is it possible for Mayweather to retire the greatest ever?

[El Kabong]

Floyd has all the skill in the world, but he doesn't have the resume to be the G.O.A.T.

Floyd could EASILY fight at 160 weighing 155 or so and pick apart Kelly Pavlik or at least hold his own with Paul Williams.

[rjj tszyu]

As strange as it sounds for me, to be the greatest ever you have to get beaten and then come back stronger and better, like Leonard did after Duran and Ali after Frazier and Norton, but to be honest if Floyd gets beat I think it will end him in the same way it did Hamed. So no I don't see Floyd retiring the G.O.A.T but great none the less!

[HattonTheHammer]

I've just realised how dissapointing and misleading it is for a fighter to actually RETIRE with a 0 loss record.... Now I think about it, to me, that means that fighter never reached their limit.. We never saw them pushed to the end of their capabilities and come up short... If Floyd starting taking fights now that there was a big risk of putting a 1 on his loss record, then that would be going some ways towards his greatness..

Show you've got something at 154.. LOOK for fights that test the shit out of you...

Did he really come back thinking Marquez was going to be a big challenge? Is a "challenge" even an im for the rest of his career?

Lyle is mirroring my thoughts 100%... Mayweather has got to risk his nuts. He's gotta take fights where he's not favourite... He's got to take fights where all odd's are against him...


Not that Pac vs ODLH ended up being any risk to Pac at all, but to MANY people, he was taking a big risk with that fight.. It seemed like he would be totally outsized, outclassed etc....

Floyd NNNNNNEEEEDDDDSSSS fights like that on his record and on him ambition to be classed in true greatness..

If right now he was chasing a fight will Williams at 154, that would be something.... And the fact fighters of past have made those moves in their career then Floyd has to do the same to be even considered in the same class as them....


He's got the skills to probably even conquer such tasks, but the greatest of all time's are remembered for what they acheived,,,,,, and then their are the guys who "coulda been"... Floyd may just be remembered as a coulda been that had the skills, but settled for money and a perfectly intact win loss record instead...


And this is taking nothing away from what Floyd has done and won so far, which is brilliant for any fighter... Amazing even... But expanding the picture into the G.O.A.T. frame, he should be taking the whole of boxing from 147 UPWARDS by the balls until he's reached his absolute limit, and pushed as far past that as possible...

And why the hell isn't he doing that!!!!! He's proved himself where he is.... He's kept his zero... Why not just fucking go for it...




because he's "money" mayweather.... The thing that our society teaches us is the pinacle of acheivement and pursuit.. money... but boxers aren't remembered for how much money they made.. they are remembered for heart, resiliance, balls, fearlessness, acheivement...

Floyd's proved he's got half of what it takes to be an all time great, unforutnately that is enough to make him the money he wants to make..... So he doesn't have much ambition for more..

understand what your saying

pac actually had the balls to get back in with marquez after that 1st fight when he could easily of won a world title at 130 fighting anyone else. At the same time though floyd did similar with castillo and his victory 2nd time around was far more resounding than pac-marquez which still to this day is considered 2 succesive draws.

Floyd cant help beating good opponents with ease. Lets be completely honest here it took a lot of balls to fight marquez one of the most underrated fighters in world boxing and nobody but nobody has been able to outwork juan like floyd did.

Ultimately his legacys shortcoming may be his failure to extend himself further in fights and put fighters like marquez away instead of taking decisions. But with floyds style of fighting why on earth would he bother attempting to KO pacquiao, cotto or mosley when he could conceivably just let his superior footwork do the talking and cruise past all 3 on points!!

To be a great champion you have to be a great fighter. Floyds an ultra skilled boxer but has he really got that duran/leonard esque ability to go toe to toe with the very best and knock them out??

I get what your saying.. I'd love to see Floyd step up and knock people out.. But at the same time, i'd be equally happy to see him outbox opponents at higher weights....
You used the key words "Extend himself".. The great boxers of all times have extended themselves beyond anyone else.. that is what made them great in my opinion...


And your right, floyd can't help beating the great fighters he has, with the ease he has. but at the same time, if he doesn't start extending himself, that is entirely his fault... Right now I think he's taking comfortable fights.. I mean, as comfortable as they can be at the peak of boxing, but comfortable none the less compared to fights that could be seriously adding big things to his legacy..

