By Rod Bautista: Floyd Mayweather is the most skilled fighter of our generation. His defensive prowess is second to none, and his undefeated record speaks for himself. Unfortunately for Mayweather and for boxing his actions both inside and outside the squared circle have marred his career and put question marks on his legacy.
The most glaring criticism of Mayweather is his penchant for side stepping the best or most deserving competition. Boxing experts and writers have written at length about this very subject. Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated wrote, “History will not remember him (Floyd Mayweather) as an all-time great. It won’t put him on a pedestal with Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard or Julio Cesar Chavez. Because to be great, you have to fight the great, and for most of his career Mayweather has staunchly refused to do that.”
Carlo Rotella wrote in The New York Times, “There are good welterweight boxers to fight, and Mayweather isn’t fighting them. Even when he does deign to box, he has been taking big money fights against relatively easy opponents. At some point, his refusal to fight other top welterweights begins to undercut his claim to superlative greatness as a boxer, and the cachet of Mayweather’s brand rests on that claim.”
When Floyd Mayweather retired after beating Ricky Hatton he effectively left boxing before fighting a rematch with Oscar Dela Hoya which by all accounts would have been a record PPV and purse. In 2006 Mayweather also turned away from an $8million pay offered to him to fight Antonio Margarito who was considered a major threat to his welterweight titles. Aside from those two fights Mayweather effectively retired without facing Miguel Cotto, and a prime Shane Mosley who were also at the top of the welterweight division. In spite of Mayweather’s reluctance to fight them, Margarito, Cotto and Mosley all fought each other adding more questions as to why the best welterweight in the world wouldn’t fight the best fighters in the division.
Fortunately for boxing, and unfortunately for Floyd Mayweather his retirement left a big opening for Manny Pacquiao to hit the world stage. Mayweather’s retirement left Oscar Dela Hoya without an opponent and Oscar replaced Mayweather with Pacquiao. The rest as we all know is history. The Manny Pacquiao juggernaut was created and the man that is the polar opposite of Floyd Mayweather took the center of the boxing stage.
It’s Floyd’s retirement that truly opened the door for Pacquiao. The boxing world wondered what it would do without Floyd and with all the question marks he had left. What Manny Pacquiao did was not only answer them, but he did it in a fashion that was completely opposite from Floyd’s defensive style. Imagine if Floyd just kept fighting would we even be talking about Manny Pacquiao at all? No doubt Manny would still be a champion, but pound for pound there is no doubt Floyd would still be number one.
Now we all know that Floyd has some what returned. He’s fought Juan Manuel Marquez and Shane Mosley after negotiations for a mega fight with Manny Pacquiao fell through the cracks. When millions expected an eventual match up between the top two ranked pound for pound champions, we have yet to come close to seeing a once in a lifetime fight. Floyd seems to be caught up fighting his battle on the internet by posting insulting monologues and links to video of Manny Pacquiao’s losses on the front page of his web site.
Although Manny Pacquiao is clearly on his mind, the fight has yet to materialize and many believe that it never will. Meanwhile Manny Pacquiao has fought Miguel Cotto, Joshua Clottey, and Antonio Margarito in Floyd Mayweather’s absence. We all know that he will be facing Shane Mosley May 7, 2011.
It has been fashionable to criticize Pacquiao and his choice of opponents. Many cite the previous losses or the catch weights he has fought his opponents citing that he has cherry picked his opponents carefully to ensure victory. Whether these arguments have merit is besides the point. What I want to ask or point out to all of Pacquiao’s detractors is this. What if Floyd Mayweather fought the same competition?
I know he’s already fought Shane Mosley and won, but really think about the question. Put all your loyalties aside and think if it was Floyd Mayweather who fought Miguel Cotto, Joshua Clottey and Antonio Margarito what would the boxing world be saying? Better yet let’s for a moment imagine that Floyd Mayweather didn’t retire and fought in Manny Pacquiao’s place with the same results. A victory over Oscar Dela Hoya in the mega fight rematch via TKO, a victory in a rematch against Ricky Hatton (at light welterweight) via second round KO, TKO against Miguel Cotto, UD against Joshua Clottey, UD against Shane Mosley, and UD against Antonio Margarito. Would there be any way you could dispute Floyd Mayweather’s legacy? Could you criticize his choice of opponents?
Combine these fights with the rest of his career, and there is no doubt in my mind that Floyd Mayweather gets consideration as an all time great. Funny thing is Manny Pacquaio is some how criticized for actually fighting those fights. Floyd Mayweather could have been the best of a group of very competitive welterweights if he would have just been willing to step into the ring with them.
Remember the 80’s when Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Thomas Hearns and Marvin Hagler all fought each other in epic battles? We could be in that same sort of era right now. Imagine that Leonard decided not to be part of that group. The most talented of the bunch pulled himself out and decided not to fight any of them. Would he still be considered great? What would boxing fans be saying? Now I’m not saying all these guys are of that caliber, but surely Pacquiao, Mosley and Mayweather are future Hall of Famers, and when you throw in Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito you have the makings of at least a very entertaining and competitive division.
Make no mistake, Floyd Mayweather is a great boxer and is truly one of the best talents boxing has ever seen, but he needs to fight, and he needs to fight the best. It would do him and boxing a lot of good if he would just drop the BS and sign a contract to face Manny Pacquiao. For the most part I think the boxing world and all the experts and writers would forgive him if he did. Put the keyboard or your laptop down and fight Floyd. I know it’s what you want to do and what the whole boxing world wants to see as well. Until you do there will always be more questions than answers.
Comments are closed.