Is Floyd "Money" Mayweather Jr. the G.O.A.T?

[People's Champ]

Ok so this came up on Jim Rome is Burning. Check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lkChqwJ3kc&feature=youtube_gdata


Ok so obviously Money truely believes he is the G.O.A.T. He seems to get irratated that Rome is even debating him about this topic. Rome brings up Ali and Sugar Ray and the opposition they faced. Then Money questions what's so great about them. My question is where do you rank Floyd Money Mayweather Jr.? Do you consider him the G.O.A.T? If not, where does he rank among the greatest to ever step in the squared circle?

In my opinion, its a hell no to him being the greatest. His skill, footwork, speed, all can't be denied. However his ducking opponents is a huge problem. Look at the big names he has fought. Oscar De La Hoya? Aging fighter. Rickey Hatton? Vastly undersized. Shane Mosely? Well if you saw the fight, he is a fighter who also is aging and should now retire. The problem is two of those guys were far from their prime. He has managed to avoid Cotto, Margarito, Clottey, and of course PacMan. His quality of opponents is subpar at best. To be considered the greatest you have to fight the best. Money has found a way to bypass that. Ali never backed down or tried to use some excuse to back out of a fight.

(That's exactly what Money did. All of a sudden he wants to use Olympic style testing, something that has never been used in boxing nor has he ever asked for. It was a calculated way to avoid fighter a fighter who could challenge him in speed in speed but dominate in power.)

So where does Money rank in your mind? On your list of Greatest boxers, does Money top that list?

 

[jmt225]

All the great fighters have legendary fights and historic opponents. Floyd Mayweather Jr., however, does not, and in my opinion... that does keep him from being Pound 4 Pound the greatest to ever step through those ropes. Is he one of the greatest? Sure, but THE greatest? No.

The problem with Floyd is he fights in a way that's defensive, so the majority of his fights end up being unexciting, especially since it's rare for him to knock an opponent out. Moreover, the fact that he hasn't beaten a true great in their prime hurts him as well. Oscar De La Hoya... when Floyd got a controversial split decision victory over him, Oscar was winding his career down. Ricky Hatton... another guy who's career was winding down at that point. Shane Mosley... another one. And besides Hatton, none of these guys are truly great. Oscar was a draw like fuck, but he really wasn't this spectacular fighter. And Mosley... he had people's respect, but no one ever really considered him one of the best ever, and his performance against Mayweather showed that against a great fighter, he didn't have much to offer.

Now, if Floyd is able to beat Pacquiao... then my opinion might change. Pacquiao is a true great, and a victory over him would be a HUGE for Mayweather's legacy. For one, if he's able to beat Pacquiao the same way he did Hatton and Mosley, then that shows that Floyd was just great, not just beating guys past their primes. Plus, if it's a close fight, then it'll undoubtedly be an exciting one as well, which again... that's something that hurts Mayweather's legacy as well.

So, yeah... basically, to sum it up, if Mayweather fights Pacquiao and wins, then and only then will I even consider him in the discussion as THE greatest of all time. Right now Floyd is a top 10, maybe top 5, but it'll take a victory over Pacquiao for me to truly believe he's the greatest of all time.

 

[People's Champ]

I agree with everything you said jmt. He's missing that historic fight, which he could get by fighting PacMan. That fight needs to happen. And he has big chance of beating him. If he can do that then he has a real argument to being considered top fighter of all time. But until then he's not in the discussion.

 

[Super Hans]

Mayweather is not even in my top 20 all time.Even if he beat Pac,he would struggle to break into my top 10.It is insane to think that he could be considered by anyone G.O.A.T.By anyone other than himself.

Floyd is a cherrypicker who will forever be known as ducking his main opponents at 140 and above.And even a victory over Pac wont change this.

To me hes not even the greatest of our generation,this guy is

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMu1dqrR7Rk&feature=related

Rjj Now thats a highlight reel

To put RJJ stats into todays light for all the the boxing noobs.He won a world title at super-middleweight and won titles all the way up to heavyweight!Thats like Mikkel Kessler moving up through the weights winning belts all the way up.And boy could he close the show.

