Could Mayweather have won a title at 160?

He could've beat Daniel Geale as Cotto a former Jr Welterweight stopped Geale in 4 rounds winning a Middleweight title.

 

I think so, but it was a great risk to his zero
Floyd has along reach, but he has small bones/joints. His his hands in particular are very thin, hence the amount of issues

So yes he could have won a title. Could he have beaten GGG? No chance could he keep 3G off him. He would be in his shell all night trying to survive.

 

Of course he could have won the middleweight title. The issue is no one would have wanted to see him win it against someone not named Sergio Martinez or GGG. So if Floyd ever did try to win a title there, the expectation would be he fought one of those two. That’s where it gets tricky. Very tough fights.

 

Anyone not named GGG at that time, yes.

 

Yes. Not a doubt in my mind. Same with Manny. Oscar and Cotto won MW belts no reason they couldn't.

At that time all the stars were at WW/154. There was no one wondering if Floyd could crack it at MW. If Floyd had went up to MW it'd have been to check it off the bucket list then he'd have went right back down. Thats where the fights were. Oscar and Cotto got MW belts specifically because they lost fights at 147/154 and that was the only logical place to go. If Cotto and De La Hoya had beaten Floyd and Mosley(I know you think De La Hoya won thats not the point) they would not have their MW belts.

Another interesting tidbit is that Sturm the fighter De La Hoya beat for his MW title was also champion during this period. The point is there was very little doubt Floyd could pop in and take a MW belt.

Floyd being undefeated over a long stretch at MW would have been tougher but theres really no question he and his peers were capable of being MW champion. Even more so with 4 belts but also with just 1. Cotto was lineal champ.

 

That was a title defence, Cotto won the lineal MW title by beating Sergio Martinez. I agree with the larger point and Geale was a MW champ Floyd could have lifted a belt off of just saying Cotto didn't do that.

If he'd fought Manny in 2010 maybe there would have been clamoring for him to go up if just for the Martinez fight. But since he didn't people were focused on him fighting Manny.

 

Mayweather at 160lbs would have beaten the same crippled Maravilla that Cotto did, and would have beaten Geale as well.

Beyond that, we're talking GGG? Yeah, no.

 

Threads like this really make me hate tweener divisions. If there was no pesky 154 to make money fights at all these guys would have spent years at MW. We were robbed of a whole legendary MW era.

 

I feel like he could have beat Golovkin if he dared to but he didn’t, so it doesn’t count.

Had he actually dared to and done so he would have had a legit claim to being TBE.

 

It depends on how bad the title holder at middleweight is. Little guys poach a strap from weak champions all of the time. List all of the people who held a piece of the middleweight crown while Mayweather was active and then ask yourself if he could have beaten them when they had the belt. If you mean could he beat Bernard Hopkins or Gennady Golovkin then the answer is no, not unless they had a massive leg injury like Sergio Martinez had when he fought Miguel Cotto. In regards to that, Mayweather can beat anyone with a crippling injury. Just look at how he beat old Pacquiao with a shoulder injury. Mayweather isn't beating a healthy version of Hopkins, Golovkin, or Martinez but maybe he could do something with Kelly Pavlik, Jermain Taylor, or Felix Sturm. Dmitri Pirog, Hassan N'Dam N'Jikan, Peter Quillin, and Andy Lee all held versions of the WBO belt. Yes, I believe he could beat Hector Javier Velazco, Darren Barker, Sam Soliman, and Daniel Geale. Maybe, he could beat William Joppy or Maselino Masoe. He could beat all of these posers, paper champions, and pretenders to make his resume look more impressive than it is, but he's never beating any of the legit guys, the credible champs which people knew were the real deal.

 

I'm sure both Mayweather and Pacquiao could have won the one of the belts at middleweight, if they fought such beltholders like Sebastian Sylvester or Sebastian Zbik (both very ordinary, Euro-level fighters and both held one of the belts at that time).

 

He didn't dare to be great like Canelo has or like Bud is now doing. He's a very accomplished boxer of course, but he hasn't taken the kind of risks that many other greats have taken.