Floyd Mayweather given BWAA ‘Fighter of the Decade’ award

By Boxing News - 01/18/2020 - Comments

By Aragon Garcia: The Boxing Writers of America has riled up a lot of fans by picking Floyd Mayweather Jr. as their ‘Fighter of the Decade’ for 2010 to 2019. Mayweather only fought half the decade, and a lot of the guys he beat were just names at the time he fought them. In other words, they were no longer in their primes.

This is obviously a subjective thing in Mayweather getting the BWAA award, since he didn’t stick around for the whole decade. Some of his fights like against MMA guy Conor McGregor arguably shouldn’t even count on his professional record. That looked like an exhibition level fight in the eyes of a lot of boxing fans.

Mayweather getting selected as the BWAA ‘Fighter of the Decade’ recipient after fighting just HALF the decade looks bad. What about the fighters that fought the ENTIRE decade between 2010 to 2019? Canelo Alvarez deserves credit, and he arguably should be the one that is getting this award, not Mayweather.

Why wasn’t Canelo Alvarez given the BWAA award?

Canelo shined throughout the decade, winning 4 division world titles, and beating the middleweight monster Gennadiy Golovkin and light heavyweight KO artist Sergey Kovalev. Canelo fought the entire decade from 2010 and 2019, and did a better job beating Miguel Cotto than Mayweather did.

Mayweather beat these fighters to win the BWAA ‘Fighter of the Decade’ award:

  • Shane Mosley – 39-years-old at time Mayweather fought him
  • Victor Ortiz
  • Marcos Maidana
  • Canelo Alvarez – 22-years-old
  • Miguel Cotto – post Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito defeats
  • Robert Guerrero
  • Manny Pacquiao – 36-years-old
  • Andre Berto – past his prime
  • Conor McGregor – making his pro debut in boxing

While many of those names might look good at first glance, the fact of the matter is that most of them were NOT in their prime when Mayweather fought them. For example, Canelo Alvarez only 22-years-old, and not the height of his career.

This was BEFORE Canelo developed into a great fighter. In a move that some boxing fans see as Mayweather being an opportunist, he picked Canelo off early before he got really good.

It’s nice that Mayweather beat some big names during the decade, but you can’t count them because they’re at their best.

These fighters were NOT at their best when Mayweather fought them:

  • Canelo Alvarez
  • Manny Pacquiao
  • Andre Berto
  • Robert Guerero

Pacquiao was old at 36 and no longer at his best when Mayweather fought him in 2015. That was a fight that place 6 years too late, but it worked for Mayweather, but not Pacquiao.

Mayweather fought a lot of guys that weren’t at their best

When Mayweather fought Cotto in 2012, the Puerto Rican fighter was already on the slide, having lost to Antonio Margarito and Manny Pacquiao by knockouts. This wasn’t the Cotto that looked unbeatable from 2005 to 2008.

Mayweather took heat from boxing fans in breaking Rocky Marciano’s 49-0 record by defeating MMA fighter Conor McGregor in 2017. McGregor was making his pro debut in boxing, and the Nevada State Athletic Commission sanctioned his fight with Mayweather as counting as a professional fight.

It was a questionable way for Mayweather to break a record. If this was baseball, one could argue this would be the equivalent of brining in a High School pitcher to face a power hitter on the verge of breaking the home-run record.

What McGregor has done during his career in the UFC was no preparation for him to fight a guy at Mayweather’s level in his pro debut in boxing. If fighters are able to break records by facing guys that making their pro debut, it looks bad. It’s a weak way of breaking a record, isn’t it?

This writer’s pick for the Fighter of the Decade are as follows:

  1. Canelo Alvarez
  2. Manny Pacquiao
  3. Andre Ward
  4. Gennadiy Golovkin
  5. Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Floyd deserves to be at No.5 on this writer’s list, because he only fought HALF the decade, and the guys he fought weren’t in their prime. Those were business fights for Mayweather against a lot of the guys he beat between 2010 and 2019.

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