Did Floyd Mayweather duck opponents?

Debatable.

He did like to marinate fights obviously.

 

Depends on the time frame you are looking at. Its hard to argue that Floyd ducked anyone when in his 20s.
After the De La Hoya fight is when he started picking his opponents more carefully, mainly to maximize PPV sales.

Reminds me of the few vocal idiots here who claimed that Floyd was ducking Canelo.

 

I think of ducking as meaning only one thing. That is choosing to not fight someone because you think you might lose to them or think you would lose to them. By that measurement, the only person I think Floyd ducked was Manny Pacquiao.

All of the others whom Mayweather may have chosen not to fight I believe he did so simply because it didn’t make economic sense.

 

He chickened, ducked, goosed, turkey'd and hid in bunkers. Always has/had something to say though. IRL Smokey and deebo

 

One of the biggest problems with boxing fans are they get into this habit of picking apart resumes etc to shite on fighters.
It’s usually the big fighters they focus on and shite on.
Any resume can be picked apart.
So I don’t understand why they claim to like boxing?
And no wonder it’s not the biggest sport in the world anymore, anyone who is a success gets shitted on. New fans come to watch the sport and its fans are just negative about it.

floyd was exceptional.

Generally the higher up the ladder you and your opponent are, the harder it gets to make fights as both sides are looking for the best deal for their own fighter and own interests. Lots of ego battles happening etc.

when there is a bigger disparity in value it’s not as bad as generally the lower value fighte is getting paid more than they would anywhere else and knows his value.

 

Kind off.

- He fought Manny after he got KOed by Marquez in the most brutal fashions in boxing history when he had the chance to fight him earlier.
- He fought Oscar after one of the most brutal KO's in boxing history from Hopkins
- He fought Cotto after Cotto was fighting plastered gloves Margarito
- Coralles was deepfrying himself in saunas killing himself to make the weight and he was going to prison

He did beat Canelo so he deserves props for that. But a lot of his fights are questionable.

The guys he fought were not coming off of career highs like when Duran beatin Barkley or Ali beating Liston or Foreman.

 

Kostya Tszyu
Antonio Margarito
prime Miguel Cotto
prime Shane Mosley
prime Manny Pacquiao
Winky Wright
Sergio Martinez
Gennady Golovkin

 

A - We just want fights without overdoing it with the A side and politics. There will always be politics and A side shenanigans. Its just that Floyd and every boxer who sees him as a role model is WAY over doing it and everyone is sick of it.

B - We LOVE boxing. We just don't like the giga overpaid entitled athletes and slimy promoters who are ruining the sport we love.

C - Mainly started to dip on a harsh level when the new face of boxing (Floyd after the Oscar fight) simultaneously changed his style to a non crowd pleasing defensive style + his A side games he played. (Whether you want to admit it or not, casuals are the most important thing in any sport and they arent as dumb as you think. They definitely know Floyd wasnt fighting the best at their best)

D - Absolutely not. Last time I checked, an ugly broken english speaking, short jungle Asian named Pacquiao was universally loved even with multiple losses. GGG Inoue Benavidez list goes on. Here are more clear examples :

Loved but not unconditionally -
Usyk - loved until just recently when he seemingly cant make up his mind. (see what i mean? fans simply want you to just fight the best without messing around)
Bivol - loved, but getting flack for inactivity
Fury - everyone was rooting for him, he HAD THE FANS WORLD WIDE after the Rogan interview and Wilder fights. Only when he started acting like a diva is when people turned on him. (see a pattern emerging?)
Crawford - People started to seriously crown him the best, love him, all that jazz after the Spence fight. Now getting picked apart for talking too darn much. Talks like the second coming of SRR when in reality his resume is thinner than Lebron's hairline and just 'retired'

"Shitted on" like you said :
Floyd
Wilder
Ward
Canelo
Ruiz; see a clear pattern? Their mouths have put in more work than in the ring, whether it be massively like Ward or a bit like Canelo.

Fans in general aren't stupid brother, the vast majority of people call it how it is. It is a hard pill to swallow that the best boxers of the past 20 years are simply more entitled, spoiled, and divaesque than the greats before them; the majority of them actually... That is why boxing sucks. Heck, even Shakur Stevenson, who was legit getting scoffed at and shitted on like you said in every given chance turned it the heck around in 1 fight against Zepeda and GOT THE FANS after the Lopez fight. It literally legit took 1fight to sway public opinion and 2 to become a superstar. Let that sink in.

UNFORTUNATELY, the frontrunner for all of this mess is Floyd imo, and I sure as hell aint the only one, thus why he gets picked apart and **** on every chance there is. And frankly put, for the amount of talking he did and the bad habits he taught up and comers and the state of boxing he left it as... He doesn't get shitted on nearly enough.

E - Yes he was. Unfortunately he robbed himself and hundreds of millions of fans around the world of the generation defining fights he could have been a part of. He is undoubtedly the TBE in finessing the game and inflating his accomplishments.

 

He ducked their punches.

 

No, Oscar had only two fights after Mayweather - with a journeyman, and in his last fight, he lost to Pacquiao.

Oscar fought Hopkins in 2004, and Mayweather in 2007.

DLH did not fight at all in 2005. He had three losses in a row before Mayweather - to Mosley, to Sturm (who was robbed), and to Hopkins.

Oscar was better from 1997 to 2002.

 

Nice job avoiding claiming that he was robbed against Mosley and noting that the lesser performances were at 160, which wasn’t his weight.

 

Wayyy too long a post sorry I don’t have the time to reply to it all. But thanks for the efforts.

Regarding overdoing A-side nonsense, that isn’t the thing that’s dropped boxing, it’s tv deals. In a business deal, negotiations are made that is simple and everyone wants to get as much their way as possible.
This is fans lack of understanding.

look we have Turki now paying obscene money and boxing is quiet.

Floyd fought around 25champs and ppl complain he missed a couple or missed their prime because they couldn’t agree terms on time. Maybe we think the other way round, many didn’t fight a prime Floyd for the same reason.

Neither Mosley pac or cotto fought a prime Floyd, 2 wasn’t at his weight or champions when he was at his prime

 

Yes, it is what defined his career. He was a tremendous talent, but definitely took the easy path.