None of those guys pose any risk of beating Mayweather so I'm not sure the point. Matthysse makes 140 comfortably, as does Garcia. I don't think they have even have the size to compete with Mayweather, let alone the skills. However, I would favor Matthysse over Khan and Garcia.
For "challenges" to Mayweather, I would say no one at junior welterweight or welterweight poses a challenge for Mayweather. For a challenge, he has to move up. For example, I would argue Martinez, Trout, Lara/Angulo winner, and Canelo are tougher challenges than Garcia, Matthysse and Khan.
We shouldn't consider Bradley because he's with Top Rank.
Good post. Floyds kind of between a rock and a hard place. Floyd is a natural weight fighter in a world of unnatural weight fighters. Floyd is expected to meet or beat the legacies of Leonard, Armstrong, Robinson and the like and yet those guys never had to deal with the fight weight disparity's of today. Sure there are exceptions like Greb beating some contending heavyweights along with Tunney once arguably twice and then Langfords roll through the divisions but they never had to deal with the science of massive rehydration.
Now when we move along in time and get to Armstrong he challenged Ross for the 147 title and weighed in under lightweight. But Ross weighed in at 142 and was probably under 147 at fight time.
When Robinson fought Lamotta, the first 3 times he weighed under 147 and Lamotta under 160 once and a tad over twice. Again I would wager that Jake never weighed much over what he weighed in at the night of the fight. When Leonard fought Hagler he had been retired for 3 years and essentially went out as a jr middle and he waited Marvin out a bit and Marvin was probably only 165 at fight time. Its the reason Marvin never fought Spinks. 175 was just to big for him.
Floyd is dealing with an entirely different animal today. He's already been fighting bigger guys since he moved to 147. Now he is expected to go fight guys that are close to light heavyweight the night of the fight. It's as if there is some internal objective to just see the guy lose at any cost. Just keep raising the bar.
Having finished that long winded diatribe I think you are right. I think he has to move up. There is already a kind of negative historic bias surrounding Floyd, some justified some not and if he just sits out his contract fighting no hopers then historians may not be so kind rightly or wrongly. I do however think that the winner of Lucas/Garcia would e a nice notch. I do not agree though that they are to small. Both I bet weigh more then Floyd on fight night also.
I'd make Khan a 60/40 favourite to beat Snr. His chances of beating Jnr are nil.
When God said to the both of us "Which one of you wants to be Sugar Ray?" I guess I didnt raise my hand fast enough
Charley Burley
No arguments there.
My view is that when talking about beating Mayweather with guys 147 or under, you're talking about a "puncher's chance", because nobody is going to outfox the guy. Khan, with his speed and combination punching, has much more of a chance to either land something meaningful or steal a few rounds with flashy combos. Guys like Matthyse and Garcia aren't going to land shit.
I want the Canelo fight. There's no one at 147 or below I'm really interested in seeing Mayweather against. Bradley was lucky to escape with victories over Pacquiao and Provodnikov.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Bookmarks