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How Will Floyd’s Legacy Stand Up If He Retires After The De La Hoya Fight?
As Floyd Mayweather, Jr., steps through the ropes on May 5 to fight Oscar De La Hoya, for what he insists is his last professional fight, many will be wondering if Floyd will in fact retire regardless of the outcome and others will be trying to weigh up the legacy he would have left behind compared to that of previous greats.
“Pretty Boy” Floyd Mayweather first burst onto the professional boxing scene in 1996 against Roberto Apodaca, after enjoying a fabulous amateur career in which he won silver at the ’96 Olympics and various Golden Gloves tournaments. This was the first of many knockouts that he was to inflict onto his opponents throughout his 10 year climb through the 130 to147 pound divisions.
He now stands at 37-0 with 24 KO’s to his name, ranked by most as number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world, a fighter with world championship belts in four weight classes and with an upcoming bout with one of the great boxers of recent times in Oscar “The Golden Boy” De La Hoya.
For the purpose of this article, I am going to assume that Floyd wins this in impressive fashion by clearly winning a decision over Oscar; the question is where would this leave Floyd as an all time great?
Floyd would leave behind a record of 38-0, having won world titles in five weight divisions while dethroning opposition such as Oscar De La Hoya, Carlos Baldomir, Zab Judah, Arturo Gatti, Jesus Chavez, Jose Luis Castillo and Diego Corrales.
While this record on paper looks most impressive, Floyd would continue to have critics for not fighting the likes of Ricky Hatton, Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito. Many boxing fans also look to the fact that Floyd never participated in any rivalries. Mayweather fans will argue however that this is simply because Floyd so easily distinguishes himself from the rest of the pack.
Mayweather continuously reminds the public of the fact he wants to be remembered as one of the greatest if not “the” greatest to have ever stepped into a ring. This is obviously a hard feat to achieve, so in order to analyse his chances of being remembered at such high accord, we must compare him to other greats from the same weight group.
“Sugar” Ray Robinson: Ray Robinson is widely regarded as the best fighter pound-for-pound to ever lace on a pair of gloves, a notion seconded by Muhammad Ali without hesitation on many occasions. “Sugar” boasts a record of 173 wins, 19 losses and 6 draws, including 108 knockouts. Robinson went 40 professional fights without tasting defeat; this came against “The Raging Bull”, Jake Lamotta, who is regarded as a great fighter by most in the boxing world.
Robinson, unlike many, was not off put by defeat, and instead came back to beat Lamotta five times, in the process becoming only the second man to ever stop Jake. Robinson’s record is littered with great fighters, numerous world title victories at numerous weight classes and remarkably long unbeaten runs, surely putting him out of reach for Floyd.
“Sugar” Ray Leonard: A feat to Ray Robinson is that one of the greats of the lower to middle weight divisions, Ray Leonard, used his alias while crediting the original “Sugar Ray” as being without a doubt the greatest boxer of all time. Leonard came onto the scene and filled the void left by arguably boxing’s most colourful character, Muhammad Ali. Blessed with charisma, good looks, tremendous skills and a true fighting heart, Leonard took on the biggest and hardest challenges that many saw as impossible.
Ray Leonard retired on various occasions, however finally after Hector Camacho stopped him in 1997. In a career that spanned over 20 years, his final record stood at 36-3, with one draw and 25 KO’s. On paper, this record is a much less glamorous than Mayweather’s, but many believe that Leonard’s only real loss at his best came to Roberto Duran on 20 June, 1980 for the WBC Welterweight title.
Leonard opted to use flat footed tactics which were never known as his strength, made even worse by the fact that he was fighting one of the very best of all time brawlers in “Hands Of Stone”. “Sugar” Ray beat a number of Hall of Fame fighters over his career, participating in rivalries with all time greats such as Tommy “The Hitman” Hearns, “Marvelous” Marvin Hagler and Roberto “Hands of Stone” Duran in which he gained the advantage in all of these.
I see Ray Leonard as being remembered with higher regard than Floyd Mayweather due to the fact Leonard benefited from fighting in a greater era of boxers and dismantled some of the most dangerous fighters of all time, while picking up world titles in five different divisions from welterweight all the way up to light heavyweight.
Tommy “The Hitman” Hearns: Tommy Hearns was a 6 foot 2 inch welterweight with abnormally long arms and legs. This may, to the uneducated fan, make him sound very uncoordinated; however having this build gave Hearns a power advantage over anyone past or present, in my opinion, at welterweight. Hearns had great skill, immensely fast hands, a large arsenal of punchers, a huge overhand right and took on anybody.
Tommy’s greatest downfall was not one of his own fault, but was that of his chin, which when tasting punches from the elite had a tendency to give in.
This was certainly the case when fighting Ray Leonard and Marvin Hagler. Hearns currently retains a record of 67 fights, 61 wins, 5 losses, 1 draw and 48 KO’s, while perhaps not seeming the best, Hearns always fought the best opposition and won belts in four weight divisions in a career that began in 1977. Most recently, he won a tenth round TKO over Shannon Landberg in 2006.
I personally would consider Mayweather above Hearns in greatness, but I am not suggesting that I would pick Mayweather to win in a one on one fight, simply that as a boxer, Mayweather has less weaknesses and rose through the weights more effectively.
Pernell Whittaker: Next to be compared to the Pretty Boy is one that is very similar in terms of style, “Sweet Pea” Pernell Whittaker. Whittaker wasn’t a fighter blessed with power, but for anything he lacked in power he made up for in defence and other attributes. Whittaker was another of these fighters who will refuse to fight anything aside from the elite when he was his peak.
Pernell first became world lightweight champion in 1988 by winning a decision over Greg Haugan. He then went on to defend it nine times before stepping up and winning the light welterweight title, followed by the welterweight title, where he fought everyone on offer in which period also taking the light middle middleweight title from Julio Caesar Vazquez.
Whittaker clearly holds a record littered with great boxing credentials, however I would be inclined to say that Mayweather, despite quality of opposition, holds a record much less dented. In conclusion, I personally find this by far the hardest to split, perhaps because they boxed within time periods close to each other, where the opposition was not quite that of yesteryear. I rate “Sweet Pea” and the “Pretty Boy” on more or less even terms.
This article may come across as one to express my dislike for Floyd Mayweather, Jr., but in reality, it is far from it. I, in actual fact, am a very big Mayweather fan who I consider without doubt the best fighter on the planet at the moment and very skilled. However, if Floyd is seriously contemplating retiring after fighting Oscar De La Hoya this May and wants to be remembered as the greatest of all time, quitting the sport is the wrong way to go about it, especially when you look at the amount of great match ups out there for him still to have.