 

[jmt225]

Listen, I LOVE Roy Jones Jr. He is in my top three favorite fighters of all time, but NO WAY should anyone consider him better than Floyd Mayweather Jr.

The fact of the matter is, RJJ beat mostly cans throughout his career as well. Guys who were actually even worse than most of the guys Floyd has victories over. That's why someone like RJJ could have a highlight reel like that... he fought, for the most part, bums. Not his fault, but during the nineties Boxing was really running short of Middleweight and Light Heavyweight fighters.

Also, the fact that RJJ's career has gone on such a down path since the Antonio Tarver knockout hurts his case as well. I mean, not only did he loss to Tarver twice in dominating fashion, but RJJ also got knocked out by a journeyman in Glen Johnson (no boxing fight ever made me as depressed as this one did), and got knocked out by a no-name in the 1st Round. I mean, man... it sucks that all that happened, but it did, and most likely... Mayweather is never going to lose a fight in the fashion RJJ did in those fights, especially against those caliber of opponents.

 

[Loveless]

Pacquiao is a true great

You just caused me to choke on my cereal. He is not, he's nowhere near and everything you've said about Mayweather's legacy being questionable applies double to Pacquiao. He beat a broken down De La Hoya, he beat an equally broken down Hatton, he beat a Cotto who hasn't been the same since losing to Margarito.
Now as for Mayweather, the problem with comparing legacies these days is that the divisions aren't as compact anymore. Instead of having 5 great fighters in one weight class, they'll now be spread out over 4 or 5 weights which helps no-one and means you'll have to move through them, which is exactly what Mayweather has done. You can only beat the people who actually want to fight you and as far as I'm concerned, that P4P champ stature put a lot of people off wanting to get in the ring with him.
Is he the G.O.A.T? It's difficult to say because of how the game changes through the weights. Personally I'd say no, that title will likely always belong to Sugar Ray Robinson. Mayweather is probably somewhere inside my Top 10, certainly the best boxer in the world today without any doubt. I'm really looking forward to his fight against Pacquiao because Pac's defence (which is not good) is going to get massacred.

 

[jmt225]

You just caused me to choke on my cereal. He is not, he's nowhere near and everything you've said about Mayweather's legacy being questionable applies double to Pacquiao. He beat a broken down De La Hoya, he beat an equally broken down Hatton, he beat a Cotto who hasn't been the same since losing to Margarito.

He's still the closest to a great Mayweather could come to face right now in his career. That's indisputable.

You can only beat the people who actually want to fight you and as far as I'm concerned, that P4P champ stature put a lot of people off wanting to get in the ring with him.

This I can agree with, but one thing about Mayweather that hurts his case as well is that he has ducked fighters in the past, that he had doubts against. The most obvious is Paul Williams. Paul Williams was able to make the cut to 145 (he might still can, not sure) and was BEGGING Mayweather to fight him, but Mayweather never accepted. Plus, the whole "drug test" crap with Pacquiao could be looked at as Mayweather ducking another opponent too.

The true greats never duck fighters; Mayweather is guilty of doing that though, which is another reason why fighting Pacquiao is very important, otherwise people will look at it as Mayweather being scared to fight him and ducking yet another opponent (though most casual fans don't know the Paul Williams deal, unfortunately).

Personally I'd say no, that title will likely always belong to Sugar Ray Robinson.

This, I completely, 100% agree with.

 

[INDYjon22]

Man, I have made it clear that I am no expert on the world of boxing but, and I cannot stress this enough, in my opinion Floyd Mayweather may be a top 10 of all time but I don't view him as THE greatest of all time. When I think greatest of all time names like Joe Frazier, Muhammad Ali and Rocky Marciano come to mind, not Mayweather. I feel as though the quality of opponents those men faced in contrast to the quality of Mayweather's opponents were greater and thus puts them ahead of him. Now, I have though about this and if Mayweather finally fights Pacquiao and can beat him then I will certainly have to move him into the top 5 of all time, but I just cannot justify placing him in front of Ali, Frazier or Marciano, especially Marciano who I do view is the greatest ever.

