Two of the best of all time, Mayweather the best pure boxer ever and Pacquiao the most exciting, offensive menace. Lets be honest, no one today P4p comes close to these two guys.. How long will it be until we see the likes again? 25 years?
Hey I'm old enough to have been alive 10 years ago when they were both doing their thing and all I remember was hearing about how it didn't compare to Leonard and Duran. Someday we'll hear about how no one can compare to the toughness of Canelo and the surgical precision of Crawford.
Agreed. But what if... Pac from the cotto fight fought Floyd from the Mosley fight? We would have gotten that fight at their best, imo.
This is very true! For some strange reason, there will always be fans/historians who dream about the "good old days", where everything was better... compared to the present, where everything sucks!
I think a big part of it is that now that we know the whole story for them (or in Pacquiao's case, almost the whole story), we know they didn't completely flame out and disappoint their fans. And it happens all the time. Crawford could still clean out 147 and do something at 154 and be on an all time level or he might take 4-5 mediocre fights and retire. Wilder was a few more big right hands away from greatness. The current lightweights are on pace to do something big but they're less than halfway done.
Also, let's not forget Inoue - who is still only 27, but already with 15 title fights in the bag. He could turn out to be a true ATG; time will tell.
The good old days were always better in boxing fan's eyes but there is a lot of difference between boxing 20 years ago and today. Mayweather changed boxing. Boxers a lot less talented look at his stats based approach and how much money he made and think they can be like him. The focus on the 0 is too much, being undefeated is worth more than taking challenges and risks. Fringe belt holders now get paid a lot more than before also and get a lot more acclaim. You can be a 2 weight "world champion" without having fought anyone in the top ten in either weight FFS.