That fight is less than one month away now, and it’s hard to believe that the 38-year-old Mayweather is on the verge of ending his fabulous 19-year pro career at this time. I believe that this is going to be it for Mayweather and that he won’t be coming back like so many other fighters who said they were retiring but who returned to the ring after a certain amount of time.
It’s a different situation for Mayweather because he’s made so much money during his career, and there’s no real incentive for him to get back in there to earn another payday in coming back. Besides that, that Mayweather has proven to himself and to a lot of fans that he’s TBE, and he’s not going to want to risk that by coming back as he ages. Mayweather is doing the right thing in retiring now with his win over Berto, who was one of the best fighters in the sport from 2005-2011, and who now has resurrected his career with two fine wins over Steven Upsher Chambers and Josesito Lopez.
Mayweather has already proven himself as a better fighter in his mind than guys like Sugar Ray Robinson, Muhammad Ali, Jack Dempsey, Julio Cesar Chavez Sr., Rocky Marciano, Jake Lamotta, Archie Moore, Henry Armstrong and Pernell Whitaker. The only thing left for Mayweather to accomplish is to tie Marciano’s 49-0 record that he set in the 50s.
Mayweather doesn’t feel any need to come back to better the record by one or two fights, because it’s enough for him to merely tie the record. Besides, Mayweather knows that he could beat the record easily if he wanted to because he’s still in the prime of his career, but he knows that he’s done enough to go down as TBE already without him needing to add another victory to cap his career.
Mayweather has something going for him that guys like Ali, Moore, Armstrong, Dempsey, Leonard and Robinson didn’t have, and that’s his unbeaten record. Those fighters fought the best and won most of their fights, but they were still beaten. Dempsey was beaten by Gene Tunney, Ali by Joe Frazier, Leonard by Roberto Duran and Robinson by Lamotta, as well as many others. Mayweather has fought the best and beat them all.
No one has come close to defeating Mayweather during his career. Mayweather even beat Manny Pacquiao, a fighter who many boxing fans thought would defeat Mayweather. But when they got in the ring last May, Mayweather defeated Pacquiao by an easy 12 round decision. The other fighters that fans feel are greats were all flawed because they were beaten and in some cases beaten many times. Mayweather was never beaten, and he looked superb in defeating all comers. Mayweather has to be seen as ‘the greatest of all time’ because no one ever beat him and he defeated the best fighters of this era.
Mayweather recently made a lot of the fighters he sees as the best of all time and the list was as follows:
1. Floyd Mayweather Jr.
2. Roberto Duran
3. Pernell Whitaker
4. Julio Cesar Chavez
5. Muhammad Ali
While it was a controversial list in the eyes of a lot of fans, I tend to agree with the list for the most part. I don’t see Duran as being a top five or Chavez, but Ali belonged in the top five. I think Robinson deserved to be on the list for sure. I would have included the likes of Harry Greb, Henry Armstrong and Sam Langford. Those guys rated to be on the list, but it’s a subjective thing for each and everybody. But I believe Mayweather belongs at the top of the list because he proved over and over again that he’s TBE.
I don’t see of the old timers as being good enough to beat Mayweather, and I’ve watched many of them in old videos. The skill level between those fighters and Mayweather was far apart. Mayweather just looked so much more advanced than the old timers, as it should because Mayweather has had the benefit to learn from the mistakes that fighters made in the past. Boxing has evolved greatly from the sport it was in the 20s though 90s. It’s more of a science now compared to what it used to be back in the day.
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