By Ken Hissner: Five Division World Champion Floyd “Money” Mayweather won many fans and lost many fans when he ended his official career at 50-0!
By breaking the record of one of the most popular boxers in the history of boxing Rocky Marciano who held the record of 49-0 from 1956 until 2017 when Mayweather broke it brought upon himself good and bad results.
Whoever decided for Mayweather to break the record and retire by defeating Ireland’s Connor “Notorious” McGregor, an MMA champion who never had a boxing match, was a wrong decision.
Mayweather had an exhibition after the McGregor fight in Japan. Why that was an exhibition, and the McGregor match wasn’t considered an exhibition is in question. It’s been noted that Mayweather has made more money than any other boxer in the history of the sport.
It was obvious by only throwing three punches a round for six rounds and then opening up on McGregor that Mayweather carried his novice opponent.
Like Marciano’s 49-0 record being built after a questionable split decision over Roland La Starza in their first fight in 1950 when he was 25-0, Mayweather’s was built on a dubious decision over Jose Louis Castillo in 2002 when he was 27-0. Marciano didn’t fight La Starza again for three years, while Mayweather gave Castillo a rematch in his next fight eight months later.
Rumors have been made of Mayweather’s return for several years to the ring but at age 45 are doubtful. Marciano went into training three years after his retirement when Floyd Patterson lost his title to Sweden’s Ingemar Johansson to “bring the title back to America,” which was short-lived when Patterson won the rematch with Johansson.
Former world champion Aaron “Hawk” Pryor retired at 36-0 only to return to the ring over three years later, most likely for financial reasons to lose for the first and only time. Mayweather certainly won’t be coming back, but if he did, it wouldn’t be for economic reasons.
Marciano’s record of 49-0 has been matched and even broken by boxers like Julio Cesar Chavez, who at 87-0 would draw with Pernell “Sweet Pea” Whitaker and later lose to Frankie “Surgeon” Randall when he was 89-0-1. A little-known boxer fighting out of Italy, Nino La Rocca, was 56-0 when he lost for the first time in 1984. Few probably know that Denmark’s “Super” Brian Nielsen was 49-0 when he lost for the first time in 1999.
Mayweather was a great defensive boxer but not an exciting one to watch for the fans like Marciano was. For those who like a pure boxer, they loved Mayweather. Few boxers were liked by all fans but a couple of exceptions could have been Joe “The Brown Bomber” Louis and Manny “Pac Man” Pacquiao.
One of Mayweather’s strange wins was against Oscar “Golden Boy” De La Hoya when he was 37-0, winning a split decision. The latter controlled the fight with his jab for eight rounds, then suddenly stopped using it, which cost him the win.
After the match, De La Hoya was interviewed by Larry Merchant and was asked, “your jab controlled the fight, so why did you stop using it in the later rounds?” His answer was, “it sure was working good, wasn’t it, Larry?” Ringside commentator at ringside Manny Steward made the same statement many of us thought, saying, “I’ve known Oscar for a long time, but that was not a good answer!”
Like or not like Mayweather, he will go down as one of the best boxers of all time especially based on his record of 50-0. Though Marciano had a 49-0 record, they never said he was the best even in his own division due to the likes of Louis and Muhammad “I’m The Greatest” Ali. To say Mayweather was the best when you compare him to the all-time best “Sugar” Ray Robinson, he obviously wasn’t the best.
