Floyd Mayweather is the Greatest Ever? Don't Let Him Fool U

[Faulks]

by

Robert Pecchio

 

Don’t let him fool you. Money talks.

 

He talks a lot.

 

Floyd Mayweather is twice as smart as you think he is. In the weeks leading up to last Saturday’s showdown with Shane Mosley, Floyd Mayweather displayed the skill that truly sets him apart from anyone else—his knack for propaganda.

 

Through various prefight specials and postfight interviews, Floyd “Money” Mayweather declared his supremacy like a Roman gladiator by defaming past warriors and welcoming all challengers.

 

“Is there no else?”

 

Don’t let FMJ fool you.

 

We all know who’s next—who has to be next. Not even 10 minutes passed after the final bell Saturday before questions about the possibility of a supernatural showdown between FMJ and Pacquiao rose to the surface.

 

Mayweather talks about a match with the Filipino Pacquaio as if it would be just another fight.

 

Don’t let him fool you.

 

Manny Pacquiao would not be just another notch on Mayweather’s belt. A dethroning of Pacman would without a doubt place Mayweather amongst the ranks of boxing history.

Saturday’s victory over Shane Mosley is not enough to crown Mayweather king.

 

At 46-6, Mosley has had a long and impressive run. But, in reality, he has lost almost all of his big-time fights. His claim to fame—wins over De La Hoya and Margarito—pales in comparison to the image Floyd Mayweather would want us to have of “Sugar” Shane.

 

The ultimate self-promoter, Mayweather’s performance outside the ring seems to have surpassed his work inside of it. With the way everyone is talking, it’s hard to imagine anyone ever being considered greater than FMJ.

 

For example, many people thought Shane Mosley had a shot in this contest. Mayweather makes claims of grandeur; Oscar De La Hoya calls him “King of the World”; and everyone starts nodding their head in approval.

 

At this recognition, Mayweather rolls his eyes, wondering what took us so long to listen to him.

 

There’s no denying it. Floyd Mayweather is good, very good. Whether he ever beats Manny Pacquiao, he has been very impressive for a long time.

 

He’s like Mozart. He’s no good to pump through your system for a summer drive. He’s not going to satisfy your thirst for thrills. He won’t have you jumping out of your seat and cheering.

 

But he’s an artist, and he has mastered his craft. The best way to enjoy Mayweather is to study him—his big picture, his career, his impressive streak of lopsided victories, his flawless technique—all coming together to play a symphony on the canvas.

 

But, he’s even better at playing up his image.

 

Before Saturday’s fight, Floyd predicted such a glorious victory that he forced us all to sit back incredulously and dare him to come through.

 

And in 12 dazzling rounds, Floyd dominated a highly-respected veteran, shooting I-told-you-so looks to the crowd as he assumed his self-made throne.

 

With an unwavering confidence, and a smile so glossy it would make Lucifer jealous, Floyd Mayweather has once again stolen the show.

 

But don’t let him fool you.

 

Whether you were impressed with Floyd’s win Saturday, do not let Manny Pacquiao’s boring dominance over Josh Clottey tempt you to forget who has established a reign of terror in the last decade of boxing.

 

When Floyd Mayweather announced his return to the ring, it was Manny Pacquiao’s party that he was crashing. For the past five years, Pacquiao has terrorized the best names in modern boxing, with or without Mayweather in the picture.

 

Don’t let Floyd fool you. Manny Pacquiao is scary for Floyd Mayweather.

 

He is faster and can hit harder than anyone FMJ has ever faced. Pacquiao knows how to finish when he’s winning, and he knows how to fight back when he’s losing.

 

Watch the first two rounds of the De La Hoya fight. Pacquiao can hurt his opponent while playing the cherry-picking—one—punch—cover—one—punch style in which Floyd trapped Mosley.

 

Without the worry of tainting a perfect record, Pacquiao would be playing with nothing to lose. He wouldn’t have to fear a strong counter or a surprise big shot. Pacquiao could just keep coming and coming.

 

So, don’t let Floyd fool you. He doesn’t want any part of a fearless Manny Pacquiao.

Forget Sergio Martinez or Margarito. Forget Cavs versus Lakers. This is once in a lifetime. This is Ali—Frazier. This is finally making it to Disneyland after years of false promises. This is the Beatles at Shea Stadium.

