By Gerardo Granados: A friend of mine asked me if Floyd Mayweather Jr (47-0, 26 KOs) is the best ever (TBE) so I answer to him why he would believe such thing. My friend replied that he was not sure about the reasons but Floyd was unbeaten and also has been champion in five weight divisions.
I told him that it is not enough, because with so many belts for grabs he was able to elude a couple of dangerous fights while moving up in weight and also the first win against Jose Luis Castillo was quite dubious.
I don’t recall to have heard Michael Schumacher or Ayton Senna ranting to be TBE. Undoubtedly old timers will argue Juan Manuel Fangio is the real TBE but the younger F1 fans might think Sebastian Vettel is the one. A prime Muhammad Ali was the best of his era; he had the full package, charismatic personality, power & speed, footwork & high ring IQ. Ali proclaimed himself as the Greatest and over thirty years later many boxing fans do believe he is the Greatest. I think the greatest heavyweight is Joe Louis followed very closely by Ali but according to the readers’ comments some even believe Wladimir Klitschko is the one.
I wonder if Payton Manning´s fans truly believe that Payton would have survived if he had played under the 60´s (Johnny Unitas), 70 (Terry Bradshaw – Roger Staubach) or 80´s (Dan Marino – Joe Montana) NFL rules. Nowadays if a defensive player eyeball the quarter back he will get a flag due unnecessary roughness on the passer; which have allowed many current QB´s to achieve impressive statistics.
An unbeaten record can be meaningless if the quality of opposition faced and defeated, or the longevity of the fighter aren’t as impressive. You get to see a fighters winning a vacant belt against a boxer who wasn’t even ranked in the division and even worst to never defend his belt.
Sugar Ray Leonard won his super middle and light heavy titles “simultaneously” and never defended the light heavy strap, Rocky Marciano (W49(43)-L0-D0) and Joe Calzaghe (W46(32)-L0-D0) retired unbeaten but I doubt they will be considered TBE.
Floyd´s athleticism would have allowed him to go to the distance but would he have been able to withstand the attack of Roberto Duran at lightweight or keep up the pace against Sugar Ray Robinson at welter for the full fifteen rounds?
Not a boxing magazine, the sports media hype or the hall of fame will give a fighter the status of TBE. It is the fight fans who will acknowledge a lion king who is truly deserving of such distinction. And the beauty of it might be that you can get to argue with fight fans of who is TBE without the need to concur on the subject.
If the reader was to make a top ten greatest fighters of only the last twenty years, would you place Floyd Mayweather Jr on number one?
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