Uncategorized
If Floyd Mayweather wants to reach legendary status…
by BSO Staff | Posted on Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009
Another convincing win by Floyd “Money” Mayweather. It was definitely a mismatch on all levels. Floyd was too big, too strong and too fast for Juan Marquez. Not only was Floyd the better physical fighter but as usual he also came in with a great game plan. He kept the jab in Marquez face all fight and there wasn’t anything Marquez could do. There was never a moment in the fight were Floyd ever really seemed to be in danger. Most of that is his skill, but he needs to put himself in danger in picking his next opponent if he really wants to go down as one of the best of all time.
Floyd can fight either Shane Mosley or Manny Pacquiao next. Both of those fights would help to make sure Floyd’s name rings out with the greats. In order to be one of the best you have to have beaten some of the best. Part of it isn’t Floyd’s fault. Early in his career when he was fighting at a lighter weight the Welterweight division was great. You had great fighters like Oscar De La Hoya, Felix Trinidad, Mosely, and other quality fighters like Fernado Vargas and Vernon Forrest . And all of those guys fought each other and had some pretty good to great fights. They all faced each other while they were in their primes.
By the time Mayweather moved up a lot of those guys had moved on or in the case of De La Hoya had moved past their prime. Clearly Mayweather fought and beat De La Hoya, but realistically this was towards the end of De La Hoya’s prime. De La Hoya had a losing record his last 5 fights and hasn’t been the top level fighter in years. De La Hoya has lost all of his last fights against comparable talent. So Floyd gets credit for beating De La Hoya but not the proper credit because of where De La Hoya stood. Floyd has beaten a number of fighters who through no fault of his own aren’t in the upper echelon.
This is part of the reason that Mike Tyson will never be listed as one of the greatest fighters of all time. Yes, he’s probably the most dominant fighter, but he has no one that he beat that you can point to as a signature win. He beat Larry Holmes when he was at the end in the same way Floyd beat De La Hoya. At the end De La Hoya wasn’t even fighting to win, he was fighting for the pay days and to build up his promotion business.
But right now Floyd has two fighters in front of him that will give him the place he wants in fighting history. Shane Mosely has had an amazing late career resurrection. Some whispers give credit to the steroids, but whatever it is Mosely has somehow reached the prime of his career at this late point in his career. Shane and Mayweather have been dancing around each other for years. And we will never actually know who was the lead dance partner. But Shane called Mayweather out last night after the fight. Floyd should fight Shane next and setup the mega fight.
Manny Pacquiao is the darling of the sport and considered the best pound for pound right now. So if Floyd was to fight and beat him there would be no argument as to whether Floyd beat Pacquiao in his prime. There is no way a Floyd victory over Pacquiao could be lessened. There are clearly the two best fighters in the World and the winner would claim the title of best fighter of this era.
Floyd doesn’t have a signature win in his career. Part of it is that he doesn’t fight in a way that leads to a memorable battle in the ring. The point of boxing as much as hitting is also not getting hit. And Floyd is clearly the best of his era at not getting hit. Some of the greatest fighters also have memorable losses on their resume. A loss doesn’t hurt your legendary status as long as it is against another legendary figher. Floyd can’t be worried about losing to either Mosley or Pacquiao. A loss in a memorable fight and then a rematch win will do way more for his status than fighting De La Hoya again or another Marquez type opponent.
But when it comes to becoming a legend and going down as one of the greatest he is going to have to have a signature fight. And fights with Mosely and Pacquiao, even if one is a loss will still give him the legendary status that he so tries to talk himself into.
i couldn't agree with you more… he would have much more respect in my eyes if he took a big fight lost and won a rematch. undefeated doesn't mean anything if you haven't beaten quality opponents. I'm not ready to label him a paper champion and i'll be honest in saying that i figured the floyd/marquez fight to be close with floyd winning a decision, so the fact that he so thoroughly dominated impressed me very much. Still, if he truly wants to be one of the greats, he must fight the best fighters of his generation and he has yet to do that. Mosley, Pacman, Cotto, Clottey, Paul Williams are all guys that would provide much tougher challenge than his last few fights baldomir, zab, gatti, delahoya, marquez. I always liked floyd as a fighter but i want to see him be a true champion. Ali had his Frazier and Forman, SR Leonard had Duran, Hagler, Hearns (not to mention plenty of other quality fighters) Basically, what i'm sayin is that A champion like Leonard or Ali would never leave guys like the ones i mentioned lingering around as question marks over his legacy.
i disagree he's always fought who was considered the best but he is kinda just like ali before he stop fighting talking a lot of trash, not getting hit, and backing it up…if he was not a "loud mouth" …it would be a different story about how legendary he is…
mint… how could u look at his last 5 fights and say he fought who was considered the best? i guess it depends on who's doing the considering but marquez was a much lighter fighter, hatton was all hype and a real boxing fan knew that after watching him squeak by collazo before fighting mayweather, delahoya was the defination of washed up, and gatti come on now.
Money is the best I think u just hating cause he got more money than all of you together…
you an ignorant a$$ too, You sound like the type that would suck his D1ck just to get a shout out from Floyd
Mint, I know you didn’t just mention him with Ali. Ali fought and beat a whole bunch of legends. Like I said it’s not Floyd’s fault these current fighters aren’t that good. So in order to end all of that just fight Shane and Manny and this conversation stops.
This article is so on point. I love Floyd, but I hate when Ii try to defend him and I have no big fight to point to. Once he destroys Pacquiao then I will tell all his HHATERS To be quiet.
[...] rest is here: If Floyd Mayweather wants to reach legendary status…- Robert … Share and [...]
Floyd is better than Sugar Ray and all of them. When you look at his record it says 0 losses so that makes him the best.
Omari that had to be the most ignorant comment on this thread. SO you telling me that cuz he got 0 losses that make him better then Ali, Frazier, Sugar Ray??? Are you fucking kidding me? Sugar Ray in his prime had the same hand speed if not faster than Floyd. Sugar fought Hagler in Epic battles along with going toe to toe with Roberto Duran, who fucking quit in the middle of the fight… If you gonna hype Floyd back it up wit facts youngsta…That 0 also means he aint fought a quality fighter…He just beat the shit out of Marquez a natural lightweight…that shit is a joke, it would be like having an NFL player on a pop warner team. I aint no HATER, just spittin facts…All that hater shit is corny nowdays…Back your shit up in threads wit facts instead of fucking typing hater all over the place. You probably also think Soulja Boy is the best rapper ever…
Floyd has never been the only fighter with a zero loss record, it's been done before, Rocky Marciano and Calzaghe retired undefeated. THey had many more victories than Mayweather but they all had one thing in common, lack of quality opponents in their records. Now Pacquiao may have fought opponents that Mayweather defeated but he did it by overcoming barriers and defeated them in a more convincing manner. Had Floyd beaten Mosley, Williams, Margarito before he retired than he would be a fighter in equal stature to Pacquiao. Even if he beats Manny, Manny will still be better remembered for his exploits than Floyd. Floyd is not fighting a bigger and tougher opponent in Manny, still he can claim victory over the best boxer to come out the past 30 years or so, but that is all he can gain in this fight. Perfect record it's been done before and it does not make you a legend.