 

Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather. Defense vs. offense. Robin Hood vs. King Midas.

 

To promote his fight against Mosley, Mayweather posed for a number of pictures in which he was dressed in a classical soldier’s armor with shield and sword, not unlike the hero Achilles.

 

Remember that in the Iliad, Achilles was the greatest of all warriors, the strongest and fastest fighter in the entire world. He was virtually invincible, unless his opponent was able to find and exploit his one fatal weakness.

 

Floyd Mayweather claims that he does everything right. He doesn’t have a weakness. In truth, with his unbelievable defense, he seems almost impossible to touch, to hurt. He looks invincible.

 

Don’t let him fool you.

[Faulks]

Right Ladies & Gents lets try and discuss this without the need to lock the thread mlol/

[Wheelchair]

Right Ladies & Gents lets try and discuss this without the need to lock the thread mlol/

 

Seconded!

[McBride]

Who exactly is the contradictory Robert Pecchio?

 

Everyone is entitled to thelir opinion. The guy is a fool if he thinks Mayweather is scared of a naturally smaller man with a 5 inch reach disadvantage. The Oscar analogy is nonsense. Anyone ( yes even Clottey ) would have beaten the static skeleton that turned up that night. Yet this harder puncher than Mayweather has ever faced ( Pecchio's description )couldn't knock the badly weight drained Oscar off his feet.

 

Mayweather has an unbelievable defence, seems almost impossible to touch, nearly invincible ( Pecchio's description again ) yet he's scared of Pacciow.

 

Does this guy also write for ladies gossip magazines?

 

Or is it more a question of him leeching a few dollars off Mayweathers name, now he seems to be back in the limelight?

[Skav]

Who exactly is the contradictory Robert Pecchio?

 

Everyone is entitled to thelir opinion. The guy is a fool if he thinks Mayweather is scared of a naturally smaller man with a 5 inch reach disadvantage. The Oscar analogy is nonsense. Anyone ( yes even Clottey ) would have beaten the static skeleton that turned up that night. Yet this harder puncher than Mayweather has ever faced ( Pecchio's description )couldn't knock the badly weight drained Oscar off his feet.

 

Mayweather has an unbelievable defence, seems almost impossible to touch, nearly invincible ( Pecchio's description again ) yet he's scared of Pacciow.

 

Does this guy also write for ladies gossip magazines?

 

Or is it more a question of him leeching a few dollars off Mayweathers name, now he seems to be back in the limelight?

 

That's one of the reasons why I think these PED accusations are complete nonsense.

 

The manner of Manny's victories at Welterweight are nothing to be suspicious about.

 

Oscar was shot, Hatton wasn't as good as we all thought and Cotto was stopped by the ref as an act of mercy, otherwise he would have made it to the final bell.

 

I think people look at Floyd and compare him with Manny and think something is up.

 

But if Floyd had Manny's style, I am sure that, he too, would be knocking out people.

 

Floyd loves to work technically where as Manny is like Duran in that he wants to destroy his opponents.

 

Anyway, hopefully this fight gets made, I am sure it will and all this build up is to push the hype through the roof, IMO.

[Wheelchair]

The manner of Manny's victories at Welterweight are nothing to be suspicious about.

 

Correct. Many fighters have either moved through the weights or stopped guys much bigger than themselves.

 

Hearns, Leonard, Armstrong, Duran, Arguello and De La Hoya are all examples of fighters who have stopped guys far above their original fighting weight.

 

Then there's Jimmy Wilde. He was a flyweight who used to KO men weighing 200lbs or more! No suspicious substances about in his day.

[Andre00]

First of all i loved this part >> "With an unwavering confidence, and a smile so glossy it would make Lucifer jealous" good writing, but i disagree when u said Manny is faster than Floyd, i have seen many interviews and heard experts comment on that topic, and most concluded that Floyd has faster hands, and as for the power factor, if u think someone who started at 110 has more power than a Shane Mosley who is a true Welter, than there is something abnormal going on !!! it`s like saying, Shane has more power than Mike Tyson !!!

