Is There Anything Mayweather Can Do To Be G.O.A.T?

On the other hand, we could ask why wasn't Floyd prepared to fight the same version of Pacquiao that Cotto, DeLaHoya and Hatton faced ?

 

I don't understand? He was.. he wanted a simple drug test which shows both people are on a level playing field win or lose.. :S

 

Well despite what all these other clowns say, for Pretty Boy to be brought into a Sugar Ray Leonard\Robinson conversation he absolutely has to win a undisputed middle crown. End of Story. Not fighting and beating Pacman hurts him in this discussion also.

 

Go up to heavy, KO1 Vitali and Wlad, and stay unbeaten until he's 57 years old with a 68-0 record.

 

Boxing is like no other sport.

Swimming records will be broken.

Sprinting records will be broken.

Sports science, nutrition and training equipment etc, all play a huge part.


But just because Usain Bolt is the fastest man to ever live, it doesn't mean that today's fighters are better than their predecessors as a whole, and that skills have improved.

A fighter has to master a whole range of skills and techniques such as:

Jabbing
Hooking
Slipping
Throwing body punches
Throwing uppercuts
Timing
In fighting
Etc.

I believe that body punching, and in fighting aren't as common as what they once were.

I did a thread earlier this year titled - Have boxing skills progressed, or have they regressed?

I'll bump it, if you're interested.

Some weight classes were weaker in the past, and some were stronger.

Nobody can say that boxers have improved as a whole over their predecessors, otherwise that would mean that today's boxers were the best ever.

If fighters got better every decade, then today's guys would be the greatest of all time across each weight class.

But that is clearly not the case.

Who do you think would win these fights below?:


At LW

Duran vs Gamboa/Burns/Vazquez
Armsrtrong vs Gamboa/Burns/Vazquez
Pernell Whitaker vs Gamboa/Burns/Vazquez
Benny Leonard vs Gamboa/Burns/Vazquez


At LWW

Aaron Pryor vs Peterson/Garcia/Khan/Matthysse
Cervantes vs Peterson/Garcia/Khan/Matthysse
Chavez Jr vs Peterson/Garcia/Khan/Matthysse
Benitez vs Peterson/Garcia/Khan/Matthysse


At WW

Armstrong vs Floyd/Bradley/Alexander/Pac/JMM
SRR vs Floyd/Bradley/Alexander/Pac/JMM
SRL vs Floyd/Bradley/Alexander/Pac/JMM


At LMW

McCallum vs Canelo/Trout/Lara
Hearns vs Canelo/Trout/Lara
Norris vs Canelo/Trout/Lara
De La Hoya vs Canelo/Trout/Lara
Trinidad vs Canelo/Trout/Lara


At MW

Hopkins vs GGG/Martinez/Quillin/Sturm/Murray/Barker
Ketchell vs GGG/Martinez/Quillin/Sturm/Murray/Barker
Monzon vs GGG/Martinez/Quillin/Sturm/Murray/Barker
Greb vs GGG/Martinez/Quillin/Sturm/Murray/Barker
SRR vs GGG/Martinez/Quillin/Sturm/Murray/Barker
Hagler vs GGG/Martinez/Quillin/Sturm/Murray/Barker


At LHW

Foster vs Stevenson/Bute/Kovalev
Spinks vs Stevenson/Bute/Kovalev
Tunney vs Stevenson/Bute/Kovalev
Moore vs Stevenson/Bute/Kovalev
Charles vs Stevenson/Bute/Kovalev
RJJ vs Stevenson/Bute/Kovalev


At HW

Lewis vs Wlad/Vitali/Fury/Haye/Povetkin
Frazier vs Wlad/Vitali/Fury/Haye/Povetkin
Foreman vs Wlad/Vitali/Fury/Haye/Povetkin
Holmes vs Wlad/Vitali/Fury/Haye/Povetkin
Ali vs Wlad/Vitali/Fury/Haye/Povetkin
Tyson vs Wlad/Vitali/Fury/Haye/Povetkin
Holyfield vs Wlad/Vitali/Fury/Haye/Povetkin
Louis vs Wlad/Vitali/Fury/Haye/Povetkin

 

Great post! :good

 

Seriously stop with the Floyd hate the man is easily a top 25 fighter, undefeated 44- 0, champion at 5 weights, beaten, Corrales, Cotto, Mosley, Hernandez, JMM, ODLH. Not only has he beaten these guys he has totally and utterly dominated them, in terms to skill set he is a top ten all time, i agree however he isnt top 10, i would have him around number 15. Seriously people need to stop with the hate and understand how good floyd is, No he wont ever be the GOAT but i think he could be top 10, beat Canelo, Pacman, Bradley, GGG, Martinez and he will be in my top 10

 

I respect your opinion.

