Originally Posted by
ykdadamaja
Good contributions to this thread. But let us look at it in a Floyd Mayweather perspective- He had a HUGE gap in elite fighters after he fought Chico Corrales (RIP) and Oscar DLH- It wasn't until he beat Oscar that he was truly considered the best, and it was semi-best until Manny Pac lost to Morales and even then they still had Manny as a better fighter.
To me, if I had any sense, Floyd should have been ranked in the top spot over Mosely and Hopkins AND RJJ, ranked 1, 2 and 3 respectively, to be honest. But, such is life...
I think the first fight vs Jose Luis Castillo hurt Floyd, but prior to that I was waiting for the guy to make a splash but in order to do that you've got to string fights together which are high profile. Had he EASILY handled JLC then he would have been there. That 1 fight placed doubts in a lot of people's minds, he certainly redeemed himself in the rematch even if he didn't stop him but after that who did he gun for? There were plenty of stud young fighters ready to go and I know he had title defenses to make so I understand "you can't fight them all" but to go from Augustus, Corrales, El Famoso, Jesus Chavez, JLC, JLC II to Sosa, Ndou, Corley, Bruseles, Gatti, Mitchell and then Zab Judah coming off of a loss....he didn't even get back on track until he fought Baldomir and although Baldomir deserved the fight for beating Zab and Gatti he was not going to test Floyd.
Where's Margarito? Where's Cotto at 140 or 147 (in that time frame)? Where's Williams? Where's Hatton at 140? Where was Acelino Freitas? Where are these guys?
Floyd is a great fighter, but he never threw caution to the wind and tossed himself willingly into the lion's den....smart on his part, but hell I guess better to leave the fans wanting more....although I don't want another bullshit exhibition bout like he had vs Conor, he could make money just doing those to be honest, but try and tell the boxing world that's a real fight...0-0-0 vs 49-0-0 ...yeah HORSE SHIT.
Oh and just so nobody misunderstands, I did LOVE that Floyd gave Gatti the opportunity, that was a real life Rocky moment. Floyd the Apollo Creed to Gatti's Rocky, only there was no storybook ending for Arturo RIP. Arturo had a dramatic career, up and down, up and down, it was nice that a throwback fighter like him got a chance to shine in the spotlight. Floyd was simply too good for any version of Arturo.
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