Did Floyd Mayweather duck opponents?

I think most of the ducking claims are exaggerated. Most of them are fights that had very short windows to make happen like Cotto, Williams, Tszyu, etc. or blaming him for things he couldn't control like when the De La Hoya or Mosley fights took place. Floyd wasn't in the same weight class as those guys in their primes. He was multiple weight classes below them. More than anything, Floyd was just focused on making the biggest fights once he reached a certain stage (Money Mayweather). Who could he fight that was a big name or who could he fight that could potentially sell. That usually coincided with fighting highly ranked opponents. Hatton top 10 P4P, Marquez top 3 P4P, Mosley top 3 P4P, Ortiz 3rd ranked WW, Cotto #1 ranked junior middleweight, Guerrero top 10 P4P, Canelo top 10 P4P, etc.

 

Yes that fight was on the table. Spadafora turned it down. This is according to the Las Vegas Sun right before Floyd was going to face Victoriano Sosa. Article is titled, "Mayweather on foe Sosa: 'I'm going to play with him". In the article it said:
Arum said he offered Spadafora $1 million to fight Mayweather (with New York as the target site) but the offer was turned down.

"They'd rather take less money and fight each other than take a chance for more money and get knocked out by me," Mayweather said, referring to Spadafora and World Boxing Association champ Leonard Dorin meeting May 17 in Pittsburgh.

 

it says here he fought B Hop in 04.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_De_La_Hoya#Professional_boxing_record

Wikipedia can be wrong though so

 

Williams won his belt when Floyd had Hatton lined up and lost it a month after Floyd beat Hatton.

 

I know Williams lost to Quintana. I just wanted to throw the haters a bone.

 

Ducked? That's a strong word. He clearly navigated a less hazardous route, shall we say.

When it comes to a lack of victories over top prime fighters, that's where the issue lies. Cotto, Pacquiao and Oscar had all seen better days. So had Floyd in the case of the first two? That's not the point. When we think of fighters, we think of them at their prime. When they were moving at maximum velocity.

In an alternative universe, Floyd will have fought Cotto in '07, Pacquiao in '09, he will have fought Margarito and Williams a couple of months apart, and fans won't have too much of an issue with how great he insists he is.

 

Great post