By John Simmons: Floyd Mayweather Jr. has created somewhat of storm in the last day or so for his comments towards the career of Muhammad Ali and his thoughts on his abilities compared with Sugar Ray Robinson and the greatest of all time.
Firstly let’s touch on the first take debate of this conversation between Stephen A smith and Floyd Mayweather. Skip Bayless makes a good point in the difference between fighters fought and career defining wins, here we have a fighter in Ali that was a heavyweight he never fought in any other weight class so for us to examine Ali’s career we need to take into account the fact that Ali could only face the guys available at the time there was no other great fighter to pit him against unless they went up to face him or unless they were already in the division at the time.
If we were speaking to a man that was around in the era of Joe Louis and we told him that this young guy an Italian champion is the greatest heavyweight of all time he would laugh at you and show you the door. We know because of history that Rocky Marciano defeated an older Joe Louis in dramatic fashion and retired with an undefeated record of 49-0 and many will say he is fact the greatest heavyweight of all time.
For many fans we took note of the young brash fighter in Muhammad Ali and after proclaiming himself the greatest of all time before even facing the champion Sonny Liston we as outsiders laughed at this notion. After Ali successfully retired Sonny Liston on his stool we made comparisons and Howard Coswell posed the question to Ali if he could beat Marciano his response was “I truly believe I would have beaten him he was better than Frazier and we all seen what Frazier did to me but I would have beaten him”. This is the response you get from all fighters because this is boxing and it’s a sport you can’t compare eras or weights, Ali wasn’t compared to a lightweight or a welterweight because he was only a Heavyweight he can’t be compared to anyone smaller than him.
This is the problem with rating Floyd Mayweather and his skill set to Ali, we can clear a few things up for the average fans out there though. Floyd Mayweather like him or not undoubtedly has the arguably the greatest skill set of any fighter that has ever laced up gloves. The things Floyd Mayweather has bought to us as fans of boxing will never be forgotten there are many people that will challenge the record of Floyd Mayweather like Skip Bayless and make statements such as Floyd doesn’t have a Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier or George foreman on his record. This statement is true mainly because these fighters are unique as are all fighters who step in the ring it’s a testament to Mayweather that no one has completely blew him out the water he is that good, if we judged fighters by there willingness to face the best, win titles, move through weights and win gold medals then we would be selling Oscar De La Hoya as the greatest fighter to have ever lived. Oscar fought everyone there is to fight young or old through seven weights and amassed nine major world titles in his career, we know Oscar isn’t the greatest to ever live so basing our assumptions on those criteria points are not full proof.
What is full proof is history how we gauge a fighter in retirement it’s the reason we call Ali the greatest we look back at his career and find a way to call him the greatest a statement Ali made long before anyone called him it. This is the point of Floyd’s comments he made reference to the fact that he was never brainwashed into thinking Ali was better than him or Sugar Ray Robinson, this to me is a fair statement mainly because he understands what Ali did in his career he created a slogan ran with it and through adversity and loss he continued to tell everyone he was the greatest of all times and while many in those day were saying you’re not Marciano is and Louis is he stood firm.
In standing firm Ali made sure that their children questioned their parent’s opinions they never really seen this Louis chap or this Marciano guy remembering video of old footage wasn’t readily available like it is today.
For children of those days I am happy to say I was one of them and myself and my father argued every holidays about who was greater Ali, Marciano or Louis. We debated the very nature of boxing and it is what it meant to us as men, I am an avid Ali fan as was many of my generation we listened to the radio and cheered every time the radio went static with noise as we knew Ali was wining the great Muhammad Ali.
For me as a fan and a man I am torn with what I see today in boxing Floyd Mayweather is inevitably his own worst enemy the loss of the Olympics was so sore for him as a young man he vowed never to lose another fight and turn pro immediately a decision many I am sure can see as a life turning event. Had Mayweather won that fight and took the next fight and the gold medal he may have took time off boxing satisfied that the gold medal defined his persona many great fighters retired from the sport after winning medal in the Olympics. If this happened we may never had seen the lead right and the shoulder roll in all its glory the Mayweather way, the boxing landscape would be so different had Floyd not showed up in 1996.
For me it’s hard to imagine boxing without certain people in the sport one of them is Jack Johnson the others are Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Sugar Ray Robinson, Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Roy Jones, Mike Tyson, and Floyd Mayweather. There are many fighters and great men involved in this sport, men that personify brilliance and undoubtedly you are sitting there saying other great names but for me these names stick in my mind as sport changers and great fighters to boot. As a fighter Muhammad Ali had great skills and believed he was better than anyone in history or in his future so did Sugar Ray Robinson this is what makes great fighters the will to be better than everyone else.
There has never been another fighter in history to amass 10 Major world titles in this sport and before people point to the alphabet titles nine of Floyd’s world titles are made up of WBC & WBA titles the oldest of the four. There has also never been another fighter sit on the P4P ranking table more times than Floyd Mayweather since 1989, during the course of three decades Floyd Mayweather has remained undefeated against 47 fighters and through five divisions amassing a record ten major world titles to his name.
We can make clinical incisions in Mayweather’s record as we can Muhammad Ali, Ray Robinson and many other fighters’ records. Floyd Mayweather has vigorously been accused of ducking fighters and picking and choosing his opponents I find it a hard pill to swallow that during 47 outings Floyd has managed to not be knocked out and beaten by the “one” shot we refer to in boxing as it can happen to anyone that “one” shot that can always change things. Well it hasn’t happened for Floyd his skills must be so good he able to avoid this elusive punch that has landed on great fighters facing sub standard opponents throughout the history of boxing.
May 2nd is not far and again we will witness a great spectacle either by an aging Manny Pacquiao against an aging champion or by an a graceful Floyd Mayweather against the man we all believe to be his kryptonite either way when the lights go out in May history will tell us the story of Floyd Mayweather Jr. and where he stands in the trophy cabinet of great fighters.
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