Floyd Mayweather takes swipe at Muhammad Ali while ranking greatest boxers

Floyd has a superb skill, no one questions his defensive ability or ring IQ being top 25 material.

It's when it comes to resume that things become iffy. Unlike Duran and Ali who have blockbuster signature wins against Leonard, Barkley, Foreman, Frazier, etc and who dominated 1 particular division for a long time with several defenses, Floyd's resume has strength in numbers and consistency (quantity over quality). He sorely lacks a signature win outside of schooling a young Canelo and an incredibly boring points win over a past it Pacquiao.

I give Floyd a pass to a degree since there weren't that many elite A class boxers in his divisions, but on the other hand Floyd can certainly blame himself for all the weasel tactics he did: strategically retiring or dropping belts when a division starts to heat up, letting fights build up and marinate or flat out refusing to face certain guys, etc.

Floyd also went out of the sport in a polarizing way. No one can get mad at him for retiring with his health and his wealth intact, but he didn't exactly "dare to be great" for one last hurrah against a hungry lion. Instead, he has a glorified sparring match with Andre Berto and his final match is a circus performance against 0 pro boxing fight experience McGregor for a huge pay day. Again, from a business point of view no one cam blame him, but as a fight fan I am very critical that he has the nerve to pick apart the resume of guys like Duran, Robinson, Chavez or Ali who dared to be great taking on a hungry young lions and succeeding. His own bitter rival Pacquiao did just that with the Thurman fight and is even considering going after Golovkin. Floyd made all sorts of excuses and deflection tactics to not fight any of the new crop of welterweights like Spence or Crawford. With Floyd it's business first, legacy 2nd and it will forever haunt him. He can say whatever he wants but it clearly bothers him that people don't place him at #1 despite his "perfect" record.

 

Foster didn`t weigh 175 when he fought Ali and neither did Ali, he had a heavyweight advantage, Foster looked far too slim to fight at heavy.

 

Yeah you’re missing the point...

 

In fairness, you probably just listed 3 of the top 5 or 6 best fighters that ever lived. That’s a pretty high bar.

 

You probably guessed, that's why I named them. I do put Floyd in the top 25 though, easy. He was a great fighter.

I think the thing that keeps me from criticizing Floyd's actual run of opponents is how many times I heard about how lame Larry Holmes' heyday was (as if that was his fault). The thing is, Larry fought young and hungry lions like Witherspoon, Smith , Bey, Ocasio, Berbick, Snipes. It makes me wonder about comparing those two in terms of competition.

I think @Glass City Cobra made some seriously relevant points here.

 

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I like iron Mike’s take on this.

 

I have no problem with putting Mayweather first on skill alone. But his opponents weren’t half as good as Ali’s. Ali has the best resume imo of any fighter ever. Hard to top wins over
Liston
Foreman
Frazier
Quarry
Moore
Machen
Bonavena
Williams
Chuvalo
Norton (who I had him beating in a very close fights)
Shavers
Lyle
Cooper
And we can keep going. Mayweather best wins are far fewer and most were against opponents out of prime.

 

I don't think he suggested he did?

 

He said Ali could have moved down to 175 to beat light heavies, fighting a light heavy at heavyweight has nothing to do with that, Foster wasn`t a light heavy when Ali beat him as he had put weight on and Ali didn`t move down to figt him, he had a clear weight advantage not a P4P fight etc.

 

Maybe.

 

Great fighter is Mayweather, though when I think of the absolute BEST he doesn't come into it for me...

he is among the greats of course, record wise, but better men than me can take the time to compare 'his' opponents to opponents of the Best... without thinking about it too hard, I'd say hundreds of other Top fighters fought more top men than Floyd, great fighter though...

kick in the balls, slap in the facecase as a person.

 

No ,he said this.

"Would Floyd have respected Muhammad more if he went down a weight class and butchered light heavyweights for giggles? Look what he did to arguably the H2H best light heavyweight..."

I know and you know he meant if he had fought the top light heavies.He wasn't entertaining the possibility that Ali would be able to make 175lbs.

 

"Hundreds" of boxers with a better resume than Mayweather? Really??

 

6 Divisions X thousands of fighters worldwide
8 Divisions X Tens of Thousand Fighters Worldwide
17 Divisions X Tens of Thousand Fighters Worldwide

150 Years X Tens of Thousand Fighters Worldwide

so yes, Yes, YES, you know how many Top & Great fighters that adds up to.
how anybody can get ridiculously wrapped up in modern day hype and achievement based comparatives based on a handful of fights is absolutely mental... there have been THOUSANDS of GREAT FIGHTERS, THOUSANDS over 150 years.

just look at Henry Armstrong alone when comparing to Floyd and Hurricane Hank was by No Means unique when it came to having dozens of GREAT Fighter Opponents.

YES, stop being CompuBox Ridiculous with all this foolishness, we can't even begin to measure with the amount of Great and top fighters who have EVER Graced a Boxing Ring... THOUSANDS!

 

I don't know, what this is supposed to prove!

But let me ask you a straight qustion: On a list of the best resumes ever - do you think Mayweather makes the Top-200?