If Floyd never fights Shane........

I could care less in all honesty.. But he needs to be fighting Pac or Cotto..

 

Floyd is an incredible boxer but his cherrypicking and steadfast refusal to fight the best out there will be remembered and will tar his legacy.

I also agree with those posters who think Floyd would beat everyone at and south of 147; would just prefer him to prove it once and for all instead of cherrypicking, ducking and dodging.

 

If that fight never happens it will severely dent Mayweather's legacy in the long term. In time, only a handful of names will be remembered from this era, and Mosley will be one of them. Mosley has fought prime Oscar De La Hoya twice and prime Winky Wright twice, his credentials are in place. Who has Floyd ever fought of that calibre who were in their prime? I would say no-one. Castillo was good, but he wasn't as good as Winky and he certainly wasn't in the same league as Oscar. JLC is on a par with guys like Cotto (who Mosley also fought).

If this fight never happens, people will remember the names Mayweather and Mosley, they are two of the biggest names of the 2000s, but they will always query why those two never fought when they were in and around the welterweight division over a number of years, and considering the relative strengths of their resumes at and around welterweight, the suspicion will always (rightly, at least up to this point) fall on Floyd.

 

I think we'll have to be patient for this one.

Look at it from Floyd's point of view-

If he waits Mosley out and doesn't give him a fight, there's a strong chance Shane will fight Berto. This leads to either (1) Berto beats Mosley taking the shine of him and eliminating him from the equation. (2) Mosley beats Berto, adding the WBC belt to his WBA belt.

Benefits of Scenario 1:

- No need to fight Mosley. He's no longer relevant in the super-fight picture after being beaten by a 'green' Berto in his first big step up.

- Beating Berto now carries the reward of 2 welterweight belts WBC&WBA.

- Beating Berto takes on the angle of two unbeaten fighters (possibly fighting to unify all the belts, should Mayweather get a W against Pac/Cotto)

Benefits of Scenario 2:

- Again, he get's to fight for 2 belts instead of one.

- The Mosley fight becomes bigger than ever. (The last 2 men standing should Floyd beat the Pac-Cotto winner)

- Sugar Shane is another year older.

Additional reasons: Why would Floyd risk the biggest pay day available (Pac-Cotto winner) by fighting a hungry Mosley beforehand? Yeah, I know we all want him to take more risks. But every boxer out there makes the best decisions for his career from a business standpoint. It makes more sense to beat Pac/Cotto then Mosley as opposed to ~ Mosley followed by Pac/Cotto after. If Floyd signed up for a fight with Shane straight after fighting JMM, it would be for early 2010 at the earliest, pushing Floyd and Pacman's fight schedules off course. (I use Pacman as an example)

 

best post in the thread...:good

 

If you read what I wrote, I was indicating I thought Floyd would be remembered worse... and this was meant to be a bit of a shot at how memory gets distorted, as Hagler was obviously the best MW at the time. My mistake, too much subtlety.

And the Lalonde mess, BigReg nailed it - putting a belt on the line at a weight you're not fighting at is bull**** plain and simple.

 

So who in the hell would floyd fight then?? at least by fighting mosley, cotto, pac and any other WELTERWEIGHT champ or contender, he can say he at least fought the best in his time. Since in your view WW is weaker now than 2 years ago, are you saying that floyd ducked the best at WW 2 years ago..wait it out a lil bit then come back when its weak, cause that would make him a coward.

 

too little too late. beating shane now if he can wouldn't mean as much. that said i think shane would cause pbf trouble with his speed and power. if he can stop margo "although margo could not get out of the way" he can stop floyd. but floyd is slick and fast as well.

 

to the poster of this thread, what do you think is gonna happen?? the haters are gonna say floyd beat a past his prime shane mosley should they ever fight and should floyd put on yet another one sided performance. and if floyd ever fought cotto, they'll make it a weight issue, or if he fought and beat pac, pac had a re-occuring injury prior to one of his training sessions that know one except the haters know about. there is always gonna be a reason for floyds victories. the haters will find the most trivial of reasons to why floyd beat top competition.

 

Mayweather challenges Mosley in 1999 when Mosley was at 135. Instead Mosley decided to move up to 147 to eventually fight DLH for a bigger pay day. Mosley could have fought PBF first then moved up to fight DLH.

I don't blame Mosley for this move as it was a smart business decision.

Mayweather then states in around 2001 that he is eventually going to move up to welterweight to fight Mosley at welterweight. PBF in 2005 fights his first fight at welter. Mosley then decides to stay at middle weight (as he fought his previous 2 fights at a catch weight at 148) in order to fight Vargas 2 times taking up his whole yr for I guess big money.

Again I don't blame Mosley for this move as it was a smart business decision. Vargas was an easier opponent in an critical low point of Mosley's career and couldn't afford another loss which is why he took steroids vs DLH and fought Vargas instead of PBF.

Pacman passed over Mosley who would have agreed to fight him at 140 and make less money in the purse split in order to fight Cotto.

Everyone makes decisions that make the most business sense. If PBF doesn't fight Mosley its because Mosley didn't fit into his business sense. Just like PBF didn't fit into Mosley's earlier in his career. Just like Mosley might not fit into Pacman's either.

 

Floyd won't ever fight Shane. No matter if Shane beats Berto or loses to him.(Berto is a Dangerous fight for Mosley because of youth) It just isn't happening. Floyd will fight Pacquiao if Pacquiao wins and then he'll retire again. If Cotto wins, Mayweather will probably either fight him or just not fight anymore. It is just the facts. Floyd doesn't want anything to do with Shane. Call it scared or whatever. He and his people are just not receptive to the fight. Which is unfortunate because it has the makings of a classic.
Here are the facts. Floyd is future 1st ballot Hall of Famer and so is Shane Mosley. And if Floyd wants to prove he is one the greatest of all time he needs to fight guys with Mosley's credentials and currently the only other guy with those is Pacquiao.

 

Yep.

 

Very well said. A dominant win over Shane would do wonders for the credibility of Floyd's welterweight resume, probably even more than a win over Pacquiao. Sure Pacquiao is a better fighter right now, but he's even less a true welterweight than Hatton was.

 

Fighting shane wont do nothing to his resume and even if he beats him hes not going to get full credit because the haters will come out and say he was past his prime.A perfect example is when Joe Calzaghe beat B Hop and Roy Jones !!!! nobody gave him credit because both fighters were past their prime !!!

 

Roy hadn't done anything significant in years. Shane has. And Calzaghe got some credit for beating Bernard, the reason he didn't get more is because the fight was close and ugly as sin.

I think Floyd could beat Shane relatively cleanly.