I'm a reformed hater and am still bothered by some things but I think he's held to a different standard then most? Why? Not sure but he's accomplished more them most ever have or will in the sport and still people raise the bar. Everyone talked prior to his retirement about his retirement as he inched to 40 years old. We all talk about boxers who go on to long and never leave at the top. Floyd does it at close to 40 and all people talk about is who he will fight for the comeback. Theses same announcers that routinely tell us who is shot and fought or still fight to long ask him that like a broken record.


The Hatton is one of the aspects of Floyds career that I will always have problems with. Cortez ruined the fight and actually won it for Floyd. By the time Hatton kissed the turnbuckle he was no longer in the fight. Spirit broken and taken completely out of it my Cortez's meddling. When some of Floyd's super fans over the years have responded with rebuttals like “well it didn’t make a difference because he was knocked out”, I almost come out of my skin. My contention has always been and remains that if not for the hack job we would have never seen that ending. You simply cant have one w/o the other.

Floyd and Shane should have fought. The blame game is anyone’s guess but as a fan they should have fought in that 135/140 area. As @Master points out, he could have fought Casamayor also. Still we could say the same for most ATG's. Most side stepped somebody if not more then one. Floyd was as good an opportunist outside the ring as he was inside it. His timing was impeccable. Safety first all the way. He did the fight with Chico knowing all the details of what was happening in his private life. He always seemed to need an advantage. Waiting guys out until they are vulnerable, having a home ref and never leaving home for a fight. It makes little difference to me if he was a cash cow or not. We are talking about risk and challenges not economics. Him making more cash than anyone ever does not address the subject matter of this thread. Yet it does right? He probably made 30 million fighting Guerrero.

I don’t see him being able to escape fighting the 147 guys had he moved up in weight at the same pace he did in this time in the 80's. The reason people didn’t concentrate on hiding out and stuff then is because nobody really did over that decade. People fought each other and wanted to. If the same Floyd existed then he would have had to have fought them or retied as a footnote. There would be no 5 year waiting period over silly tests. He'd be dismissed outright. Juice was not really an issue in the 80's be it ignorance or whatever. Honestly, I dont see Floyd making it out of that div as a superstar in the 80's if they were all peaking at the same time. Shit Floyd in all honesty might not beat some of their opponents. Conversely Hearns, Leonard, Benitez and Duran would cruise through his era.