WTF is up Dan Rafael's ass?

[JazMerkin]

I think the problem is a lot boxing fans(like Rafael) have with Floyd is that he promotes himself as the greatest ever, but in the past he has ducked almost all the other good welterweights of his error(Margarito, Cotto, Mosely, Williams).

The Baldimore fight was understandable because he was THE champion, but fighting Zab Judah after he got schooled by club fighter Baldimore was pathetic, Fighting Lightweight champion JMM in his comeback was questionable, and all the other excuses he made for why he could not fight the top welterweights were laughable.

However, it Mayweather actually goes through with his fight with Mosely, I dont think this will be a valid criticism anymore.

Ok, one thing that does bother me is the whole 'Mayweather says he's the greatest ever' thing, even when he recently said he hadn't done enough to prove it. Also one thing I've never got is how Judah (who he already had a contract with - try getting out of a contract with a Don King fighter) was a crap win for PBF, but was often cited as a good one for Cotto. He's either good for both or crap for both. I've never heard Cotto catch shit for fighting a guy who hadn't won in his previous 3 fights.

The JMM fight was ok as a comeback fight, which is what it appears to be. JMM got a big payday & Mayweather had a comeback fight that would sell on PPV. He wasn't going to come straight back and fight Mosley or Cotto, even Shane said he thought Mayweather wanted to see where he was at.

Imo, I don't think he's fought the guys he should have at Welterweight, but I wouldn't say he ducked them, and when he fights Mosley, I think that criticism will go away.

But, yeah on the subject of why Dan Rafael, and for that matter, Doug Fischer seem to dislike Mayweather so much, it almost certainly derives from a personal dislike or something that came about during an interview. I suspect that if Mayweather wrote a column about either, it would hardly be glowing, and that's life, no journalist is going to be able to completely cover his feelings up if likes or dislikes a fighter personally, it will affect their work.

[El Kabong]

Mayweather gives critics lots of stuff to complain about, he's never unified, he hasn't fought many dangerous guys at 147, he calls himself the greatest and he's nowhere close.....I mean he MAY be the greatest of his era but he thinks more highly of himself than his record shows

[OumaFan]

I've been annoyed with Rafael ever since he commented on the JMM-Chris John fight like he had seen it when he clearly hadn't. Very unprofessional.

[JazMerkin]

I've been annoyed with Rafael ever since he commented on the JMM-Chris John fight like he had seen it when he clearly hadn't. Very unprofessional.

What did he say?

It's only since coming on here that I've really begun to read Rafael.

[OumaFan]

I can't remember exactly what it was but seems if I remember right that he mentioned some fight in Aisa the week or so before that was controversial and then said this one wasn't like that as Chris John clearly outboxed Marquez. The fight was impossible to see here, and it took months for a torrent to show up, he could have got a tape of it possibly I guess (thought it would have had to been very quick) but the way he talked about it being a clear controversy free decision made it blatantly obvious he had just read a report coming out of Indonesia.

And the whole tone of the report was that he had seen it, not that he was relaying some other report.

[JazMerkin]

Yeah, that is bullshit and unbelievably poor journalism (although extremely common).

I remember it wasn't till like 6-7 months or something after the fight that I actually saw the John-Marquez fight, and I've still never talked to anyone who's seen it who can say it was a clear win.

It's sad when you think about it. Boxing journalism used to be the most respected in the sports world and attracted writers like Norman Mailer and Budd Schullberg. Now what have we got? Some fat bloke with a beard who admits he only started following the sport in his 20s, some pony-tailed asshole who writes as if he's sending a text message and a mass of others who basically work as Top Rank publicists

[El Kabong]

I don't see Big Dan being worse than anyone else, he's ok, of course I disagree with him sometimes but in boxing different people see different things.

Many see Floyd as a great fighter and some see Floyd as a fighter who had opportunities to become the greatest

[ICB]

I've been annoyed with Rafael ever since he commented on the JMM-Chris John fight like he had seen it when he clearly hadn't. Very unprofessional.

I remember that it was total nonsense. JMM did not deserve those points taken away, and even with those point deductions. I still had JMM winning, but then again it was JMM's own fault turning down the Manny Pacquiao rematch. And instead fighting Chris John for peanuts.

And getting nothing to show for it, how history could of been so different. If JMM would of took the rematch, he probably would of won because Manny Pacquiao was still one dimensional at that point.