Floyd Mayweather is no Muhammad Ali

By Boxing News - 06/30/2011 - Comments

Image: Floyd Mayweather is no Muhammad AliBy John F. McKenna (McJack): Floyd Mayweather fans like to compare him to the legendary Muhammad Ali. Mayweather himself has proclaimed himself the greatest fighter of all time.

Forget fighters like Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Robinson and of course Muhammad Ali.

The disturbing thing about this is that Floyd appears to actually believe it.

Ali, as everyone knows, was the ultimate trash talker. He developed it into an art form.

The difference between Ali and Mayweather is that he was charming, funny and had self deprecating humor. He once said that as a youth he saw famed wrestler “Gorgeous George” and got the trash talk idea from him because he thought it would sell tickets. People would pay money to see “Gorgeous George” lose, so Ali surmised they would pay to see him lose also.

There was always a lot of humor in Ali’s trash talking performances. The most important thing with Ali however, was that he would back up his trash talk by fighting all the tough guys that were available. He would not come out of a self imposed exile, have one fight and then go back into exile.

Floyd is no Ali because he talks big, but does not back it up by fighting the guys fans want him to fight. He is not Ali and neither is he a Sugar Ray Robinson or a Joe Louis.

Those fighters were loved by boxing fans world wide. They never dodged anyone and did not use ridiculous excuses not to fight the best fighters out there.

Muhammad Ali fought Joe Frazier and Ken Norton three times each. If there was ever a time when he might consider dodging a fighter it would have been George Foreman, who even Ali’s own handlers thought it was not a good idea for him to fight. Ali not only fought Foreman, he knocked him out in the eighth round. Ali’s performance was made all the more remarkable by the fact that he had to psych up his own people on the way to the ring. He turned around and saw all the long faces on his handlers and chastised them and assured them that he was going to win.

Joe Louis also fought every fighter out there. He defended his title a record twenty five times, a record which still stands and will probably never be broken. Louis defended his title seven times in 1941, also a record.

Sugar Ray Robinson won his first forty fights after winning all eighty five of his amateur bouts. He avenged that first loss to Jake Lamotta three weeks later and then won his next ninety fights in a row.

Floyd, be for real, you are not in the class of those great fighters. Greatness as a fighter is more than just your fistic ability. It is most assuredly your willingness to fight all the best competition available to you.



Comments are closed.