[Skav]

First of all i loved this part >> "With an unwavering confidence, and a smile so glossy it would make Lucifer jealous" good writing, but i disagree when u said Manny is faster than Floyd, i have seen many interviews and heard experts comment on that topic, and most concluded that Floyd has faster hands, and as for the power factor, if u think someone who started at 110 has more power than a Shane Mosley who is a true Welter, than there is something abnormal going on !!! it`s like saying, Shane has more power than Mike Tyson !!!

 

I don't think the same logic applies here because Manny was malnutritioned as a kid and it's a possibility that his body has fully developed into it's natural weight ie a welterweight.

 

That would explain his lack of punch resistance at Lightweight and lower as he would have to keep boiling down to a weight that his body wasn't comfortable being at.

[Andre00]

Fair enough!!! good reasoning!!!

[gavpowell]

In any case it doesn;t follow that size means you hit harder. Valuev is absolutely massive compared to Pacquiao but I wouldn't bet against Pacquiao hitting harder. Possiby the principle of force=massxacceleration applies, but I was never a man for physics.

[WelshDevilRob]

In any case it doesn;t follow that size means you hit harder. Valuev is absolutely massive compared to Pacquiao but I wouldn't bet against Pacquiao hitting harder. Possiby the principle of force=massxacceleration applies, but I was never a man for physics.

 

Huge difference between Pacquiao and Valuev is that one of them knows how to throw punches properly and the other doesn't. I'll let people make their own minds up which is which.

[gavpowell]

Alright then Pacquiao and Chris Byrd!

[McBride]

I am sorry, but this b******t is all down to Pacciow knocking Hatton out.

 

Fact.

 

Mayweather hits Hatton with a quick left hook, and sends him into the turnbuckle.

 

Fact.

 

Cortez lets him restart after the 8 count. Mayweather hits him again and he goes down flat on his back, and Cortez waves off the fight immediately, thus creating the TKO.

 

Fact.

 

In the Pacciow fight, Hatton gets hit with a right hand in the first round, goes down and gets up again, he then gets hit with more punches and goes down for the second time, and gets up yet again. Make your own mind up as to whether or not he recovers, or is shot to bits.

 

Fact.

 

Hatton then gets hit with a brilliant shot in the second round, and Kenny Bayliss does make the count thus creating a KO. In both cases Hatton was flat out on his back, and was NOT getting up, yet the myth arises that the little Pacciow is some kind of HUGE puncher.

 

 

Now comes the revisionist garbage that gets written by people like Pecchio, and latched onto by stupid fans as desperate for a new hero, and as silly as little girl groupies of a pathetic Take That style boy band.

 

Fact.

 

Both Mosley, and Marquez have never been beaten by such wide margins in their careers as those inflicted by Mayweather.

 

OPINION.

 

As stated previously, some so called fans allow their predjudice of the less than acceptable human being Maywether cloud their judgement of his ability, and pure genius inside a boxing ring.

[TheBigTodd]

Dont forget though that it took Mayweather 10 rounds to get to that stoppage and Pacquiao only two....however the MP loss came at Rickys best and undfeated weight.

 

With 67% (MP) and 61% (FMJ) I wouldnt consider either of them to be huge punchers. Of course someone else will do the breakdown and show %age of stoppages accross the weight classes and talk about natural weight and being weight drained etc and they would be right.

 

Facts / stats can be twisted anyway someone wants them to be...

[Wheelchair]

Facts / stats can be twisted anyway someone wants them to be...

 

Very true. We'll be here until doomsday arguing about this one! mlol/

[iamasadlittleboy]

Facts / stats can be twisted anyway someone wants them to be...

 

Very true. We'll be here until doomsday arguing about this one! mlol/

 

 

Would someone on here possibly do that? ;-)

[McBride]

Dont forget though that it took Mayweather 10 rounds to get to that stoppage and Pacquiao only two....however the MP loss came at Rickys best and undfeated weight.

 

With 67% (MP) and 61% (FMJ) I wouldnt consider either of them to be huge punchers. Of course someone else will do the breakdown and show %age of stoppages accross the weight classes and talk about natural weight and being weight drained etc and they would be right.

 

Facts / stats can be twisted anyway someone wants them to be...

 

I totally agree with you Big T.

 

With regards to your own figures 67%, and 61% respectively, doesn't it make you chuckle a little bit though when Mosley's 74% gets dismissed out of hand by the folks?

[edsel77x]

Pacman is King in the ring, P4P numbero uno.

