There is a lot of criticism on the fighters Mayweather has fought since he moved up to 140 So the question is who should Mayweather have fought? When he moved up to 140 who should have Mayweather fought instead of Gatti, who had the WBC which means he was the number one at that weight class? When he moved up to 147 Welterweight. The excuse is that Judah and Baldomir were B level fighters. So who should have Mayweather fought instead of Judah and Baldomir? Judah was the WBC Welterweight champion meaning he was the number one fighter at that weight class. Baldomir then defeated him and became number one fighter at that weight class. Meaning Mayweather fought the number one and number 2 at that weight class at the time. Of course Margarito will be the man people place here. But what made Margarito higher then a B level at this time? He had 4 losses already and was only the WBO champ not the WBC. Why wasn't he the WBC? If Margarito was the WBC holder then he would have fought Margarito I am sure. If Mayweather fought and defeated Margarito then he would have only been the WBO champ and still would have had to fight Baldomir or whoever was the WBC champ at the time. Mosley and De La Hoya both moved up to light middle weight at this time and Mayweather called out Tszyu, Mosley, DLH saying that he heard they would come back down to 147 and that he would like to fight them. Why would he duck Margarito, but want to fight Mosley and DLH who were better fighters. The reason is he never thought Margarito was that good and that Baldomir was the more accomplished fighter since he was the WBC after beating Judah and Gatti. Winky and Mayorga moved up to middle weight at the time. When he moved up to 154 light middle weight, The excuse is that DLH was past his prime and washed up. So who should have Mayweather fought instead of DLH? DLH was the WBC champion at light middleweight. Meaning he was the number one fighter at that weight class. Mosley wasn't going to fight him since DLH was his boss. Winky was fighting at 160 and 170 vs Hopkins at the time. There was Mayorga, but he lost to DLH for the WBC one yr prior. Should he have fought Travis Simms would that have been better? Should he have fought Corey Spinks? He was then set to retire until Hatton made his infamous statement. The excuse is that Hatton was to small. Hatton was the WBC for light welterweight. Again meaning he was the number one at light welterweight. Mayweather moved up weight classes all his career so there is no excuse for Hatton moving up to fight Mayweather. Margarito already had a scheduled fight vs Paul Williams who he lost his belt the WBO to. Both Paul Williams and Margarito were off the market at the time that Hatton called out Mayweather and Mayweather came out of retirement to fight him. His other options were Vernon Forrest at 154, but Hatton called him out and Hatton would produce more money then Forrest. Paul Williams schedules a fight vs Quintana while Hatton and Mayweather are training for there fights and loses. Then rematches Quintana, wins and moves up to middle weight. One month prior to Mayweather defeating Hatton, Cotto defeated Mosley for the WBA. Mayweather then retires rather then fighting Cotto who was really the only quality option left. Did he duck Cotto or did he just hate Arum? Margartio then cheats and crushes Cotto, Mosley then crushes Margarito. Pacman crushes DLH and Hatton. Mayweather comes out of 21month retirement after JMM and Mosley call him out. JMM was considerd the number 2 pound for pound in the world. Mayweather chooses JMM for 2 reasons. First is his p4p ranking. Second is the fact that many say he beat Pacman. Top other options were WBC welterweight champ Andre Berto, Mosley or he could have waited for Pacman vs Hatton winner and fought Pacman. You could say Cotto, but he didn't regain his status after losing to Margarito yet. The argument of Mayweather not taking risk, selecting easy fights, not earning his status is not valid. All he has done is fight the WBC champions which means they are the number one at there weight class at each weight class he fought at. Then fought the number 2 rated p4p fighter in the world. Its not his fault Gatti, Baldomir, DLH were WBC champions. Its not his fault that other guys couldn't beat them to take those belts. Its not his fault Margarito was only a WBO and lost to Paul Williams. Its not his fault Paul Williams lost to Quintana. I think he should wait until after the Cotto vs Pacman fight then weigh his options between Mosley, Cotto or Pac and Berto.
mayweather has selective hearing when it comes to people calling him out. I bet he didn't even hear mosley on saturday. The real question is: Who should mayweather fight now?