He's not getting younger.. I think in the next 2 years, he has to have at least one fight that really makes a statement... A statement that say, "I want to claim the crown of greatest boxer of the last 30 years, and here is the fight that is going to prove it"

Its just really hard to envisage where thats gonna come from

The obvious answer to cementing floyds legacy is to not just beat but actually stop shane mosley. If floyd did that not a single person would be able to deny him his place as an all time great.

Pacquiao has a far greater opportunity to rubber stamp his legacy because unlike floyd at 147pds people simply dont expect him to roll over his opponents. If floyd beats pacquiao over 12rounds so what....he`s more adjusted to the weight, has far superior reach etc. But if pacquiao beats floyd on points....that there and then is pacs classification as an ATG alongside leonard, robinson etc because he has managed to defy all logic and reason in doing so

[JonnyFolds]

I think he could join the ranks of Zsolt Erdei, Joe Mesi, and Sven Ottke. He is truly a great. He has nothing left to prove after beating Marquez. I wish him well in retirement.

[JonnyFolds]

All in all I think Floyd just wants to pay the IRS back and get some more cash from so he can "shoot up cars." I don't think he cares about legacy.

When SRL came out of retirement he Terry Norris, Marvin Hagler. Now that's a guy that is thinking about his legacy.

[0james0]

I think if he clears 50-0 and the next fights are big ones, then he will have to be compared in that breath.

I don't now see him as a legend, if he hadn't have come out of retirment he would have just been another good boxer.

Despite what people say, I don't even see Pacman in the GOAT class, not even close. But if Pacman was to beat Mayweather.........

Mayweather needs to beat all oncomers for a few more years to be considered great, he'd prob need to go up a weight and win another world title aswell. Even Hatton on another day could have had him.

Undefeated definatley doesn't mean your name should be up there with the greats, after all, most greats have lost a few times.

And a fight with Mosley wouldn't be enough for me, he can't go on much longer and although I think the fight will happen, I think he's past it now and is riding on a wave that won't last for much longer. On my card he was one second away from a defeat against Mayorga, although I take my hat off to him for the performance against Margortio.

[JazMerkin]

OK I was wrong on Robinson but right on Leonard....Ray Leonard beat Ayube Kalule for the WBA Light Middle Weight title. Ray Leonard also won a title at 168 as well as 175.

I'm sorry Jaz, but Floyd just hasn't done enough to even be in the freaking conversation as the Greatest of All-Time. EVERYBODY in that discussion fought legitimate THREATS. Robinson, Leonard, Armstrong, Duran, Pep, and Hearns fought anyone and everyone.

Has Floyd ever unified? NO....Has Floyd fought the most dangerous fighters of his era? NO or yes but outside of their normal weight classes.

My mistake on SRL's LMW title, but Kalule?? That guy should never have been a world champ. He made Henry Brusseles look like Miguel Cotto. Kalule seemed to be the benchmark by how the WBA now appoints interim champs.

If you go through almost any fighter's record, including some of those mentioned, than you can pick flaws. Unification used to matter when there were 2 champs. With about 6 per division now, it really doesn't hold the same weight. You don't seem to hold much regard for the most recent fighter to unify a division, what's his name?? David something??

None of us can judge things in the moment. It's how it looks in retrospect that defines things. If Mayweather did beat those mentioned, in 10-20 years, people will have a very different take. The 2 most obvious examples of this are SRL & ODLH. At the time both were criticized heavily as 'cherry-pickers' by hardcore fans, yet with retrospect (& some glossing over) both have become guys 'who took on the best'.

I don't feel he has done enough yet to warrant being there, but for me if he beat both Mosley & the winner of Pac/Cotto, than he could be DISCUSSED there, although I still wouldn't have him top, probably in or around Top 5. If he beat a Williams/Pavlik level of fighter at 160, probably giving up about 20lbs in weight, than yeah, I'd probably put him at #1. Like I said previously though, that's a long way to go. I would say that right now, for me, he is the best boxer I've seen in my lifetime (23 years), but he's not quite on the level of the Robinsons, Peps or Leonards (either one).

[0james0]

If you go through almost any fighter's record, including some of those mentioned, than you can pick flaws. Unification used to matter when there were 2 champs. With about 6 per division now, it really doesn't hold the same weight. You don't seem to hold much regard for the most recent fighter to unify a division, what's his name?? David something??

None of us can judge things in the moment. It's how it looks in retrospect that defines things.

Very true for both.

I never used to think much of Lennox Lewis, but I look back at his fights now and think so much more of him.