The Mayweather double standard.

[piye]

Mayweather-Pacquiao: The Double Standard

By Michael Herron:

The highly anticipated return of Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and Manny Pacquiao's dramatic knockout of Ricky Hatton has ignited the boxing world and sparked a great debate; fight fans are anxious to know which guy is the best, who is truly the top pound-for-pound fighter in the world? Pound-for-pound by definition was created to describe a fighter with great skill who can move up and down the scales, challenge fighters in multiple weight classes, and continue to perform and be just as successful as they would at their optimal weight. With this in mind, both fighters fit the description well, but in terms of acknowledging pound-for-pound greatness, there appears to be a double standard in favor of Manny Pacquiao.

Floyd Mayweather, Jr. has won titles in five weight classes, 130, 135, 140, 147, 154, yet none of his ring accomplishments are without criticism from the boxing media. During the Hatton-Pacquiao telecast for instance, Larry Merchant, in reference to Mayweather's return to boxing, went on a tirade accusing Floyd of cherrypicking opponents, pricing himself out of fights, and flat out ducking fighters.. Yet an obvious fact such as Pacquiao facing an opponent Mayweather has already defeated is never mentioned. It also seemed to fall under the radar that Mayweather had already defeated Pacquiao's previous opponent Oscar De La Hoya as well.

The irony is that Pacquiao's claim to being the undisputed best is largely based on these two fights. For the past few years, boxing writers, reporters, diehard fans, and media personalities have adopted an infamous view that Hatton and De La Hoya were merely cherry picked opponents, simply diversions while Mayweather avoided challenges from welterweights Miguel Cotto, Shane Mosley, and Antonio Margarito; yet these same two opponents are considered grand slam victories for Pacquiao; victories that prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that he is pound-for-pound the best fighter in the world. How can this be if they were previously declared "cherries?"

Though Pacquiao's supporters would argue that his wins over Marco Antonio Barrera, Erik Morales, and Juan Manuel Marquez catapulted him to this status it was not sealed until Mayweather officially retired in 2008 and Pacquiao went on to defeat De La Hoya later the same year. Pacquiao certainly deserves credit for his victories over such a famous trio of Mexican warriors but in terms of a young fighter establishing himself--climbing the ladder, who can argue that Mayweather did not likewise defeat great fighters in the lighter weights? Surely no one would argue that Genaro Hernandez, Diego Corrales, Jesus Chavez, Angel Manfredy, Jose Luis Castillo, were cream puffs.

To further illustrate the double standard enter the #2 pound-for-pound fighter in the world Juan Manuel Marquez. Team Mayweather announced that Floyd will face Marquez on his July 18th return to the sport. He did not choose any old random contender as a tune-up but a multi-division world champion and in many observers opinion, two time conqueror of Manny Pacquiao. (Pacquiao scored a draw and a win against Marquez). The same media proponents that declared Hatton and De La Hoya "cherries" are now blasting Mayweather for taking a fight against proven champion Marquez. They argue that Marquez is too small or that Floyd knows he can beat him etc...Yet if Manny Pacquiao were to accept a third fight against Marquez, he'd be hailed as a true champion, a true warrior, the real pound-for-pound king.

So what is truly going on here? Is it a weight issue? Freddie Roach declared that Pacquiao's optimal weight is 140 and that is where he will be at his best. Mayweather, being a small welterweight, appears to be at his best somewhere between 140 and 147. In addition, Marquez has been moving up in weight successfully and it is he who called out Mayweather at a catchweight below 147. Is 3-4 pounds really so great a difference that Mayweather has to be persecuted for accepting a fight against Marquez? Catchweights are nothing new in boxing, why is it suddenly an issue now? Assuming Mayweather defeats Marquez, will diehard fans and media raise this same 3-4 pound argument when it is Pacquiao's turn to face Mayweather?

What is clear is that an answer to who is the best pound-for-pound can not be given based on their performance against common opponents, or their careers at the lighter weights. Both guys have been dynamic and only a battle against each other can settle the matter. It can be noted however that there is a double standard at play when it comes to Mayweather and Pacquiao. The media bashes Mayweather's accomplishments but hail Pacquiao for achieving the same thing. Also, Freddie Roach has indicated that Pacquiao will not move up to 147 to face Mayweather however it was just fine to move up for De La Hoya. Mayweather is blasted for fighting Marquez but Pacquiao would be a hero if he did the same. What this all indicates is that it is ultimately not simply a case of Mayweather "handpicking" opponents but it is more likely his opponents who are careful about picking him.

[Fenster]

You should post the link with the article piye.

