Exactly. And a lot of the younger fans don't even get that. I've read posts on the internet often where some youngsters are making comments about 1980s fighters like "he only won titles in 3 divisions !" or "he didn't move up in weight" etc. etc. A lot of the modern fighters have jumped around picking up belts here and there, and often titles were conjured up for them, and sometimes weight limits adjusted for them, or titles were manoeuvred into the hands of prospective opponents to set up another "record breaking" title shot, etc. And it's that kind of farcical situation that has become the standard by which "achievements" have become measured.
I'd say Mayweathers resume may be better than Jones. I wouldn't argue with anyone who disagreed though. I don't think Floyd will come back, there's nothing to come back to, unless he goes to the MW title, which I believe he should have done for his final fight. The frightening thing is,we never even saw anybody really test Mayweather.
This definitely rings true for the Broner's and Guererro's out there. But Floyd was linear from 130 to 154 with exception of 140, and he still knocked the linear 140 champ out for his first loss (Hatton). That's gotta be the equivalent of an old school 3 division champ.
Another era, better fighters, the 15 round limit,.....not saying that FM wouldn't cut it over 15, but there were many great fighters who did some of their best work ovwer 15,...like Kid Gavilan, who I think would be too much for Mayweather, as Napoles, Leonard, Hearns and many others would. Yeah, he was in an ideal era for him to be the cherry picking, so called ""best ever",....try the "best in this mediocre era" instead.
The only close fight was Castillo. The first Maidana fight was not a draw nor anywhere near it. People exaggerate that fight too much.
Then there are the different weigh in rules which allow boxers to squeeze into smaller divisions. When I see fighters picking up belts in four or five divisions, I wonder how many they would have won if they had to weigh in on fight night instead of 24 hours before. It's also strange that Mayweather was exclusively a WBC fighter at 130, 135 and 140. He never faced the other champs and only held 25% of the belts. I don't buy into all that lineal nonsense. He broke new ground when he faced Maidana, a fellow champ from his own division.
If you think there are less than thirty triple champions when there are actually more than thirty, then you need more fingers.
Agree, I had the first Maidana fight wide. Floyd had an edge in a bunch of close rounds during that fight. I also don't think the Castillo fight was controversial, although it was close. Floyd dominated the first half. I think people didn't know how to process the action because it was the first time they saw Floyd go in the trenches. Also, shoulder injuries are usually worse than hand injuries, and he had one.
The point is, with multiple titles, the competition becomes diluted and the top fighters can choose to share the titles, challengers and contenders alike can build title credentials without fighting others in their division who are doing so . And people giving Mayweather credit for being the "REAL" or lineal champ in a weight division can't have it both ways by also crediting him with beating "20 world champions" or whatever. If we're saying there's still one title per division that matters, then the others don't matter. No, there's only two old school divisions in that range. Lightweight and Welterweight. 130 and 140 never had the same prestige back in the day, even when great fighters like 'Kid' Berg and Kid Chocolate were fighting in them. Middleweight hasn't been 154 since the days of Bob Fitzsimmons, and if I remember correctly Mayweather even lowered the light-middle weigh-in to suit him.
The point being, if there were only the old school divisions, there's a good chance that he would've taken three. Different eras. Modern 154s are often bigger than old school 160s.