Why does Mayweather's legacy depend on Pacquiao?

Floyd Mayweather was already a two division champ before the mainstream new who he was and a sure fire Hal offamer .....Pacquiao was the fighter who they hoped would beat him after Mayweather came back....other than that the facts are money beat the fighters that made him a star at the higher weights do before and has beaten more champs in less fights.....Mayweather is a guy people want to lose but he didn't until he does he will never win

 

Imagine if Ali had come back from his exile and fought everyone but Foreman. There were enough names around for him to forge a great legacy, but he dared to be more than great and took on the man everyone said he could not beat. Floyd found excuses not to, despite a majority thinking he could beat Pac, and that's what non-*****s will remember.

 

Most fighters trainers and hard Core fans felt he would beat many plus heavyweight has less good fighters not going into it but the fighters are not to blame it's Arum no one doubts Hagler Duran hearns or Leonard for not facing pryor or mike McCallum hell ray Robinson didn't fight Burley it didn't erase what they did do...know one has fought every top guy in their era much harder for guys below heavyweight their is only one division to compete in

 

It most certainly doesn't.

 

Mayweather's legacy as being a great fighter and one of the greatest of all time did depend on Manny. Manny is the only opponent that was a legit threat to Mayweather, faster, more power, quicker feet, southpaw that throws punches in high volumes from akward angles that render the shoulder roll defense futile. lOOK AT THE jUDAH FIGHT AND YOU'LL SEE HOW fLOYD HAD TO ABANDON THE SHOULDER ROLL DEFENSE, because it isn't effective against a southpaw. And we all saw how Judah was landing on Mayweather and even knocked him down even though the ref didn't see mayweather's glove touch the floor. Pacquiao was a horrible matchup for Floyd, Floyd overcoming this challenge would have made him great. He has great skills, great athlecism, but hasn't achieved great feats. So yes pacquiao was an essential part of Floyd's legacy. That was Floyd's Frazier, the margarito to his Cotto, the delahoya to his trinidad, the holyfield to his tyson, etc. Greatness is having a story to be told, Mayweather hasn't had anything great to talk about, besides having made great business decisions.

 

Uhh NO.

 

With your logic Pacquiao isn't great..no one he has faced has the ring IQ reflexes plain know how in the ring of Mayweather who was an established star and Hal of famer before him

 

The only fighter he faced as smart or as good a counterpuncher was Marquez who never clearly beat and got kayoed by...Judah got clearly beat did Marquez...do by your estimation many
Isn't great either smh......Mayweather at least beat more champs and more top ten guys and he not great BS stop being biased both are great they just never fought each other

 

Well if Mayweather did defeat Pacquiao he would be clearly seen as 'The Man' of this era.

 

Both doesn't need each other. THey have dethrone enough champions. Of course with each other's scalp will enhance their Legacy more.

 

Depends on what you mean by "depend." Mayweather will go down as one of the greatest to have ever stepped into the ring regardless – it's just that his "ATG ranking" will be nowhere near as high as it would have been had he fought and beat Pac, say, 2-3 years ago. Mayweather has not beaten the best position available to him as you say. That's a lie.

 

because it is better to look for your prime contemporary and lose than to never fight him. Duran,Leonard,Hearns,Hagler all fought contemporaries when they were great fighters, and it helps their legacy. The fact that Mayweather has avoided that for 4 years now says something about his confidence. That regardless of skill, he does not belong in the level of Hearns,Duran,Hagler,Leonard,Delahoya,Trinidad,Mosley etc. He lacks that confidence those guys had regardless of losses. No one cares about losses really as much as who fights the best.

 

It doesn't diminish his already great accomplishments, but he missed his chance to establish dominance against a rival All Time Great in his prime at his weight-class. You can point in all different directions for why it didn't happen, but his most significant fight never happened.

 

There's legitimate threats pinged by hardcore fans, and then there's publicly demanded fights. When you have a fight that joe shmoe the gas station worker even knows about, it's pretty damn huge.

What if Louis Schmeling II never happened for whatever reason? (war, etc) Such a historic fight. Not only that, it would double detract from Louis' legacy, as people would say Schmeling was simply the superior fighter.