When you say that you think that the skill level of previous generations isn't comparable today, do you mean as a whole?

I'd like to hear more.

See post 114.

 

He didn't dominate Castillo or Oscar, and do you seriously think he'd fight Golovkin or anyone at 160?

 

True he didnt dominate Castillo but i had him winning fairly wide vs Oscar, its just people are asking to much of the guy before giving him credit, He is a champion at 5 weights not like he has never moved up and fought bigger guys,Pep is a top 10 fighter but only a champion at 1 weight, same with Jimmy Wilde ect to suggest that Floyd needs to fight guys at 160 or 168 to be at top 25 fighter or top 10 is unfair

 

It wasn't as simple as that Danny.

Manny wasn't asked to do anything.

Big Floyd labelled him as a dirty cheat, without an ounce of proof, and then Floyd issued testing demands, up to the day of the fight.

Manny's name was dragged through the mud, and in the end he sued for defamation of character.

Manny agreed to be randomly blood and urine tested, but not up to the day of the fight.

Floyd at that point should have let Manny have the cut off days that he required, which included random urine tests at any point, and a blood and urine test directly after the fight.

But Floyd wouldn't meet Manny half way.

Everything had to be Floyd's terms.

So Manny never refused the tests. He refused the cut off days.

There was no reason for Floyd not to allow him the cut off days.

JMM has fought Manny four times without any issue, as well as a host of other fighters.

In the end, Manny agreed to EVERYTHING, and 45% of the purse.

But instead of Floyd being happy, and trying to make the fight, he wanted to to keep the entire PPV revenue from a fight that had realistic expectations of grossing between $200-300m.

It was a joke, and it showed me that he was never serious about making the fight.

 

There is nothing he can do (realistically) to secure GOAT status or even become 'part of that conversation' as you term it.

There are several barriers to him achieving that status.

1) He probably does not have the greatest skillset of all time. (Though he's probably somewhere in the top 10 skillwise.)

2) He hasn't fought enough. With eight fights in the past seven years, he simply has not been busy enough.

And some of those fights have been against less than first class opposition. If he's fighting three or four times a year, then a Guerrero or a little JMM or an Ortiz might be justifiable as a keep-busy effort, but at the rate of one-per-year, if he were chasing GOAT status, every fight would need to be a major marquee event.

3) He ducked the one guy who might have beaten him when it mattered. He deprived the boxing fan public of a bout that would have been on a level with SRL-Hearns and FOTC. You can argue all day (and many do) that the blame falls equally on Pac and/or Arum etc, but the overwhelming majority of name boxers and others in the sport place most of the blame for this on Floyd, either for reasons of fear of losing his zero, or misjudged negotiating tactics or whatever.

This kind of thing doesn't bode well for surpassing Robinson, Greb, Langford, Ali, Duran etc, guys who took on all comers.

The sad part of that (from Floyd's POV) is that he would probably have won the fight.


4) Floyd is explicit in stating that $$$$$ feature more in his thinking than legacy. That is a legit position to take, but it does interfere with any pursuit of GOAT status.




If he beats Canelo and finishes out his Showtime, contract with reasonably decent opposition (and wins !), he will probably, in time, crack the top 25, maybe 20.

If he were to add GGG and Sergio to his resume and make one or two decent defences at 160, then he would be knocking on the door of the top ten or twelve.




While I don't believe GOAT was ever in the cards for Floyd, I think he could have finished considerably higher had he made some different choices.

 

Testing was just a roadblock. When PAC agreed to testing / Floyd : I'm a coward.

 

:rofl


Calzaghe ?

Why not shore it up some and add Lennox (no catchweight) ?


Or remove all doubt, and take away Marciano's zero.

 

I agree entirely.

You simply can't compare boxers with athletes from other sports.

Usain Bolt's sprinting from A to B against a clock.

He's not trying to time somebody who's trying to take his head off.