A Balanced Appreciation of Floyd Mayweather - Spitting Truth

I don't like Mayweather as you all know but I hugely appreciate Floyd.
Truly one of the best ever (arguably Top 10 in terms of ability, not resume) and one of the very few ATG's in his era. This thread is NOT about Pacquiao.

To understand and appreciate Mayweather, you have to understand the landscape of modern boxing..because this reflects his game.
Pro boxing = doing whatever you can get away with.
Floyd Mayweather has mastered the modern rules as much as he possibly could.
In the past, you were forced by the referee to fight more; the general aggressor was given the point when the rounds were extremely close. You had to 'outpoint by FIGHTING'. A younger PBF was actually doing this.

Floyd Mayweather Jr IS Duck Runhugger Jr...BUT running and hugging allows you to easily take the 'fight' away from the boxing match - effective clinching is a big reason why Wladimir Klitschko carved out an ATG Heavyweight career. Mayweather 'outpoints by not-fighting' but mixes his game up with fight elements too, if they're necessary for winning rounds. Why fight a losing fight? WHY?

If you can get away with roiding, clinching, running, low blowing like Salido, head-butting like Holyfield, pulling a damaged rotator cuff etc. then SO BE IT. It's the fault of the likes of USADA if they accept paychecks and don't even have stringent enough testing, ultimately. It's the fault of modern boxing rulings and standards of judging and the fault of referees if they don't catch things. I would be especially butthurt if I was going into the pros being robbed of a Olympic Gold Medal fight.
The real phoney thing is if you fix the scorecards because the reality will always tell the truth.

I'm not excusing Floyd for what looks to the overwhelming majority of balanced fans as roiding for Pacquiao, but let's be a little more balanced here..50's-early 90's was THE ULTIMATE PED ERA.

If he felt he wasn't good enough to win in the last few years under the OLD BOXING RULES, he would've retired and people would notice that he was no longer the same fighter a long time ago. 2012 onwards is Mayweather's SECOND CAREER. It was at welterweight - this was only made possible by modern boxing rules, otherwise at best he probably would've went down to 140lbs where he can be more aggressive.

It's actually refreshing to see Floyd from this angle because I'm always intrigued by someone who finds loopholes to fight a smarter fight where they can. Winning IS the most important thing in boxing and Mayweather is specialised in WINNING.

As for the criticisms:

a. No at-or-near prime ATG or even Mid Tier HOF level opponent on his resume in 19 years.
Because:
1. The weak era he fought in
2. He doesn't believe in himself to control certain factors that he usually does to 'win' fights, enough to go out of his way to take on big challenges like a TBE level fighter would've. For example, Duran and Pac fighting the best at high weight classes.

Essentially, he's not Lomachenko enough. Lomachenko is a good sized but not big FW and he's fighting at SFW and is considering 135lbs against Mikey Garcia for his 10th pro fight. That's the big difference.

b. He was too interested in money and didn't push enough for the fights. An example is hiding behind a faux retirement or even networks from 07-09' to avoid stylistic threats like prime Margarito, prime Williams, Pacquiao of that era, prime Cotto - this is not good enough. I think Mayweather beats all other than Pac, but if he won those fights, it would've pushed him far higher in the ATG rankings. If money becomes your biggest priority, then it obviously will have an effect on your legacy - I think we can all agree on this one beyond agenda.

c. His performances against stylistic threats were not good enough to suggest he would definitely beat ATG or even TBE level stylistic threats, because he fell for most of the same work from lower level operators. People need to realise that with Pac for example, he had a pretty even rivalry with not just any stylistic threat, but an ATG ultimate stylistic threat in Marquez. It's all fun and games for these Great fighters until they're up against their ultimate tests.
Mayweather IMO is 47-1-1. Used his 'torn rotator cuff' far, far more than anyone I've ever seen with a torn rotator cuff, in his first fight to Castillo. I also believe Maidana drew with Mayweather in the first fight, but we're dealing with a second career Mayweather ultimately. He ultimately beat them both in rematches, so that counts for a lot.

When looking at Mayweather's career, take a look at how well he executes tactics that enable him to win - not just the shoulder roll.


@Gannicus concurs.

 

Not at all, after the Pac-Mosley fight, I knew it was game over for Pac and that Floyd will definitely take it. I'm surprised there were still some Pac fans who believed he could beat Mayweather after that fight. If only the fight could've happened in both their primes (at the lower weight classes).

 

The weird thing from all of that post is that you push aside the more holistic points to nitpick on a smaller opinion. Given the 'retirement' from 07-09, that's enough for me to personally think it was to duck the top in that division that were huge threats, regardless - Pac or no Pac. Whether Pac was ducking too doesn't discount the fact that Mayweather was also ducking; it seems you believe this is so given your comment is phrased to be implicit in putting some blame on Mayweather.