The Mayweather Double Standard

By Boxing News - 05/07/2013 - Comments

floyd#23By Robert Elmore: Let’s face it; when you’re on top the criticism will come. Everybody will have something to say about what the top person needs to do to secure his legacy or be mentioned in the same conversations as those who came before him.

Each generation brings along a special boxer that separates himself from the pack. In the 80’s, in the welter weight division, you had Sugar Ray Leonard; the heavyweight you had Mike Tyson. There was a cluster of heavyweights back then, but Tyson stood out.

The same could be said for Leonard. In this era, we have WBC champion Floyd Mayweather. Since he has come into the top position in boxing, the critics have increased and the hating has just become ridiculous. Constructive criticism is fine, but at times it depends on who’s do the criticizing and why. But in Floyd’s case; sometimes, there is just criticism just because it’s available.

The first double standard is that he needs to fight this person and that person to secure his legacy. When he does and beats them, it’s one excuse after another.

For instance, the fans want to see Floyd fight Saul Canelo Alvarez. I don’t have a problem with this fight and the weight is not a concern to me. Floyd has always been the smaller guy on fight night during his career. But how come Alvarez gets a free pass when it comes to him fighting top tier guys in his own division? Or even moving up to 160? Or even 168?

He rehydrates to light heavyweight on fight nights so what’s the problem? Here’s the excuses. He’s too small to fight at 168. He’s fights comfortably at 154. The 168 guys rehydrate to cruiserweight so it’s impossible for Canelo to fight in that division. So he’s too little for guys like Andre Ward or Arthur Abraham, but he’s not too big to fight Floyd who walks around at 150 pounds?

He clearly can make 160 with no problems. And no; beating Austin Trout does not make him the greatest or the best in that division as some are trying to make him to be. So why doesn’t he call out Gennady Golovkin? Peter Quillin? Or Daniel Geale? What’s the problem? Canelo’s resume only has one hall of famer on it and that’s Shane Mosley. The rest are C minus or C plus fighters at best.

Then you have the cries of Floyd needs to fight Sergio Martinez. Why doesn’t he move up to 168 and fight those guys? Why doesn’t he fight Peter Quillin or the most talked about match up Gennady Golovkin? Here’s the excuses.

According to Sampson Lewkowicz, his advisor, Sergio is too small to fight at 168 because those guys are bigger than him. Promoter Lou Di Bella says that the fight with Triple G doesn’t bring in any money. But no one seems to hold Sergio accountable for this.

He’s given a free pass. But Team Sergio did say they would come to 154 for a Floyd fight at one point in time. So Sergio is too small for 168, but not too big to fight Floyd? Most claim Sergio is a true 154 pounder fighting at 160. Floyd is a true welter weight that can fight at junior middleweight. But even when he does move up, the heaviest Floyd has been is 150.

While I applaud Sergio’s victories and accomplishments, who has fought that is a hall of famer? Out of 54 fights, there are only 4 known fighters on his resume, and they are; Paul Williams; Kelly Pavlik; Antonio Margarito, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. No one convince me that Matthew Macklin, Darren Barker and Martin Murray were known or a serious threat to Martinez. And with the exception of Margarito, the rest don’t have a stellar resume. But Antonio is questionable because of the loaded gloves scandal.

Mayweather’s resume is second to known in this era. I can name two fighters on Floyd’s resume that will out do both Canelo and Martinez; Genaro Hernandez and Angel Madfredy. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. If you want to know why Mayweather didn’t fight Margarito or Cotto check out the article titled “Mayweather turns down 8 million to fight Margarito” written by Dan Rafael. It was written in 2006. Now most will not check it out because the truth is in there. But if anybody can find these answers about why Canelo and Martinez get a free pass I’m willing to hear it.



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