Floyd Mayweather Jr vs Thomas Hearns

No. He fought most when they were past prime

 

Delahoya and Pacquiao were fighting in different weight classes than Mayweather during their primes so a prime vs prime matchup wasn't really possible.

Pacquiaos peak was at featherweight a weight class at which Mayweather never fought and de la hoya was fighting far above Mayweather in weight during his prime which probably ended circa 2003

 

Hearns would win this easily---UD or TKO--too much power and reach for Mayweather.

 

The whole boxing world knows that he didn’t want to fight Manny in his prime.

Compare that to someone like Duran, fighting prime versions of Hagler and Hearns, way beyond his best division.

 

Duran lost those fights lol

Mayweather pfp 1 118-110 Pacquiao pfp 2
Facts not feelings.

 

Mayweather never beat a fighter (bigger, same size or smaller) who is a consensus top 10 all time in one of the original 8 weight divisions.

Duran beat the consensus #2 all time at WW, which is 2 x modern weight divisions above his prime weight. It's arguably the greatest win in the history of the sport.

If we made a poll asking which win was better, any you choose for Mayweather, or Duran's over SRL, which do you think would get the most votes?

I'm sure you'll either avoid answering directly or if you do, you'll respond something along the lines of that's because people are biased or follow the mainstream view like sheep, or something along those lines, but if nothing else, it will help you understand one of the contributing reasons why the vast majority of people rank Duran as a greater fighter than Mayweather.

 

This argument would matter if it weren't a simpleton's not so well concealed way of overlooking the relevance of the several weight jumping ATGs who Mayweather beat, or the top ten ATGs beaten in non original 8 weightclasses, or the fantasy that a "consensus" even exists.

 

The only ATG Mayweather moved up to face/beat that was bigger than him, was a faded ODLH in a close fight. It's a fine win. Obviously nowhere near the level of Duran's win over SRL, though. Canelo may or may not go onto to be an ATG, hes not done enough yet in my view, and he certainly wasn't close to one when Mayweather beat him.

If you think that there is a general agreement that any Mayweather opponent ranks top 10 in any of original 8 weight divisions, let me know. If you doubt there is a general agreement amongst boxing historians that SRL is one of the greatest 10 WWs of all time, let me know.

 

Manny's prime was at featherweight. I don't think you can really call any version of Pacquiao at welterweight prime. He was surely more beatable at that weight class than at lower weights.

 

His prime wasn't at Featherweight he was still raw and kind of one dimensional at that weight, i think he started to reach his prime in the 2nd Morales fight at Super Featherweight. And started to peak when he destroyed Morales in the their 3rd fight, and had dazzling displays vs Diaz at Lightweight and Hatton at Jr Welterweight. I would also say the Welterweight version of Pacquiao who beat ODLH, Cotto, was better than any version of Pacquiao at Featherweight.

 

I agree Manny was a tougher prospect at FW than at WW, but you are confusing the weight at which a fighter was at their best or most formidable, with the weight division they were fighting at whilst in their prime.

Holyfield was fighting at HW when he was in his absolute prime. He ranks higher H2H at CW than at HW.

Manny was in his absolute prime 2006-2010. He fought from SFW to LMW (technically catch weight between WW and LMW vs Margarito) during this time.

Despite being a little younger, Pacquiao would have been a bigger threat to Mayweather from 2008 to any time before 2015, though from 2011/12 onwards I'd have favoured Mayweather.

 

Just beat me to it, DP

 

LOL at Canelo not being an ATG

You have an emotive fondness for meaningless terms. “ATG” means something different according to each person you ask. You know as well as I do that Mayweather is the guy who beat more HOF fighters and champions, and doesn’t require excuses for loses.

And Manny>Leonard in all time rankings to boot.

 

cmon man .. you know boxing better than this .. He dragged JMM up 3 weight classes , and didnt even bother to make weight himself !!!.. and cut him a check for 500 grand ,, he also backed out of his rematch clause with ODLH and retired... A CW fight with a drained Alvarez ,WOW BFD .. go up and fight him .... Pac did , hearns did ( he went to 175 to fight and back down to 160 for teh next one )... I can go on and on with all the BS Floyd did ..waiting for guys to lose ,, going on vacations .. BUT you already know this .. WHY? because when you are the most popular fighter on the planet and you can do what you want .. He was a cherry picker and that is ****ing that ... He took the SRL popular fighter blue print ( Hearns 2 , Hagler, Norris, LaLonde) and ran with it in the modern day technology.. BUT SRL has those great wins before these cherry picked fights .. Floyd doesn't ... ya he should have fought Manny in 2010 and Paul Williams , etc .. BUT he didnt ... cherry picker .. was PAC a cherry picker ? you see the difference now

 

I agree ATG means different things to different people. To me it roughly equates to top 100 p4p all time.

Whilst I disagree with some of the rankings, this is the most credible top 100 p4p list I've seen - https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/the-top-100-pound-for-pound-all-time-greats.459918/ - clearly it's from 10 years ago so we can't read anything into Canelo's exclusion. ODLH is at #74, which looks about right to me. I consider ODLH clearly greater than Canelo and so would most people. At #16, SRL is miles ahead of any bigger fighter FM went up in weight to beat.

Actually most people rank SRL above Pacquiao, but its immaterial when comparing Duran's win over SRL, because SRL was bigger than Duran, Mayweather bigger than Pacquiao.

Do you think Mayweather has a win(s) better than Duran's over SRL? If so, which?