Quote Originally Posted by buhlestnoble View Post
Fair points ICB. Mayweather is top of my p4p too of course. Its interesting that you post his record up though and what strikes me is that to a casual boxing fan there probably aren’t that many big names there. Don’t get me wrong his unbeaten record is 1st class but perhaps equally strong in his argument to be p4p best is the skills he has dazzled us with.

Its interesting though that imo calzaghes record stands up pretty well actually and its growing faster than and certainly catching up with mayweather’s. Some wins over good quality fighters, former respected world champs and this has been validated in many ways by the Kessler victory. But in many ways like mayweather, its been the way that calzaghe has been so dominating in most of his fights, certainly in the big ones that makes him a very strong p4p contender.

On mayweathers opposition you have to admit that apart from de la hoya there isn’t another current legitimate super fighter in his record. Castillo and corrales are very good but not in the de la hoya league. I often think if de la hoya had fought mayweathers opposition (de la hoya started as a superfeather weight like floyd) he probably would have the same unbeaten record and this view leads to interesting questions. Mayweathers recent opposition has been a bit disappointing, he pretty much skipped the light welter weight division entirely and still hasn’t fought any genuine current welterweight champ (baldomir was no undisputed champ).

Calzaghe for me has one thing mayweather hasn’t achieved and that’s a win over an unbeaten champion fighter at his prime at his own weight class….like Kessler and even lacy who was hugely rated and expected to win. Hatton at welter doesn’t count as he was too small. The closeness of the de la hoya fight in many ways validates my opinion, for me he NEEDS TO FIGHT COTTO before I close the book. As it happens I do think he will win that one and then I agree the door would be pretty much shut on calzaghe but to say that joe cant even make no 2 on the list is crazy!
Gernaro Hernandez had never been beaten at Super Featherweight and had a win over the great Azumah Nelson, Corrales was also a P4P fighter. Im not really going to break down Mayweather's opposition because i have had this discussion to many times. But IMO Mayweather's opposition is much better than Calzaghe's no question. Fighters like Woodhall, Brewer, Eubank, are decent wins but all 3 of those fighters were shot and Woodhall, Brewer were coming off bad losses, and Eubank was a late replacement. No doubt Calzaghe has beat the best in the division but that doesn't mean its been good opposition though. And sorry bro but i couldn't disagree with you more with your last statement i'll copy and paste it.

Calzaghe for me has one thing mayweather hasn't achieved and that's a win over an unbeaten champion fighter at his prime at his own weight class.

Totally disagree Corrales was young and an unbeaten champion. Plus he was in the top 10 P4P rankings i believe he was ranked 7th or something like that. Most experts had that 50-50 match up and Mayweather just destroyed Corrales flooring him x5 times.