Which fighters' success is the culmination of hard work...

No one. I would say Floyd Mayweather Jr. but he's been a cherry-picker the last five years, and so have many other boxers.

 

Based on what, precisely?

Hard work - Hopkins maybe?

 

I thought he could have fought better competition instead of the likes of Marquez, Hatton, and DLH. Currently Mayweather has fought dangerous opponents (Ortiz, Cotto) but he still hasn't fought Pacquiao.

 

People have their opinions on the pac-may fight. But with both sides blamig eachother and fans able to bend evidence to make their fighter out to be innocent i think using it against may is wrong. I feel his resume has been very good.. All of hes fighters were coming off wins. Mosley stands out for me.. The guy destroyed margarito and to this dayis the only one to stop him...

NO ONE dare take on mosley after that. But floyd did and floyd outboxed him after a shaky round 2

 

Pacquiao hasn't fought Floyd either.

Hatton was the undefeated 140 Champ, and was more than a respectable fight. DLH was the champ at 154, and Floyd was going up in weight. Marquez was the second best fighter in the world by most people's opinions and while JMM did go up in weight, Floyd had't fought in 2 years.

There haven't been many other names that Floyd should have fought instead, if any.

 

Great call, my favourite ever fighter. Who do you see beating prime Wille, JG?

 

You could say Whitaker & Benitez also fit the god given talent bracket here. Defensive wizards like that who do it from an early age just seem to have a natural instinct for avoiding punches in a way that is just hard to fathom.

 

always thought juan manuel marquez doesnt look like much of a physical specimen, and has earnt everything on sound technique, IQ and hard work

 

floyd's success is both from god given talent and hard work.

 

Marciano, Ward, Basilio, Fullmer, and Frazier all weren't born with the best boxing tools and they didn't possess the natural talent of an Ali, Leonard, or Pep, but they still managed to make it to the top level through sheer grit and hardwork.

Leonard, Ali, Benitez, Pep, Pastrano, and Mayweather Jr all seem to do things effortlessly and naturally that 99.9% of the world can't do. Obviously they still worked hard to get to great physical condition, but they still got to the top using their natural abilities.