I don't doubt that Mayweather out skilled Ricky, and to be fair I think Hatton was intimidated before he got in the ring with Floyd, but Ricky never cared about being undefeated. He cared about fighting until he got beaten, and then fighting some more. He wanted to fight the best men out there - one thing that Ricky knows is that he went as far as he possibly could. I think if Ricky had the Floyd Mayweather mentality, he probably wouldn't have got that incredible victory over Kostya Tszyu. When Floyd retires he won't know what Ricky knows. He won't who could beat him - he'll just pretend that he's unbeatable. Fact is that Mayweather's reputation would go up immeasurably if he just fought and got beaten. I'm not sure that his reputation will ever recover from the fact that the Manny fight never happened.
Hatton was a far bigger cherry picker than Floyd avoiding plenty of fights before and after he beat Tyszu. He didn't fight a top 10 guy until he faced the innactive Tyszu when he had 39 fights. Before then he dropped his British Belt to avoid his mandatory in Witter his biggest domestic rival that he avoided for 10 years and removed himself from the mandatory challengers position from the WBA and WBO to take lesser fights. He'd typically fight old past prime names and gatekeepers and fighters coming up in weight. After he beat Tyszu he went after the weakest titlists around in his division and WW. Comparatively Mayweather fought champions from around his 18th fight. Hatton also turned down the Mayweather fight 7 times according to Ray Hatton.
I think Hatton defended his second rate WBO strap against the same kind of opposition the other champions were facing. Sure it was was pure hometown stuff but these fights were good value against fighters looking to beat him. Many had been beltholders themselves. From a business sence he could have continued quite lucrativeley in the same direction but hungered for bigger names than witter. Hatton was something Khan and witter never will be, a british fighter who could beat great fighters and defeat mainstream defending champions at home and in America.
Nearly half of Floyd Mayweather's fights have been against former, future or current major world title holders. Nearly half of Floyd Mayweather's fights have been world title fights. In five weight classes. Damn his cherry-picking. Damn, damn, damn!
Floyd has never had the support and backing Ricky had at his peak. He was essentially a 'People's Champ'.
What's wrong with Floyd Mayweather? I can see why people might loathe his public persona . But inside the ring he's a master of his craft and -unlike Ricky- is always in shape ; Floyd never abused his body with booze,junk food and drugs.
Are you referring to the WBU strap? No most weren't champions and he only picked the weakest oldest champions for the most part. He fought 3 fighters above the level of Witter/Khan in his whole career, got destroyed by 2 of them and 1 of them had only fought 3 rounds in 2 years was 35 with an injured shoulder. Tyszu aside, Khan and Witter's resumes are as good as Hatton's.
Bull****, Mayweather has accomplished so much more, been in with better fighters and has far greater longevity.
