Can Mayweather and Pacquiao crack a top ten ATG LWW list?

Tough one, since it mainly depends on criteria.

Achievements? Nah, not imo. Hatton was over the hill, and not high enough caliber opponent anyway, and Gatti just wasn't all that good.

H2H, though? Abso-mutha****in'-lutely. I think both Pac and PBF are at their best between 130 and 140. Looking at some make shift top 10s at 140, I'd pick Pac and Floyd to beat most of them.

In fact, I may actually lean towards Pacquiao being better than Floyd H2H here. I'd pick him to destroy Pryor and Ortiz, KO Benítez, beat Chavez (barely) and Ross. I'm happy to explain why BTW.

Whereas I think think Ross would give Mayweather DLH-esc problems, and Chavez would out-do Castillo. Benítez would give him major problems, Ortiz too. Pryor is God awful for Mayweather, but I think his counters and defence would nick a really close decision. Could go either way, that one.

But then again I'd always pick Floyd over Pac, and I'd pick Floyd over Napoles and Marquez (obviously) who both get the better of Pacquiao imo. Ike Williams too.

So in short, they're H2H beats, but it's all speculation.

 

Pac beat an ATG? George you will be hung for that you fool, everyone knows Pac loses to every ATG just cause please tell me you are drunk.

Would like to here your reasons though... especially concerning Pryor

 

Well, Pryor is very overrated in my opinion. So that's a good place to start before I say why I think Pac beats him so quickly.

Pryor was often all over the place, and didn't have the best defence. He'd bumrush guys from the get-go, and was often walked onto shots. Pacquiao, a very crafter puncher, underrated on the back-foot, would pick a straight left early which sets him off and he jumps all over him in a Hatton-esc way. Pryor, being much better than Hatton, fights back in one of the fiercest wars ever, but is stopped a little later. He can't take that power and speed for too long. Pac KO4.

Basically Pacquiao drastically outguns him, physically, in a barnburner.

 

Off the top of my head:
Benitez
Zoo
Hatton
Chavez
Bradley
Cervantes
Cotto
Judah
Taylor...

Nothing wrong with Pac and Floyd rounding out the top 10.

 

Mayweather can. Pac didn't do enough.

 

Hatton to me is a little overrated. And Hatton beat him on his 2nd to last fight.

Who's Corley, do you mean Diego Corrales? Corrales was a very good fighter with wins over Jose Castillio and Joel Casamayor. Mayweather shut him down and knocked him out. While I don't really consider Gatti great, Mayweather badly outclassed him.

 

In ability and head-to-head potential yes, in terms of record and accomplishments no is the long and short of it, really.

Edit: Should add that this essentially means no as far as I'm concerned, as i think real-life championship consistency and achievements have to trump hypotheticals and raw ability which were never put to the test, especially if you're rating guys from right across history.

Kind of shows the vagaries and difficulties of the additional weight classes though, even for Light-Welter which I consider the best of them all. Hatton would have had ten bells knocked out of him by Mosley, would have been shut out by Whitaker and been mauled and outclassed by Duran....But by the letter of the law he goes down as a better 140 pounder than all of them.

 

I forgot Crawford, Pryor and Ortiz. Pac and May probably shouldn’t be in there off resume then.

 

Nowhere near.

My top 10 comprises the likes of Chavez, Ross, Tszyu, Loi, Locche, Ortiz, Perkins, Cervantes, Benitez, Crawford, Berg, Pryor. That's 11, some of which have stronger claims to the tenth spot than others. I wouldn't put Mayweather or Pacquiao top 15 or top 20, in fact, Floyd's 140lb run was the worst part of his career.

H2H is a different question entirely.