The writer is wrong about P4P. You don't have to actually fight outside your optimum division to be rated

[ross]

P4P means you are the best boxer around regardless of size.

Manny has beaten more current linear champs than Floyd has, infact has Floyd beaten any?

Take light welter, Floyd fought Gatti then ran away from Tszyu, he ran up a weight to take longer to beat a fighter that Tszyu had smashed off the canvas.

There is no denying Pacquiao has fought some very dangerous fighters, even dangerous fighters who dont draw crowds, like Marquez, right after he beat Mab, when he could have taken a soft touch, whereas Floyd has avoided all his percieved threats, like Tszyu, Mosely, Cotto, Margarito and Williams.

[fan johnny]

Poorly supported article!

The duck test: "If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck."

'Most' People are stupid and can see through the mask. Here's a writer that writes Marquez is a tune up fight and argues that Maweather Jr deserves the same accolades as Pacquiao for similar accomplishments?

This is where a little comprehension has to come into play! because it's a natural oxymoron: "It's not what they have done, it's how they did it!"

[AdamGB]

Poorly supported article!

The duck test: "If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck."

'Most' People are stupid and can see through the mask. Here's a writer that writes Marquez is a tune up fight and argues that Maweather Jr deserves the same accolades as Pacquiao for similar accomplishments?

This is where a little comprehension has to come into play! because it's a natural oxymoron: "It's not what they have done, it's how they did it!"

Or how about "styles make fights".

Again we're going have to use this age old example:

Joe Frazier beat Ali, Flooring him and giving him two of his toughest fights, Ali said it was the closed to death he has ever felt.
George Foreman absolutely DESTROYED Joe Frazier.
Using your logic because Ali had to dig deep to beat Frazier whilst Foreman almost literally walked through Frazier then Foreman must have been the better fighter?

I seem to remember Ali managing to negate all of Foreman's work and then knocking him out?
Shared opponents have only a small amount of relevance.

The fact of the matter is that boxing ability aside, people go out of their way to pick apart PBF's career because the man is such a dick head outside of the ring but Pac gets no such treatment because he is a nice, humble guy.

People won't mention that Mayweathers style was the reason he took longer than Pac did to KO Hatton, the fact that he is more safety first and wanted to make sure that Hatton was 100% ready to go before opening up on him does not make Pacman '9 rounds better'. We're talking boxing... not Pokemon cards.

Pac advocates and Mayweather Haters won't take into account that Oscar De La Hoya was fully Hydrated and loaded up on glycogen at his optimum weight when Mayweather decisioned him and that he was down at a weight he has not been at in years (hard for an OLD man to do) and that his idiot nutritionist had placed him on a Ketosis diet (meant for mass loss, with no regard to athletic performance) that basically put his body into a catabolic state during his training camp.

Because people love Pac though they're happy to look at the name 'De La Hoya' on Pac's record but disregard any other factors.

It also doesn't help that ODH is a pretty popular hater target either... anything he says regard why he was so badly outclassed by Pac ( I don't want to give Pac zero credit for the win here, but there were reasons it was so bad and they weren't all to do with pac) has been ignored or snubbed because people have wanted to see Oscar fall for a long time.

I'm not saying that Pac has ducked more fights etc but I think it's pretty hard to deny that because PBF is such an arsehole compared to Pac, people will look at Pac through rose tinted glasses and PBF with shit tinted glasses.

[Mar]

Ha ha...when this cack was retired all people did was damn near suck his taint beggin the guy to come back, now he is and now it's back to this guy is overpaid, under fought, blah, blah. I've never seen boxers and fans so eager to see a fight involving what they claim to be one of the crappiest overratted fighters out there. I'm starting to think floyd himself writes most of these articles

[belakbox]

Taint n. - The area between your balls and arse. It taint your balls and it taint your arse. Otherwise known as the perineum.

I think there is an obvious double standard for Mayweather, but Pacquiao rightfully deserves more credit for his wins over DLH and hatton because they were more impressive.

[sanchez786]

That article is a complete farce. Mayweather DUCKS, Pacman fights the BEST in his division, please and simple. Shame on Mayweather for picking on a completely undersized opponent as JMM. If TRUE boxing fans were allowed to chose Mayweathers opponent it would either be Cotto/Mosley or Williams.

[Taeth]

P4P means you are the best boxer around regardless of size.

Manny has beaten more current linear champs than Floyd has, infact has Floyd beaten any?

Take light welter, Floyd fought Gatti then ran away from Tszyu, he ran up a weight to take longer to beat a fighter that Tszyu had smashed off the canvas.

