Mayweather vs Mosley
Fort Smith Boxing Examiner | Lorne Scoggins
Floyd Mayweather has already proclaimed himself the greatest boxer of all time, based on his undefeated record. There are some serious flaws in his ideology.
He's naming himself as the greatest ever, but he has yet to even prove that he's the greatest of his own era.
That doesn't add up.
"But Mayweather's undefeated," Floyd fans will say.
So what?
George Foreman was 40-0 when he was defeated by Muhammad Ali. Not bad.
Larry Holmes went 48-0 before losing to Michael Spinks. Even better.
Rocky Marciano retired at 49-0, with 43 knockouts.
Julio Cesar Chavez won his first 88 fights (yes, 88) before he finally suffered a draw against Pernell Whitaker.
Packy McFarland lost his first fight. He decided he didn't dig that so he went ahead and won his next 98.
The officially awarded greatest of all time, Sugar Ray Robinson, was 128-1 in the prime of his career. He finished his career at 173-19 with 108 KOs.
Willie Pep won his first 62 fights, lost one, then won his next 72 bouts. That put him at 134-1, at that point.
Which record would you prefer? 40-0 or 134-1?
Here's the real deal:
Not only did these guys have outstanding records, they built their tremendous stacks of stats without cherry-picking their opponents. The afore-mentioned pugilists fought everybody that was willing to step into the ring with them.
Who was that other guy again? Oh yeah, Floyd Mayweather, the greatest boxer ever.
If Mayweather beats Mosley he'll be 41-0.
Wow
Perhaps he needs to start with proving he's the best of his time before proclaiming himself as the best ever.
In order to do that he needs to defeat Mosley. That's no easy task, but he'll probably succeed.
Long-time boxing fan, Jason Harris of Garfield, thinks he'll get the job done.
"I think the fight will go the distance. I'm just interested in seeing how Mayweather plans on fighting Mosley," Harris said. "Mosley is an excellent boxer who posesses speed and power. It's going to be fun to watch. Ultimately, I think Mayweather will win the fight."
Even if Mayweather were to beat Mosley and then Pacquiao by first punch KOs, he still couldn't be compared to the old-school greats mentioned above.
He doesn't have enough time left to fight another 100 bouts, so he will have to do something truly extraordinary to establish himself as the greatest ever, and I do mean truly extraordinary.
If he takes on Nikolai Valuev and the Klitschko brothers simultaneously and knocks all three of them over the top rope in the first round while yelling "What's my name?!", he might be worthy of being mentioned in the same (run-on) sentence as Chavez, McFarley, Robinson and Pep.
Greatest ever?
No
Greatest of this era?
Manny Pacquiao is the fighter of the decade and the No. 1 Pound for Pound king.
He's the guy that Mayweather has to fight next if he really cares about his legacy.
Source: Examiner.com