I stopped reading here. Having the WBC strap does not mean that you are # 1 at the weight class. Mayweather himself said it in the prefight build up that Gatti was "a paper champion" I put that in quotes because those were floyd's exact words. At the time Hatton was king of the division coming off of a win over Tzyu who was king of the division at the time the Gatti fight was negotiated. Vivian Harris, Cotto, Witter were all ranked higher than Gatti at the time. I'll post some more after I read the rest of your post.
He fought Judah coming off a loss. He should have fought new champion Baldomir first while letting Judah get a win under his belt in a comeback fight, then made his first title defense against Judah. Zab wasn't going anywhere, no reason the fight can't happen at a later date. As for Arum, Why not punish him by beating his top fighter?
Even a broken watch is right twice a day. You can not blame floyd for fighting zab first. Baldomir was the one that didn't want the fight at the time. He knew that Gatti would be an easy big money fight and wanted to get that big payday before selling his belt to floyd.
This is all i can think of hosnestly...... I dont care about 147 or 140, but if floyd woulda cleard out 130 he woulda been a legend by now 147 Cotto Margarito Mosley 140 He should have fought kostya tszyu before hatton(he woulda beaten him anyway) 130 Casamayor Acelino Freitas
Actually, when Floyd faught Gatti at 140, Ricky Hatton was the lineal champ (he beat Kosta Tszyu). I'm not sure what the deal was with that in 2005, but Hatton would have gotten SMOKED...especially after the way Floyd looked vs Gatti. Mayweather would've probably knocked him out sooner than the 10th round. It's interesting about 147 cuz he faced Zab for a "belt" that he technically lost to Baldomir, but Baldomir didn't pay the sanctioning fee. And if I'm not mistaken, Zab was the linear champ when Floyd moved up (Zab beat Cory Spinks, then lost to Baldomir). So apparently, Floyd fought who he had to fight at 147 to be considered the best (at 147), right? At this point in time, I think for his comeback trail he wanted to fight the person who people argue won more rounds against the top P4P fighter (Pacman) to stage the big money megafight (Mayweather vs Pacquiao). I think that Floyd's trying to make an argument regarding the best P4P fight rather than being the best at 147 so he can make people think that since he's #2 P4P (I guess after beating Marquez), fighting Shane won't matter, fighting Margarito won't matter, and fighting Cotto won't matter. However, I don't think he can be necessarily considered THE very best unless he at least Mosley (because they're the best welterweights in their era) and Pacquiao (the current P4P fighter). I understand the reasoning to comeback and fight Marquez, but I don't think Mayweather can duck fighting smaller opponents anymore.
incredably bad read from start to finish floyd should have fought casamayor and the brazilan Fritas before he moved up from lightweight to welterweight then floyd should not have fought ONLY "odl" , hatton and "jmm" since november 4th, 2006 since november 4th of the year 2006 mayweather COULD have fought the top ranked welterweightz in the world rather than takin his last 3 fightz. is that CLEAR enough for you CONCRETE ? you do consider floyd to be the best welterweight in the world do you not CONCRETE ??? i certainly do.
he should have fought Andre Berto... we all know mayweather didn't lose a beat or didn't have ring rust.
He was the #1 contender at the end of 2004, according to The Ring: http://www.boxrec.com/media/index.php/The_Ring_Magazine%27s_Annual_Ratings:_Junior_Welterweight--2000s
There are a lot of new fans in the past 3 years who only know their history from what they hear on this site. The reason he fought Zab first was because that fight had already been agreed. Zab had Floyd had known eaach other for years since amateur days. They were already scheduled to fight when Zab was fighting Baldo. No one thought Baldo would win. Due to the sanctioning fee issue Zab kept the belts and so the fight with Floyd continued. However, as we know Baldo should have been the real champ so Floyd thought him. Just to put it in perspective at this point the only challenge available at Welter was Marg. Does everybody remember the hate Floyd got for the boring Baldo win. That is the same blueprint he would have used against another slow, plodding fighter (albeit with more power) in Marg so he had no interest in that fight. That was when Hoya became an option.