Quote Originally Posted by Rantcatrat View Post
I gotcha. You're saying a 140 version of Hatton wouldn't have beat Floyd. Fair enough. I tend to agree with you. In a p4p sense, weight being equal, I think he beats Hatton on most days. Frankly, scoreboard, he has a win over Hatton, even if it wasn't at Hatton's best weight.

On the other hand, in my opinion, Floyd's a natural welterweight. Sure, he fights at 150 on fight night, but that doesn't mean that losing 7 pounds wouldn't be difficult for him and might not zap some strength and performance out of him. Keep in mind too that Floyd agreed to a catch weight of 145 for Marquez and then came in at 147 even though it cost him money. I have to think that was because it was more comfortable to make 147 than it was 145. Clearly, it wasn't the honorable thing to do. If it was so easy to make weight, and Floyd isn't shy about using his A-side status to his advantage, why not force big strong welterweights to fight at 140 or below 147? He forced Canelo to fight at 152. In other words, if he wanted to fight at 140, he would fight at 140. He doesn't because he's a welterweight.
He doesn't because he doesn't cut weight. It doesn't mean he's a natural WW in the modern sense. I guarantee you just about everybody Ricky Hatton fought at 140 came into the ring heavier than Floyd did for their fight at WW.

You guys keep skirting the question and going back to "well Ricky's best weight was 140". For you and Master to have the opinion you guys do you have to either think that A) Ricky would have performed better if forced to cut down to 140lbs (which I think is ridiculous: having to drain yourself sitting in a sauna and starving yourself before the weigh ins has never improved anybody's performance in the history of sports) or b) that Mayweather would have been drained or somehow diminished by having to cut down to 140 (which I doubt because 10lbs is a relatively small amount to have to cut, but if Floyd isn't used to cutting maybe it would have hurt him, it's a possibility, who knows).

If your position is A, you need to update your knowledge of weight cutting, maybe even try sweating out 15-20lbs yourself. If your position is B, why would you want Floyd to be diminished? Isn't the point of the undefeated clash to have both guys at their best? All weighing in at 147 did was cause Floyd not to have to cut weight and Ricky to have to cut less than usual.

It's funny that people make such a big deal about Ricky at WW, too. He had one WW fight before Floyd, against the notoriously crafty and awkward Collazo. Isn't it more likely that Ricky's trouble at WW came because he was fighting a very awkward and tricky fighter, moreso than actually physically weighing in at 147?