Floyd Mayweather Jr. believes he is the best fighter of all time, and why not? He’s never been beaten in his professional career. Hell, he’s never even been knocked down.
You can call attention to his cocky, brash, sometimes outright disrespectful attitude, and the ways he conducts himself away from the sport–and you’d be within your rights to do so. But when it comes to competing in the ring, there’s no one putting in the preparation like Floyd.
Business Insider’s Tony Manfred brings us accounts from some of Mayweather’s past conquests. They all, in their own words, explain how they tried, and ultimately failed to defeat him.
Ricky Hatton (lost by knockout, December 8, 2007)
“I was fighting a genius, a boxing artist. I was getting more and more frustrated. Lose your cool against Floyd Mayweather and what you do is you get knocked out.” — to Showtime
Oscar De La Hoya (lost by split decision, May 5, 2007):
“Now we have to give credit to Mayweather because what Mayweather can do is what Mayweather Sr. calls ‘walking your opponent down.’ So what he does is he gets in the pocket and covers himself and he’ll walk you down. And he’ll let you throw punches and Pacquiao is probably going to keep throwing punches in bunches and he might tire himself out while Mayweather is just blocking everything. And then Mayweather can just come, throw his combinations of two or three punches, win the round, put the rounds in the bag, and win the fight.” — to HBO
Canelo Alvarez (lost by majority decision, September 14, 2013)
“He doesn’t expose anything. He’s a fighter that if with three punches he wins the round from you, he’s fine with that. He doesn’t expose anything and give a beautiful fight. He doesn’t care in what way he wins as long as he wins.” — to FightHype
“He’s very fast and accurate and moreso when he’s just trying to make points. I didn’t really feel his punches were that strong. But he’s making points and he’s very fast.” — at his post-fight press conference
Shane Mosley (lost by unanimous decision, May 1, 2011)
“I felt that I had the advantage on Floyd. I was very certain that I could hit him with good shots and I thought that could be the difference. I caught him when he thought that he was out of the way. I kind of slid it, a veteran move, and caught him right on the button and rocked him. He was surprised and I was like, ‘Wow, this is my chance. I’m going to get him. I’m going to knock him out.’ But I just couldn’t. He made the adjustment. He was able to capitalize. After that the fight was over. Mayweather did what he was supposed to do as a champion to win.” — to Showtime
Juan Manuel Marquez (lost by unanimous decision, September 19, 2009)
“Mayweather has had great defense, long arms, and he’s very smart.” — to Showtime
“Mayweather’s reaction time is amazing. He sees what you are about to throw and is out of there before you can punch.” — to WSJ
Zab Judah (lost by unanimous decision, April 8, 2006)
“His defense is still impregnable, his hand speed is still super fast, his conditioning is always marvelous. What can you say? The guy, he’s probably one of the hardest working fighters in boxing.” — to Mark Giongco
Paulie Malignaggi, who thinks Mayweather is going to beat Pacquiao, gave this great description of Mayweather’s defensive skill in 2013 before the Canelo fight (via Yahoo’s Kevin Iole):“He makes you miss a lot in his fights, but he doesn’t make you miss the same way. If he made you miss the same way all the time, guys would start timing it and start hitting him. He’ll make you miss the right hand in different ways. He’ll make you miss the left hook in different ways. … He varies the ways he’s able to defend and that is what makes him so difficult.”
While his ability to pick and choose WHO he fights, and WHEN he fights them may be questioned, what can’t is the fact that the man handles his business in the ring. Mayweather will undoubtedly need to be at his best to beat Manny Pacquiao in the same fashion on May 2nd. Pacquiao is arguably better than any of those fighters and will be the biggest challenge Mayweather has had in quite a while.
If Pacman is able to penetrate Mayweather’s defense and hit him, he could end up forcing Mayweather into more of a brawl, which would please the millions of boxing fans tuning in. We will see Saturday night.
[h/t Yahoo Sports]