There is no denying Pacquiao has fought some very dangerous fighters, even dangerous fighters who dont draw crowds, like Marquez, right after he beat Mab, when he could have taken a soft touch, whereas Floyd has avoided all his percieved threats, like Tszyu, Mosely, Cotto, Margarito and Williams.

Maybe you should check the chronological order of things. Tszyu lost weeks before Mayweather fought Gatti against Ricky Hatton, Tszyu was set to fight Hatton before Mayweather was set to fight Gatti. Mayweather always wanted to face Tszyu. Out of all the guys you mentioned only Mosley is a real threat to Mayweather because he is impossible to hurt, and he has the speed to keep MAyweather on the defensive. Cotto doesn't move quick enough, nor does he have good enough defense to stop Mayweather from pot shotting him. Margarito can't deal with movement, and Williams is terrible against a fast counter puncher.

[blegit]

P4P means you are the best boxer around regardless of size.

Manny has beaten more current linear champs than Floyd has, infact has Floyd beaten any?

Take light welter, Floyd fought Gatti then ran away from Tszyu, he ran up a weight to take longer to beat a fighter that Tszyu had smashed off the canvas.

There is no denying Pacquiao has fought some very dangerous fighters, even dangerous fighters who dont draw crowds, like Marquez, right after he beat Mab, when he could have taken a soft touch, whereas Floyd has avoided all his percieved threats, like Tszyu, Mosely, Cotto, Margarito and Williams.

Lets be fair and get and use the facts straight let not just spew words because you don't like a fighter. Lineal champs mean crap nowadays. The belts are ran by corrupt organizations. And yes, PBF has beaten lineal champs. Remember he got crap for taking on the lineal champ in Baldomir for the most money. And for his debut at 135 he took on the lineal champ in Castillo then did it again. As for Tszyu, PBF wanted Tsyzu and even went to negotiations. Tsyzu's plan was to go at Hatton first. PBF called out Mosley twice when Mosley was a fearsome lightweight knocking everyone out. Both times Mosley flat out refused with excuses. Remember when Mosley went from 135 to 147? Did he do that to avoid Tsyzu? When PBF fought the cash cow DLH he was accused of ducking the real threats. Mosley skipped an entire division to get at DLH and so did Pac. But I think neither ducked anyone. Its called cherrypicking and every fighter does it. Boxing is a business and you must use smart marketing, crafty management, and make intelligent business decisions.

[JonnyFolds]

P4P means you are the best boxer around regardless of size.

Manny has beaten more current linear champs than Floyd has, infact has Floyd beaten any?

Take light welter, Floyd fought Gatti then ran away from Tszyu, he ran up a weight to take longer to beat a fighter that Tszyu had smashed off the canvas.

There is no denying Pacquiao has fought some very dangerous fighters, even dangerous fighters who dont draw crowds, like Marquez, right after he beat Mab, when he could have taken a soft touch, whereas Floyd has avoided all his percieved threats, like Tszyu, Mosely, Cotto, Margarito and Williams.

Lets be fair and get and use the facts straight let not just spew words because you don't like a fighter. Lineal champs mean crap nowadays. The belts are ran by corrupt organizations. And yes, PBF has beaten lineal champs. Remember he got crap for taking on the lineal champ in Baldomir for the most money. And for his debut at 135 he took on the lineal champ in Castillo then did it again. As for Tszyu, PBF wanted Tsyzu and even went to negotiations. Tsyzu's plan was to go at Hatton first. PBF called out Mosley twice when Mosley was a fearsome lightweight knocking everyone out. Both times Mosley flat out refused with excuses. Remember when Mosley went from 135 to 147? Did he do that to avoid Tsyzu? When PBF fought the cash cow DLH he was accused of ducking the real threats. Mosley skipped an entire division to get at DLH and so did Pac. But I think neither ducked anyone. Its called cherrypicking and every fighter does it. Boxing is a business and you must use smart marketing, crafty management, and make intelligent business decisions.

Hell I'd say lineal champ means more than the Belt Champs at this point.

I hope you are not trying to make a case for Mayweather for taking on Baldomir as a lineal champ. That was a horrible fight.

I think it's pointless to say a guy is "scared" by jumping 2 weight divisions.

The fact of the matter.. there just isn't enough time to fight everyone along the way in every weight division, but I legit case against Floyd is not hard to make. He was not the king of ANY of the divisions after Lightweight.

Pac cherrypicks and KOs his opponents. PBF does the same, but makes a mockery of his opponent everytime. He doesn't take care of business, he doesn't take titles away (bar Hatton), and he doesn't give fans anything to be desired.

