One thing (or two things) Mayweather has never done...

Khans reach is nearly the same as Mayweather

 

Depends on your definition of "devastating puncher". Corrales was the biggest hitter at 130 at the time and could do real damage with his left hook.

Khan has some physical gifts like speed and range but he lacks the smarts, chin, and skills to beat Mayweather. It's like Albert Einstein vs. Forrest Gump when it comes to ring IQ.

 

Maidana is a pretty devastating puncher, Pacquiao has shown to hold serious power, Canelo is no pity patty puncher. Didn't Mayweather call Hamed out at one point? He has fought big punchers. Williams and Margarito are fighters he could've fought sure but if he fought them instead of two others people would be saying Floyd ducked them instead. He hasn't fought many savvy defensive fighters true but who exactly ought he have faced?

 

The problem is: Floyd is not only the best defensive fighter of his era...but actually one of the best of all time.

No defensive fighter of the past 20 years would beat him.

And most devastating punchers usually lack all of the other required abilities you would need to even land on a defensive fighter like Floyd

so there you have it...

Still to this day Pacquiao and Khan are the two men who seemingly have the best chance based on styles. Both would need to fight a perfect fight something Floyd almost always manages to do excluding in the first Maidana fight. Which again is why Floyd is damn special his ring IQ and his FOCUS is unbelievable.

 

Well GGG is a wrecking machine at MW. SO if FLoyd opts not to fight him, I have no issue with it. However if he decided to fight him and was competitive in the match, that's on a ROberto Duran level of toughness IMO and really skyrockets my opinion of his greatness (and I already think pretty highly of the guy.)

The people you mentioned were interesting as far as defensive cuties or whatever the term is. WInky Wright isn't cute defensively, he's great at it. Who else during FLoyd's career would you say was a great defensive fighter? I can't really think of anyone in and around the weight classes he campaigned at that could be considered a defensive cutie (again I don't know what that means.)

You mention Hamed, that's laughable at best. He was a very sloppy fighter and I'd imagine would've been knocked out inside of 7 or 8 rounds against Floyd.

I'm assuming you watched Hamed(and FLoyd when he was younger ) fight. Than you'd know about 14 years ago, FLoyd called him out on HBO right after he beat Corrales, and made mentione that he'd meet Hamed at a CW of 128 lbs. Merchant started laughing right in front of him, saying there's no way Naseem would ever step into the ring with Mayweather.

That's a very common thought process by anyone who saw Naseem Hamed at 126 fight and FLoyd Mayweather Jr at 130 lbs fight.

And this Kell Brook talk just has to stop. Come on now, that's just crazy talk. He needs to prove himself a lot more than he has up to this juncture in his career.

 

A really crafty fighter I would've like to seen FLoyd fight was Joel Casamayor when he was in his prime. Now that would've been a good fight. But as much as he called out both Casa and Frietas when Floyd was at 130 and 135, he couldn't secure a fight with either of those guys at LW.

And Kostya was an impossible fight to make chronologically speaking. Also, both guys weren't PPV superstars for their respective networks for HBO and Showtime to try and make a merged broadcast for that matchup.

 

Pacquiao has never shown power at 147

 

Didnt Corrales have a ridiculous KO ratio??

 

If Chico wasn't a devastating puncher at 130 I don't know who was. I'd rate him as a top 10 puncher at 130 in the history of the division. He carried that power to 135 and became the first man to stop a granite-chinned JLC. He had laughably slow hands for the division and a suspect defense and chin (don't mix up heart and chin). But I can't for the life of me see how he wasn't a devastating puncher.

Regarding Naz, other posters have made this point but Floyd tried to make that fight. I don't particularly like Floyd and Naz is one of my all time favorite fighters but Floyd would have wiped the floor with me, let's be realistic.

Khan's handspeed is electric but I certainly wouldn't call him 'cute defensively'. He has serious limitations as well. Namely, he moves in straight lines and has a high guard that seems to have gone from laughable under Roach to average under Hunter. As Enigmadabanks said, I doubt Floyd will fight GGG at this stage in either man's career. I won't hold it against him if he doesn't make the fight at 160. But if he did...win or lose I'd move him up my ATG list if he acquitted himself well (as he tends to do). Just as the manner of Duran's losing performance against Hagler is a major plus, not minus, on his resume.

 

Well Barrera didn't fight above 126 until 2004. Floyd hasn't fought below 135 since 2002...