Some people say Floyd Mayweather is the GOAT at Lightweight. What makes people say that, and do you agree?
Won the lineal title and defended it 8 times. Amassed that great title run, five of the opponents of which are very notable, in a matter of I believe it was only 3 years: Genaro Hernandez; undefeated at the weight which he is among the top 10 SFW ever, and clearly in my opinion Angel Manfredy; ranked #3 at SFW Diego Corrales; ranked #5 P4P and #1/2 at SFW Carlos Hernandez; fixture of top 10 at SFW for the few years before/after Jesus Chavez; ranked #4 at SFW, fixture of the top 10 at SFW for the few years before/after edit: Genaro was the lineal/WBC champ, just to clarify Carlos Hernandez was ranked #8 entering the fight Carlos Gerenad was ranked #9 entering the fight
Tho he spent a very short time at lw, gotta give him respect for going straight to the dragon's mouth and facing the cream of the crop, Floyd went after the best lightweight in the world at the time. Tho most thought he lost, he set the record straight in the rematch, which was also an immediate rematch, so credit to Floyd for facing his toughest opponent yet again. But no, greatest LW honors usually goes to Duran and his reign of terror in the 70's or the old master Benny Leonard.
He's top 5 at lightweight but definitely not the best. At mentioned before SFW was his division to rule.
Anyone who says Floyd is GOAT at LW has never seen Duran at that weight. His punches were so crisp his speed so fast that I honestly think, one of the few cases to see this (other being Tommy Hearns, Ray Leonard) that Floyd would get knocked out at LW
There is a difference between Lightweight and Super Featherweight! 135 pounds is not the same as 130 pounds. Mayweather is the or one of the best ever at SFW. Mayweather isn't among the 50 best at LW. He only had 5 fights there, three of which were irrelevant in the grand scheme of the division's history.
He's gotta be in the conversation, but when you're talking about a weightclass that saw a prime JCC, Duran, a prime Hank Armstrong, Pacquiao etc and so on I don't think you can definitively pick a greatest. Any of those guys can beat anyone in history on any given night.