[ono]

P4P means you are the best boxer around regardless of size.

Manny has beaten more current linear champs than Floyd has, infact has Floyd beaten any?

Take light welter, Floyd fought Gatti then ran away from Tszyu, he ran up a weight to take longer to beat a fighter that Tszyu had smashed off the canvas.

There is no denying Pacquiao has fought some very dangerous fighters, even dangerous fighters who dont draw crowds, like Marquez, right after he beat Mab, when he could have taken a soft touch, whereas Floyd has avoided all his percieved threats, like Tszyu, Mosely, Cotto, Margarito and Williams.

Lets be fair and get and use the facts straight let not just spew words because you don't like a fighter. Lineal champs mean crap nowadays. The belts are ran by corrupt organizations. And yes, PBF has beaten lineal champs. Remember he got crap for taking on the lineal champ in Baldomir for the most money. And for his debut at 135 he took on the lineal champ in Castillo then did it again. As for Tszyu, PBF wanted Tsyzu and even went to negotiations. Tsyzu's plan was to go at Hatton first. PBF called out Mosley twice when Mosley was a fearsome lightweight knocking everyone out. Both times Mosley flat out refused with excuses. Remember when Mosley went from 135 to 147? Did he do that to avoid Tsyzu? When PBF fought the cash cow DLH he was accused of ducking the real threats. Mosley skipped an entire division to get at DLH and so did Pac. But I think neither ducked anyone. Its called cherrypicking and every fighter does it. Boxing is a business and you must use smart marketing, crafty management, and make intelligent business decisions.

Baldomir being Lineal champ shows you just how much that means.

Fensters thread on fighting for money over legacy was bang on and to be honest i don't see the problem with that. Would you rather be a broke 45 year old Tyson or a rich 45 year old Mayweather. Mayweather had already done more than enough to be proclaimed the best fighter of his generation before he took on the Hatton/ODLH fights. Nothing wrong with lining his pockets against very credible opponents. How anybody can think ODLH and Hatton were just gimmes is beyond me.

And the 'why didn't he fight Cotto/Margarito/Williams' argument'
Even though Floyd was classified as a welterweight it's only day before weigh ins that allow Cotto/Margarito and Williams to fight there....probably not Williams anymore.

Cotto and Margarito are probably a weight division above Mayweather come fight night. If they had to weigh in on the day of the fight Mayweather and Cotto/Margarito wouldn't be allowed anywhere near each other. Day before weigh ins are the dumbest thing in the sport of Boxing. It's ok saying Floyd doesn't fight 'real welterweights' when in reality Cotto and Margarito aren't anywhere near real welterweights. They are more like Middleweights come fight night anyway. Like i said if there were same day weigh-ins they would be getting on for 2 divisions apart given that Floyd's optiumun weight would be around 148/150 come fight night wheras Cotto/Margarito would be around 160. The haters forget the weight issues when talking about him 'ducking' Cotto/Margarito but are quick to bring them up when he fights somebody who is probably much closer to his natural weight come fight night.

[Rantcatrat]

P4P means you are the best boxer around regardless of size.

Manny has beaten more current linear champs than Floyd has, infact has Floyd beaten any?

Take light welter, Floyd fought Gatti then ran away from Tszyu, he ran up a weight to take longer to beat a fighter that Tszyu had smashed off the canvas.

There is no denying Pacquiao has fought some very dangerous fighters, even dangerous fighters who dont draw crowds, like Marquez, right after he beat Mab, when he could have taken a soft touch, whereas Floyd has avoided all his percieved threats, like Tszyu, Mosely, Cotto, Margarito and Williams.

Lets be fair and get and use the facts straight let not just spew words because you don't like a fighter. Lineal champs mean crap nowadays. The belts are ran by corrupt organizations. And yes, PBF has beaten lineal champs. Remember he got crap for taking on the lineal champ in Baldomir for the most money. And for his debut at 135 he took on the lineal champ in Castillo then did it again. As for Tszyu, PBF wanted Tsyzu and even went to negotiations. Tsyzu's plan was to go at Hatton first. PBF called out Mosley twice when Mosley was a fearsome lightweight knocking everyone out. Both times Mosley flat out refused with excuses. Remember when Mosley went from 135 to 147? Did he do that to avoid Tsyzu? When PBF fought the cash cow DLH he was accused of ducking the real threats. Mosley skipped an entire division to get at DLH and so did Pac. But I think neither ducked anyone. Its called cherrypicking and every fighter does it. Boxing is a business and you must use smart marketing, crafty management, and make intelligent business decisions.

