Your 1st Impression of Floyd Mayweather

I first saw him on tv during the '96 Olympics.

I thought he was going to be a very good pro, because I could see he had Roy Jones like extraordinary speed and reflexes.

I did not imagine he would go is whole career undefeated. Usually, even the best guys fight one fight too many.

 

My first impression of him was that he was very talented, quick with decent power. I'd like to see him against Zab Judah. He's one of HBO's rising star prospects, but the commentators are kissing his ass entirely too much. I hate when they do that. They were just making this Pacquiao guy out to be a mini Mike Tyson but then he couldn't get that Marquez fella out of there and wound up with a draw. The hype machine around here is crazy.

 

Which he very well might still do because l doubt the last chapter of his career has been written. I'm sure he has at least one more fight in him.

 

AMEN, Floyd is like that new car, of course everyone loves the new car,and want to forget the old. Mayweather is a extremely and well schooled fighter. Theirs no one on this planet honest with self can deny that.BUT..... For me its not how many fighters you beat, but who did you beat. And better when did you beat them. Other than C****o, who was close to his prime when Floyd defeated him? And C****o isnt special but well managed. Just Like Floyd.Floyd in my opinion is a well schooled fighter in todays game were most of the other fighters we see are very limited. Boxing is ( and I hate saying this) A dieing game, esp here in America. Most of the great old trainers are gone, replaced by men who really are just Cheerleaders and followers. There are a few exceptions. But very few. In my area alone most of the boxing gyms are closed. Johnny Obriens in this imeadieate area. 5th street and Varricks down south. Replaced by MMa and Karate studios. Or Bayside lol. So guys today are not really well schooled. A lot of guys are coming from other sports, esp the heavys and are being successful because the competition is so bad.So in closing I can see obviously Floyd is very talented, and well schooled. But if you never really been in the fire with a fighter just as skilled how can one really consider him the G.O.A.T? Floyd is a great fighter in a era of average fighters, or guys past their prime..... In a sport that dying a very slow and agonizing death. Is he great sure, is he the greatest of all time. Not close.Could he have been? Sure he could've. But he also could've ended up like so fighters from the past, in when the fire started to get really hot, they couldnt past the test. Just unfortunate( but fortunate for him) we'll never know.

 

I remember reading a write up in RING about the 1996 US Olympic team and thinking, based on what I read, that Floyd might be one to watch. First time that I remember watching him fight was on the undercard of Morales-Zaragoza, when he yo-yo'ed fringe contender Louie Leija in two...in the latter's hometown. Was impressed with what I saw, and realized then that he had the potential to develop into something really special.

 

My first impressions were that he was extremely sharp and accurate.

My opinion of him now is that he is truly one of the special boxers of all time, and he receives way more criticism than he deserves.

 

When he first started being recognized as a fabulous fighter you had to think the sky was the limit.

The Corrales fight was his coming out party. That's when we knew he was extremely talented and then he beat Castillo.

Go back into a time machine to the year 2003. If you were to say his best future career win would be a 147 Ricky Hatton you would have been laughed off the forum.

The first impression of Mayweather was the best impression of Mayweather. He could have been so unbelievably great.

 

I first saw Floyd fight with Genaro Hernandez in 1998. The defense and precise punching got my attention right away. He could school fighters but do so in a way with knocking their heads off or dishing out vicious punishment. I thought he would be someone who appealed to the hardcore fans but lack mainstream recognition. My first thoughts were that he was brilliant in the ring but lacked that personality and star quality attraction. I recall him getting on the mic and being forgettable (i.e. until he started selling that Money May persona).

 

First fight I saw in full of his was Diego Corrales.

My immediate thoughts were this:

-He's a top p4p candidate with Jones, Tito, and Mosley
-He will be the fighters of the 00s
-He will be an ATG

I was in complete and utter awe

 

Phenomenal. Worthy of the hype.

Up until say 2004/5 it looked liked that if he'd carry on the way he was going about his business (actually wanting to hurt people but totally outclassing them, too) then he'd never NOT be entertaining. That came to an abrupt end in 2007.

Haven't been a fan of him since.

But from the 90's to '05 he was truly special.

I still love watching his fights up until say 2001 as he was truly incredible back then. Bit of a circus now.

 

When I first saw him against Angel manfrady I was impressed by his speed and accuracy didn't think he could stop Angel like he did .his defense was excellent reminded me of sweet pea. someone who doesn't get hit usually have a long career .Thought he would be around a long time.

 

I became vaguely aware of his name roughly turn of the century, which is when I started to morph from a casual fan into a diehard (having followed pretty much exclusively Mike Tyson in my childhood, with a rudimentary understanding of the classic game and having the names of 10 or 15 random ATG's drilled into my head by my dad, finally transitioning via the red-hot featherweight division then exploding on HBO with guys like MAB, Hamed, Tapia and Morales serving as my gateway to more serious fandom) as his name was pretty ubiquitous and constantly on the lips of Jim Lampley...whom I'm pretty sure I spent a long time believing was then in charge of calling every single televised or important fight.

It was always spoken of with this bizarre mix of begrudging yet awed respect and scorn, even in those days, which I find odd as his style in the late nineties and early aughts was a lot more exciting (and his persona much realer and humbler) than would be the case a decade later, when the vitriol became more understandable. Lampley and to a much greater extent Merchant always kinda had it out for Mayweather.

First time actually seeing him fight was sometime before the jump to lightweight, and first one I remember viewing live while having a clear idea who Floyd was heading in was JLC I. Chico was a name I knew of (in fact, he was a bigger name to a casual) so it was a big deal when Mayweather beat him, but I can't remember whether I saw it live or have just seen it so many times it feels like I did. Either that, Augustus, or Chavez. Around then.

 

...and now that I think of it, really, I'm not sure what I did or didn't see live in those days, as it might not have occurred to me until a bit into the new millennium that fights typically aired live on Saturdays. I think I was just up late most every night watching HBO and would every once in a while be like "Oh hey- boxing! Woohoo!" - meaning a lot of what I caught was likely replays. It wasn't like I was having results spoiled on the internet or anything. :yep

 

He was as dominant at 130 as I've ever watched

 

Mayweather was heavily hyped coming out of the Olympics, but early on I saw him mostly as Roger Mayweather's nephew.

Many people forget today just what a top fighter Roger was - his chin wasn't great, but boy could he punch.

I'd rather watch a Roger Mayweather fight any day of the week.