By TS123169: If there is anything that Floyd Mayweather Jr. is better at than boxing, it has to be sparking controversy, and it’s usually over something he said.
Mayweather’s recent comments about Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali are no exception. “No one can ever brainwash me to make me believe that Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali was better than me,” Mayweather said via ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith’s First Take. “No one could ever brainwash me and tell me that.”
Mayweather is certainly entitled to his opinion, as is everyone else, but in this case I do believe his mouth got ahead of his brain. Mayweather is certainly talented but he is no Sugar Ray Robinson.
When we use the phrase “pound for pound” we’re using a phrase that was created specifically for Robinson as a way to compare him to other fighters regardless of weight class. In his first 123 fights (121-1-2), Robinson was defeated only once, and from 1943 till 1951 Robinson was undefeated in 93 straight fights. In those first 123 fights, he scored a total of 78 knockouts and in his first 40 fights he defeated 7 former or future world champions.
Mayweather has been fighting professionally for almost 19 years and his 47-0 record is impressive, to say the least. Robinson, however, had 47 fights under his belt in only 4 years and this time frame includes a 15 month stint in the military. By the time Robinson was a 19 year veteran, his record was 146-6-2, more than 8 times Mayweather’s total fights.
But being the greatest ever is more than one’s record; it’s skill. Don’t get me wrong: Mayweather has skill. He has speed and accuracy and is quite possibly the best defensive fighter of all time, but Robinson had all of that and more. Robinson had speed, accuracy, a quick, accurate jab, and knockout power, and he had these in both hands! Mayweather has 26 wins by knockout, but not counting a TKO or the controversial “cheap shot” on Victor Ortiz, Mayweather hasn’t knocked out an opponent since Justin Juuko in 1999. Robinson has 108 wins by knockout, or roughly 62% of his opponents, with his last career win in 1965 coming by knockout at the age of 44, after 25 years in the sport.
As a fan of the sport, I’ll admit that Mayweather is a future hall of famer and absolutely deserving of it. He may very well be the greatest boxer of this generation. However, even the great Muhammad Ali once acknowledged that his boy-hood hero Ray Robinson was the greatest fighter of all time, and with all due respect to Mayweather, I completely agree.
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