Baldomir being Lineal champ shows you just how much that means.

Fensters thread on fighting for money over legacy was bang on and to be honest i don't see the problem with that. Would you rather be a broke 45 year old Tyson or a rich 45 year old Mayweather. Mayweather had already done more than enough to be proclaimed the best fighter of his generation before he took on the Hatton/ODLH fights. Nothing wrong with lining his pockets against very credible opponents. How anybody can think ODLH and Hatton were just gimmes is beyond me.

And the 'why didn't he fight Cotto/Margarito/Williams' argument'
Even though Floyd was classified as a welterweight it's only day before weigh ins that allow Cotto/Margarito and Williams to fight there....probably not Williams anymore.

Cotto and Margarito are probably a weight division above Mayweather come fight night. If they had to weigh in on the day of the fight Mayweather and Cotto/Margarito wouldn't be allowed anywhere near each other. Day before weigh ins are the dumbest thing in the sport of Boxing. It's ok saying Floyd doesn't fight 'real welterweights' when in reality Cotto and Margarito aren't anywhere near real welterweights. They are more like Middleweights come fight night anyway. Like i said if there were same day weigh-ins they would be getting on for 2 divisions apart given that Floyd's optiumun weight would be around 148/150 come fight night wheras Cotto/Margarito would be around 160. The haters forget the weight issues when talking about him 'ducking' Cotto/Margarito but are quick to bring them up when he fights somebody who is probably much closer to his natural weight come fight night.

Yes, good post. But that is systemic to boxing. Given the rules as is, you have to work within them. If Floyd isn't a natural welter within the rules, he should fight at 140 and jump the next day like everyone else. He shouldn't call himself a welterweight, however, if he is only fighting smaller men.

Floyd should fight at 140 and jump up in weight if he wants the size advantage that Margarito and Williams have, but if he is going to stay at 147, fight the guys at 147. Play the sport by the rules.

Manny fought Hatton at 140. Hatton's natural weight. Hatton walked into the fight with five or six pounds on Manny.

Floyd fought Hatton at 147. He is fighting Marquez at 145 - Marquez hasn't ever fought a fight above 135!

Also, Cotto fought at 140 pretty recently, it is even arguable that he is a small welterweight.

[Majesty]

Take light welter, Floyd fought Gatti then ran away from Tszyu, he ran up a weight to take longer to beat a fighter that Tszyu had smashed off the canvas.

If you are gonna bash Floyd at least get it right.

Tszyu Hatton was signed before Mayweather and Gatti. And Tszyu lost before Mayweather even beat Gatti so I don't know how Mayweather was ducking someone who was already obligated to fight and then lost. Mayweather then beat the guy who beat Tszyu by knocking him out. And the weight excuse really doesn't come into factor as Mayweather isn't a guy who imposes his will on you and tries to over power you, he lays back lets you come forward and counters you and he would have knocked out Hatton the same way at 140 as he did at 147 because him beating Hatton had to do with Hattons style, how Floyd adjusted to it and timed him. All that would have happened at 140 was Floyd would have been quicker slicker and hit harder so Mayweather beat Hatton no matter how many ways you wanna twist and turn it. and no one gives Hatton shit for beating the natural lightweight and past his prime Castillo did they? No, not a single thing of hate was said. Mayweather also beat Corralez, Genaro Hernandez whose only lost was when he moved up in weight and got beat by Oscar De La hoya, he beat Judah and Baldomir the number 1 and two guys at welterweight, beat Hatton who was the number one guy in the class Floyd "ducked" Tszyu in and he moved up to De La Hoya's weight, in De La Hoya's ring, under De La Hoya's promotion using De La Hoya's gloves and he still won, he didn't make Oscar move down in weight and be "drained" as some call it, he gave Oscar every advantage and still won the fight. People complain about who Floyd ducks and how its wrong he gets a shot, tell me how its right that Erik Morales gets a third fight with Pacquiao and why Pacquiao didn't fight Raheem? Raheem may not have been someone to beat Pacquiao but still if people want to say Mayweather ducked who by beating someone then we can use that same logic and say pacquiao ducked Raheem for an easier fight against an obviously on the slide Erik Morales couldn't we.

Mayweather double standard is true, but the person who wrote the article could have done a better job

[El Kabong]

Floyd always says "Who has he fought/beaten?"....well who the fuck has Floyd beat?!?!?

He didn't WANT to fight Miguel Cotto, he didn't WANT to fight Paul Williams, he didn't WANT to fight Antonio Margarito.

Floyd is extremely skilled but hell Roy Jones fought better guys than he has!