Fighters Who Would Have Beaten A Prime Floyd Mayweather Between 130-140

Khan was too basic to stand any chance v Floyd and far too easy to counter, Camacho only had hand speed, Floyd would have out-boxed him, Duran would have beaten Floyd, simply expert offence.

 

Napoles. You’d have to train him, though, obviously.

 

This but unironically

 

Unironically, if you trained Napoles you think he’d have done better against Monzon? A natural Lightweight going on 34 years old in his 15th year as a pro. Fighting against a big Middleweight known for making the utmost use of his height and ranginess.

 

I'd definitely favor Duran and Whitaker to beat Floyd, but against anyone else Mayweather would have had at least 45% chances of winning IMO

 

Henry Armstrong

 

A few, none with absolute conviction.

 

I'd be confident picking Pea, Duran, Armstrong and Chavez at 135. Others can do it, but they're closer to 50/50. I don't have any qualms with picking Floyd over anyone but the aforementioned.

 

Floyd was an exceptional fighter at 135 and 140 .. anyone of these guys would have had a massive challenge .. Chavez almost lost to Taylor and got a gift vs Whitaker ...

Whitaker was exceptional but Floyd had a touch of speed and a hell a reach on him ...

I love Pryor and he was a beast but he may have been diced up

I'd go with Duran , Oscar and Shane who has become ridiculously under rated .. maybe Napoles and Cervantes

 

Duran is the only who I'd make a clear favourite to beat Floyd at 135.

Whitaker and Chavez are 50/50's.

He beats the rest - Mosley, Camacho, De La Hoya etc.

OP - Is this a 135 and 140 scenario ?? Because if it is you left out Tszyu, Pryor and a few others.

 

'Could' is a fairly nebulous term that probably allows for a bigger list than most would concede to. If I'm objectively giving a fighter a '40%' chance as I interpret it after giving a h2h a lot of thought, then that fighter has a damned good chance of winning in my eyes. Especially allowing for the types of miscalculations and unforeseen instances that often contribute to us predicting fights incorrectly (though that obviously works two ways).

It's not unreasonable to make Mayweather the favourite in your mind over a big list of fighters at lightweight/light welter outside of the traditional big hitters like Pea, Duran, Armstrong, Chavez, Leonard, Gans, Ortiz etc who people frequently pick to beat him, or least have doubts over him being the favourite.

Say for example, Laguna, Buchanan, De Jesus, Rodolfo Gonzalez, Mandell, Ambers, Brown, Lane, Tendler, Elorde, Jack, Locche, Perkins, Benitez, Ross, Pryor, Taylor, Canzi, Nazarov. Now, I'm not going to mount fierce arguments against people picking Mayweather to beat that list of guys best for best, and there are several instances where the default position is to favour him. But a lot of them are at the very least deserving of being thought to give him a tough fight for one reason or another, which is enough for me to hold a strong concession that he might lose. So, yeah, I give a lot of fighters a good chance at beating him who others might not, even if I consider him the reasonable favourite.

It's the same for other great fighters like him who I hold in that group who are impressive to me but just short of those who are the very, very best I've ever seen on film or thereabouts. And even some of those mountain toppers, I'll open my mind to the possibility of them losing fights that might come as a surprise to most.

Obviously though, Michael Gomez would beat him into snotlike pulp for shits and giggles. Some stuff is just like Thanos ( and Mendoza refusing that Vitali is going to peg it one day like all of us). Inevitable.