Accomplishment wise he can't touch Ali or Robinson but can his talent? I tend to think so. How about everyone else?
I dont know if it is true that he cant touch Ali or Robinson acomplishment wise (yet). While he keeps winning, he will keep getting the big fights and his accomplisments can grow (even allowing for the difficult situation we have now with multiple weight classes and champions). I would be more concerned about him having the talent to do so. If Robinson were in his exact position, he would ahve to fance his chances of adding names like Pacquaio, The Super Six winner, even Chad Dawson. If Floyd can assert his dominance completely over the middleweight division in the next 3 or 4 fights and follow this by winning the unified light heavyweight title, then i think his legacy might actually trump Robinson's. In fact if he KOs Wlad, he could even compare with Fitzsimmons. Personally, i dont think that he can or will pull it off.
He is right up there in terms of all around ability and talent....right near the tippy top. But I do rate him a little behind the best fighters Ive witnessed fight on film.
No! Is he amazing? Yes! Is he an all time great? You bet your ass! Is he "right up there" with Robinson & Ali? No! If Floyd Mayweather defeats Manny Pacquaio DECISIVELY, we can open the subject once more.
I think talent wise he is up there. Hard to deny it. The man has proved me and many others wrong. He is one of the most dominant fighters of this generation.
Hell, I don't think talent was ever the question with Floyd in comparing him to the ATGS. If anything, it's the only thing not really in any question, to me, for those comparisons. I think talent-wise he's got it. But accomplishment-wise, I don't have him rated as highly as Ali and certainly not Robinson. When he said he was a more complete fighter than Ali, a lot of people scoffed but that seems evidently true to me, making no statements for "greatness" but just in technical skill terms.
In terms of acomplisment Mayweather has been champion at 130, 135, 140, 147 & 154. He has not lost in 41 fights, and ye he has beate some very good boxers who I would compare in terms of talant/skill/abillity to the boxers that Ali and Robinson faced. Is that as good as what Ali 3x heavyweight champion or Robinson 147 and 5x 160 champion have done? If you fell that it is not that is your opinion. However I fell what Mayweather has acomplished is up there with the best of them.
What now? I wait for the "knowledgeable" classic posters to tell me how much I know about boxing for suguesting that Floyd Mayweather Jr. might acatuly be among the best boxers in the history of the sport.
I don't particularly like the man myself, but I can't deny that he's almost as talented or just as much so, as anyone who ever put on boxing gloves.. His combinations, defense, and overall tactical ability would be a challenge for any great to duplicate.. in addition, he is a man who has jumped weight on some 4 or 5 occasions, and at the age of 33 doesn't seem to have lost even a step. You can't manage this without being exceptionally gifted, no matter how one cuts it.
Floyd Mayweather is on of the top 10 most talented fighters ever, especially the 130 pound Floyd who looked like the perfect fighter.
what strikes me about floyd is that he has mastered every skill in boxing. At the moment he is the best fighter on the inside, in the pocket and on the outside. He can float around and potshot or he can stand his ground and rip combinations into his opponent. I think in history only robinson was the more complete fighter.
Saying "he's as talented as X" is misleading. It basically allows you to get around the fact that Mayweather isn't as good a boxer, quite simply, as the very greatest fighters ever. When you start talking about "talent", you divert the discussion away from all-round ability and instead focus in on things like speed, reflexes etc. which Mayweather obviously has in abundance. If you're really using talent in that restricted sense, it doesn't really mean much to say he's so talented. He may be talented, but is he able? He may be fast and slick, but does he have the offensive ability, the toughness, the pace, the advanced fighting skills of the very top greats? No, simple as. Are those things not talents? If not, then who cares about talent. If so, Mayweather isn't that talented. That is, of course, without referring to the vast deficit in achievement that Mayweather suffers when compared to the greatest fighters of all time.