Floyd is Out!

So Floyd Mayweather has retired. Again. Most of the boxing press seems to think he’s serious this time. Assuming he is, where does Floyd stack up against the giants of his era? In terms of raw talent, I’d say second only to Roy Jones, Jr. He was a brilliant technician with lighting hands. Of course, boxing greats are not made on talent alone, but on their willingness to test themselves, and to shine in their biggest fights. Here, Floyd falls short of the all-time greats, and many of his contemporaries. He never looked for the biggest challenge the way Marco Antonio Barrera, Manny Pacquiao, and Erik Morales did, not too mention Sugar Ray Leonard or Tommy Hearns. Floyd has some huge wins on his ledger, but most come with a “but.” He dominated Diego Corrales, but Chico was starched going in and had a lengthy prison sentence awaiting him afterward. He owns a pair of wins over José Luis Castillo, but the first was a gift and the second was a track meet. Floyd beat De la Hoya, but Goldie had fought just once in three years before that, and the fight had all the passion of a game of gin rummy. In one of the best welterweight eras ever, Mayweather shied away from the toughest fights later in his career. I will always remember him as the man who turned down a guaranteed $8 million to fight Antonio Margarito, as the man that opted for Ricky Hatton instead of Miguel Cotto. The list of hall-of-famers he could have fought but didn’t is likely to be as long as the list of those he did.