Forgetting Cotto, Williams, Margarito for a second, i want to know right at this moment why some of you do not consider Mayweather a great ?? a great boxer IMO has to take risks, Mayweather has passed this test with fighting the likes of Corrales, Castillo x2, Oscar, ETC. A great boxer has to be able to deal with all kinds of different styles and Mayweather passed with flying colors.

Achievements

He has also won multiple World titles in 5 different weight classes, and i can only think of 6 other boxers in the history of the sport that have achieved that. Oscar De La Hoya, Thomas Hearns, Ray Leonard, James Toney, Lester Ellis, Roberto Duran, Mayweather is only the 7th boxer in the history of boxing to achieve that so that achievement alone ranks him up there as one of the greats IMO.

Gernaro Hernadez

Lets go back to the start of Mayweather's career and actually study his opposition, Mayweather's first real good opponent was Genaro Hernandez, now i want to give you some history on Gernaro Hernadez. Before the Mayweather fight, Hernandez had beaten the likes of Jorga Paez, Azumah Nelson, Carlos Hernandez, plus G. Hernandez had never been beaten at Super Featherweight when Mayweather fought him. And before people bring up his loss to Oscar De La Hoya that was at Lightweight not Super featherweight, Mayweather only had 17 pro fights at the time and dominated a very experienced World Champion who had never been beaten at that weight class in impressive fashion.

Angel Manfredy

Now onto Manfredy who was considered a top contender at Super Featherweight and at the time a very dangerous opponent. Beating Arturo Gatti in impressive fashion, now a lot of people considered this very tough 1st title defense for Mayweather, and Mayweather destroyed Manfredy in 2 rounds and couldn't of done it any better.

Then after that fight Mayweather beat decent opposition like Carlos Gerena, Gregorio Vargas, Justin Juuko, Carlos Alberto Ramon Rios, Emanuel Augustus.

Diego Corrales

Now onto Diego Corrales who at the time was 33-0, and was one of the top P4P fighters at the time, Corrales was destroying all the top Super Featherweight contenders, Mayweather was making his 6 defense of his Super Featherweight World title, now the fans and mostly everybody at the time thought this was 50/50 match up. But to the shock of everybody Mayweather gave Corrales a boxing lesson knocking him down 5 times winning 10th round TKO when Corrales's corner threw in the towel.

Carlos Hernandez

After the Corrales fight Mayweather fought the tough Carlos Hernandez, Hernandez coming into Mayweather fight lost two fights one to Gernaro Hernandez and another early in his career. Hernandez was considered a good tough opponent, Mayweather suffered his first knockdown of his career when he suffered bad hand injury after hitting Hernandez on the top of the head. His glove touched the canvas it was not a punch from Hernandez by the way, and boxing fans who have watched the fight do not consider this a proper knockdown. But never the less it counts as a knockdown on the record books and Mayweather had the toughest fight of his career up to this point. But Mayweather won the fight by clear cut 12 round decision.


Jesus Chavez


After the Carlos Hernandez fight Mayweather fought the tough Jesus Chavez, now just like Carlos Hernandez, Chavez was considered a tough game opponent, Chavez only lost 1 fight early in his career. But built up a nice winning streak coming into Mayweather fight. This was Mayweather's 8 defense of Super Featherweight title. Now right from the opening bell Chavez come out like a mad man throwing 100+ and 90+ punches a round, trying to put non stop pressure on Mayweather, it seemed to have some good effect in early going as Chavez's relentless pressure was pinning Mayweather on the ropes, the problem was that Chavez was missing a lot of punches and Mayweather was countering Chavez with hard crisp uppercuts. As this great fight went on Mayweather was starting to take control in later rounds, coming into 9th round it seemed close fight but Mayweather dug deep and battered Chavez with brutal uppercuts, Chavez was at this point starting to take a great deal of punishment, so after the 9th round while sitting on his stool Chavez's corner stopped the fight. And Mayweather won a tough TKO victory over Chavez, arguably one Mayweather's toughest fights of his career.


Jose Luis Castillo And The Controversy


Now after Chavez fight Mayweather moved up to Lightweight to fight Lightweight world champion Jose Luis Castillo, Castillo had never been KO/Knockdown. in his entire career, he suffered a few TKO, losses early in his career. But really got himself together in 1999 when he beat Jorge Paez, then in 2000 took on the Lightweight World champion Stevie Johnston and beat him by decision, it was called Upset of the year, they then met in a rematch the same year and they battled to a draw, although there was some controversy, because at first Johnston was declared the winner by MD, but one of the judges made error in the scoring, his original scorecard was 115-114, making Johnston winner by MD, but minutes later it was discovered that his scorecard was counted up wrong and it should of read 114-114, so then the decision was then changed to a draw so Castillo retained his Lightweight title on a draw. Castillo then moved on and made 2 defenses of his title, then Mayweather vs Castillo was finally on.

Now in the first 4 rounds it appeared Mayweather would have easy time with Castillo, as he easily out boxed Castillo for 4 rounds using his jab and movement, but then after 4th round it started to become a very tough night for Mayweather. As Castillo started to close the distance between himself and Mayweather, and he started to pin Mayweather on the ropes and bang him to the body constantly. Castillo had point deducted in the 8th for hitting on the break and Mayweather had point deducted in the 10th for using his elbow. In the later rounds it was toe to toe battle as both men were having success, after 12th tough rounds, it appeared to some viewers that Castillo had clearly won by at least 1 or 2 rounds, and most people see this fight as razor thin close fight, but to the shock of everybody Mayweather won UD by wide scores of 115-111 116-111 115-111.

Now Mayweather fans would argue that there man landed the cleaner shots, and won most of the early rounds that gave him the nod, they would also argue Castillo's arm punches on the inside wern't that effective.

Castillo fans argued that Castillo was constant aggressor landed the more punches, they would also argue that there man by punch stats had out landed Mayweather by 50 + punches, and had out landed Mayweather by landslide on power shots.

Which ever way you see it there had to be a rematch so it was scheduled for the same year, now this time Mayweather used his movement better and did not allow Castillo to bully him to the ropes. Mayweather used his movement and out boxed Castillo this time, and there was no controversy and Mayweather won clear cut UD.

After this fight Mayweather beat solid contender Victoriano Sosa, now Sosa had previously knocked down Lightweight world champion Paul Spadafora twice, so he was considered to be a good tough opponent, This was quite a tough fight for Mayweather but he clearly won it by winning clear cut UD.

Phillip N'dou

Now N'dou coming into this fight had 31 wins 30 KO's, N'dou only had 1 loss early in his career, now even though N'dou had solid record he had mostly fought nobodies and had no real names on his record. But never the less N'dou still had high KO percentage and was dangerous puncher. This was Mayweather's 3rd defense of his Lightweight title, the big shock about this fight to viewers, was that Mayweather stood toe to toe with N'dou who was dangerous puncher. and Actually out brawled the tough N'dou the 5th round was considered one of the best rounds of the year. N'dou got a bad beating in this fight he was floored in the 7th, he beat the count but his corner threw in the towel because there man was taking too much of a beating. Viewers after were shocked how offensive Mayweather was and they witnessed a great toe to toe battle.