 

[Loveless]

He's still the closest to a great Mayweather could come to face right now in his career. That's indisputable.

At this moment in time yes but for my money, beating De La Hoya will always be more important to his legacy than beating Pac.

This I can agree with, but one thing about Mayweather that hurts his case as well is that he has ducked fighters in the past, that he had doubts against. The most obvious is Paul Williams. Paul Williams was able to make the cut to 145 (he might still can, not sure) and was BEGGING Mayweather to fight him, but Mayweather never accepted.

I think you've got something of a point here and I can see why Mayweather ducked him (literally, there's quite a size difference) but really, who has Paul Williams beaten? He's not exactly a big name.

Plus, the whole "drug test" crap with Pacquiao could be looked at as Mayweather ducking another opponent too.

Ah now this is interesting. I've heard differing things on the details but I can see why Mayweather wants testing, Pacquiao has showed dramatic improvement in his recent fights compared to how he was before. Frankly I was suspicious of him before Floyd asked for these tests.

 

[jmt225]

At this moment in time yes but for my money, beating De La Hoya will always be more important to his legacy than beating Pac.

You might have a point, but that win was very controversial, and we never did get a rematch. I think the fact that it was so close, yet a rematch was never worked out, also hurt Mayweather's legacy a bit.

Now, had he completely dominate De La Hoya like he did Hatton and Mosley, then yes... you'd have a very strong point.

I think you've got something of a point here and I can see why Mayweather ducked him (literally, there's quite a size difference) but really, who has Paul Williams beaten? He's not exactly a big name.

He's beaten guys Mayweather has beaten, such as Sharmba Mitchell (first name that comes to mind, but I'm sure there's a couple of more). Antonio Margarito, Winky Wright, and Sergio Martinez are his biggest victories though, and those guys aren't exactly bums.

Ah now this is interesting. I've heard differing things on the details but I can see why Mayweather wants testing, Pacquiao has showed dramatic improvement in his recent fights compared to how he was before. Frankly I was suspicious of him before Floyd asked for these tests.

I can see it as well, but Pacquiao should only be mandated to do the test(s) the state athletic commission commands him to do; he shouldn't be asked by his own opponent to do "this" and "that" kind of testing, and the fact that he's asked that makes his opponent look scared.

And while I also think it's possible that Manny juiced, I'm sure Mayweather watched Manny's fights with Hatton and Cotto and said to himself, "I can beat that guy." It shouldn't matter if Manny has used steroids, Mayweather should have the confidence to beat the guy he saw fight Hatton and Cotto, and if he doesn't take the fight, then that means he doesn't believe he can beat Pacquiao, which in turns makes me believe that Mayweather wouldn't be able to beat him.

 

[Ty Burna]

Mayweather is a hell of a boxer, if you watched his last fight with Mosley you saw a more aggressive Mayweather that was going for the KO rather than toying with his opposition like he normally would. If Mayweather would have fought like this all the time, I think I could hold him up in higher regard.

That being said, he's not the greatest fighter of all time. Not now, not ever, not even if he beat Pac I doubt his credentials as one of the greatest. Like JMT said, he's known to duck fights with people that have the ability to beat him, and pounded on boxing legends that were in the twilight of their careers. Pacquiao is probably the only legitimate threat left to Floyd and we all saw what happened when they tried to get a fight together.

I think another problem is, there just isn't the talent level in boxing like there used to be. You have a handful of fighters that are talented, a number of boxers who are good but can't hold a candle to the great fighters. Is that Floyd's fault? It's not, as the popularity of MMA has pulled fighters away from the sport of boxing, but at the same time Floyd has tried to stay away from the great fighters of his generation until their time is up such as De La Hoya and Hatton. Pacquiao is in his prime and if Floyd can defeat him, then I would say that he could be considered the best P4P fighter of his generation. Of all time? I'd say not.