By James Brown: The names circling boxing right now the most are names such as: Floyd Mayweather Jr., Manny Pacquiao. These two have become the most well known names in boxing over the years and are heralded as the best of this generation.

The truth is because of De La Hoya´s losses these two are too afraid to elevate their legacies to the maximum point by facing the best of this generation. Aside from the super 6 tournament there are no fighters that are in the limelight that are worth any kind of long term legacy. In the eyes of boxing enthusiasts these fighters will just be known as fighters that were the best of the competition they fought. What happened to the days of fighters wanting to be the best and fighting the best? Regardless of who their opponents were, how hard they hit, not wanting to lose an undefeated record, and so on.

The man to blame for the “now” generation to behave like this is Oscar De La Hoya. In his time he was the biggest name in the sport and the one person that almost everyone, boxing fan or not, could identify. Although many will disagree with my statement let me explain. Oscar De La Hoya fought people past their primes just like the champions of now a days are doing. He fought Pernell Whittaker in a fight where I personally think Whittaker won and Whittaker was much past his prime at the time. Oscar did dominate Julio Cesar Chavez but he too was past his prime when they fought. Outside of Ike Quartey every great fighter of his era beat him. Felix Trindad, Bernard Hopkins, Shane Mosley, Floyd Mayweather. I am not going to mention Pacquiao because De La Hoya was past his prime when they fought. Upcoming fighters have to have someone to look up to and all the fighters today used De La Hoya as the benchmark. De La Hoya made an incredible amount of money and will be respected for attempting to always fight the best but because he was beaten by the best in his time and still praised worldwide, the fighters today feel they will garner just as much money and praise if they avoid the best fighters and keep their records looking either spotless or as close to spotless as possible.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. has the best talent of a fighter in history but let’s face it. Miguel Cotto, Antonio Margarito, Manny Pacquiao, Paul Williams. These are all names of fighters that in their prime all showed interest in fighting Mayweather. Now Mayweather will say he can beat them all and the thing is I believe him but do it! Just do it! By fighting these people win or lose mayweather will gain more respect in the eyes of enthusiast and because his name is mayweather people will always pay tons of money to see him fight whether or not he has a 1 in the loss column. Floyd started off incredibly well, he was beating the best that were around his time from demarcus corley to undefeated diego corrales. Then came the ¨moment¨ for Floyd Mayweather when he got his shot against De la Hoya at Hoya´s natural weight. Floyd went on to win this fight and then beat undefeated ricky hatton. Then inexplicably Floyd retires, thinking that he has beaten everyone of note, the only problem was they were all at smaller weights. Floyd retired as welterweight champion without beating any of the top welterweights aside from Ricky Hatton, which was a smaller fighter. Floyd neglected to fight Mosley, Margarito, Cotto, Clottey, or Paul Williams when he retired. Floyd looked at De La Hoya´s record and tried his best to follow in his footsteps and get to his legacy, the one thing missing was great opponents for Mayweather. Mayweather is extremely talented but does not care for anything but money, his legacy means nothing and he will only be known as the best of the people he fought, not for fighting everyone and being a true champion.

Manny Pacquiao is just as bad as Floyd Mayweather and the sad thing is because he has a huge Filipino following and beats up immobile fighters people seem to overlook his incredibly blown up record that includes only three great fighters. Like De La Hoya, Manny Pacquiao started out fighting the best he destroyed Barrera, and Morales in two rematches after losing the first to Morales. Then comes Pacquiao´s big moment, where he had a weight drained De La Hoya drop to his smallest weight in 10 years.

A weight drained past his prime De La Hoya got destroyed by Pacquiao then Pacquiao gets his hype. Since then not one of Pacquiao’s opponents have been in their prime and they have been hand-picked and tailor made for him. Manny Pacquiao throws a lot of punches and has high stamina so if you pair him against people that don’t move he will look like an amazing fighter. Hatton, Cotto, Margarito, and Clottey were either past their primes or at a smaller catch weight.

Manny Has not fought Sergio Martinez, Andre Berto, Tim Bradley, Mosley in his prime, or any fighter in welterweight or middleweight that would give him any kind of a problem. Manny Pacquiao also refused a third fight with Marquez, not only is Pacquiao afraid to fight Marquez but he avoids any fighter that even resembles the style of Marquez. Instead, Pacquiao and Bob Arum are content fighting Trees with arms that won´t move a muscle. Why won’t Pacquiao take a drug test against Mayweather, Why will Mayweather insist that Pacquiao take blood tests. These are questions that should not even matter if these two really wanted to be the best, instead De La Hoya´s losses have scared these two fighters to the point of taking on no more quality competition once they reach the top.

The misconception and delusion that Manny Pacquiao and Mayweather have is that a better record and a better show will provide them with a better legacy than De La Hoya because in their minds even though they may not have faced the best just because they won they are entitled to be held in a higher regard. This is a fallacy, we respect De La Hoya because he was a warrior, and even though he was not always victorious he fought every fighter that had relevancy during his time. His legacy will always be higher in the eyes of the true boxing fan than Mayweather and Pacquiao both. So blame yourself indirectly De La Hoya you made ever boxer that follows you too afraid to go for the best possible legacy.