and it bought me back to Floyd Mayweather.
Mayweather is a boxer you either loved or you hated. It is all subjective, do you appreciate the sweet science and the ability to hit and not get hit that Mayweather possessed? Or do you prefer the pure action, hit and hit back style of fighting? I have always been a fan of Mayweather’s skills but like a lot of people, I can appreciate both styles of fighting when done well.
Many people’s issue with Mayweather stems more from his on-screen personality more than his actual boxing. The man is brash, cocky, shows off etc. Many of his comments and actions leave a bit of a sour taste in people’s mouth. But then being the villain sells, his personality on screen lead to many people watching his fights in the hope that someone would wipe the smug grin off his face. This was so much more apparent towards the end of his career, whereby the biggest cheers from the crowd often came when someone managed to catch Mayweather clean. It was quite a sight to see fans cheering at the fact Miguel Cotto had managed to give Mayweather a bloody nose. But all this lead to Mayweather simply earning more and more money.
However, this article is not about how Mayweather sold fights or whether you loved him or hated him. It is about boxing legacies.
Many people brandish terms such as boxing greats, legends, pound for pound number one etc. all the time but in this day and age, who actually deserves those accolades. When you go through the divisions there are many top-class boxers. Their skills are exceptional and they seem to be head and shoulders above the rest in their weight classes, but who have these boxers fought. I appreciate that some of these boxers have not yet gone far enough in their careers to have got to the big fights yet, but I just feel that nowadays, boxers do not take on the biggest challenges.
When you look at Mayweather’s opponents in the last 10/12 years, they read as follows:
– Arturo Gatti
– Sharmba Mitchell
– Zab Judah
– Carlos Baldomir
– Oscar De La Hoya
– Ricky Hatton
– Juan Manuel Marquez
– Shane Mosley
– Victor Ortiz
– Miguel Cotto
– Robert Guerrero
– Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez
– Marcos Maidana
– Manny Pacquiao
– Andre Berto
What is so impressive about this list is that every single boxer mentioned has been a world champion and they stem across 3 different weight classes. This is not even mentioning some of his previous opponents. People when they mention Mayweather will always say that he fought boxers who were aging etc. but then people forget that Mayweather himself was not getting any younger. A lot of the time Mayweather let fights season so he could earn the maximum amount of money available for the fight. This was none more apparent than the Pacquiao fight. Simply by letting the hype build up, he ended up making a $100 million as opposed to the $30-40 million that he would have got had they fought sooner. A lot of these boxers were also coming off big wins, some were unbeaten and some were pinned down as the one to break the self-proclaimed ‘Mayvinci Code.’
But again, this is not about the money or timing of the fights as Mayweather himself was the wrong side of 30 for the most of these fights, the fact is Mayweather fought the best names in the world consistently one after another. When you look at the state of boxing now, how many people are doing the same thing? Most fans are wondering why aren’t the top welterweights fighting each other in such a stacked division? Why aren’t Canelo and GGG making the fight? There are so many examples of fights not happening and with each day that passes I feel like it just further shows the legacy that Mayweather left behind.
People were always quick to criticise him all the time. I appreciate people may not like him as a man and people might not like his boxing style but what people cannot argue with, is the man’s record and level of opponent faced.
We need more boxers to believe in their own abilities enough to feel like they can overcome any obstacle put before them and only then will we see the best fighting the best. In the meantime, as time goes on I think people will appreciate Mayweather for his skills and his self-belief to be able to take on and defeat such high-level fighters.
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