Mayweather is relegated to.......... drum roll please..... Not numbero uno.

 

Dress him up all you want, write an article about how brilliant (careful not to infringe on the Guinness ads) he is in the ring, but until he starts getting in the ring with the tops then Manny will remain #1. And Cotto should be rated higher because of the level of opposition that he has faced. Which is everyone Mayweather has not! Mayweather should have fought: Cotto, Margarito (hand wraps or not people were scared of him and did not want to fight him, Mayweather especially), Pacman, and that's just to name a few. Everyone Mayweather fought Cotto knockout! Let's not mention the other match ups mayweather should have been involved in.

Going gets rough he takes sabbtical. Actions speak louder than words. Especially when he sticks both feet in his mouth. lol

Win a fight against Mosley, get asked about Pacman take another vaction! Come on.....! To much dancing around the issue. I don't need a behavior specialist to analyze him and say, " he is not confident in his skills to beat who ever he is avoiding at the time". He is scared. Am I the only one who sees that or is there an opinion or a biblical truth that would help me see this in a different light. If so please do enlighten me!

 

The greatest P4P ducking list, in our era

1. Mayweather

2. Haye

 

Any suggestions would be appreciated since this list is not complete

[iamasadlittleboy]

Khan needs to be added, John too lol

[gavpowell]

The p4p list should be, as it was originally intended, based on who has the skills to beat any fighter in their era, assumibng weight were no barrier. Pacman certainly doesn;t get the top spot there, especially nor does Cotto. Whether Mayweather qualifies if a tricky one, but look at how stupid he made Marquez look - nobody's dominated Marquez like that before.

[grapevine241]

greatness is relative to competition faced. mayweather and pacquiao have same problem in that regard, unlike de la hoya who fought nearly all of the greatest fighters of his era though he came up short against many. forgetting the fact that its easier to evaluate his career now that he's retired, we know exactly how good de la hoya was --- we don't know exactly how good mayweather is. fights with casamayor, tsyzu, cotto, etc. could have helped us decide.

[edsel77x]

oopps

 

wrong topic I posted on, had too many windows open...

[edsel77x]

where'd that comment go?

...And like that, poof. He's gone.

Verbal, The Usual Suspect

[edsel77x]

grapevine241 wrtoe:

greatness is relative to competition faced. mayweather and pacquiao have same problem in that regard, unlike de la hoya who fought nearly all of the greatest fighters of his era though he came up short against many. forgetting the fact that its easier to evaluate his career now that he's retired, we know exactly how good de la hoya was --- we don't know exactly how good mayweather is. fights with casamayor, tsyzu, cotto, etc. could have helped us decide.

 

 

Well said!

[brooklynbrawler]

The problem with Floyd for me, is that I find it very difficult to give him heaps of praise or respect, bar for a very few fights;

 

Corrales - bar the weight issue, he was in his prime and a monster puncher.

Mosley - bar the age thing, he was most definitely not spent, and probably had the biggest punching power of any Floyd opponent.

Hatton - bar the fact it was at 147lbs....you get where I'm going with this anyway.

 

There's always "something" in Floyd fights. A previous loss. They're waaaay past their best. They're out of their natural weight class....etc etc

The same can be applied to a few Pacquiao fights, but at the end of the day, he has fought and beaten a broader spectrum of top fighters, and for that reason alone, it is a lot more difficult to nit-pick at his career, and there are few, if any fighters (other than Mayweather of course) who I would say he "should" have fought, which is the total polar opposite of how I evaluate Floyd's career to date.

 

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind at all, that Floyd is supremely talented, and had he fought even a handful of the opponents he could and should have fought along the way, then I also have no doubt he could and would have beaten them all.

The problem is he didn't.

 

This for me, puts him in the same category as Joe Calzaghe.

A wonder to watch at times, skills unsurpassed by anyone of note in their weight categories, but other than a couple of defining fights, his career has been largely wasted, particularly if he really WAS as good as he has looked against the cannon fodder.

I do give him the deserved respect for the 3 guys I mentioned above, and regardless of the nit-picking, I tend to ignore these facts, and treat them with the credit they deserve.

For me, it hasn't happened often enough for a supposed, self-proclaimed "Pound for Pound greatest fighter" ever.

 

Now I am also not trying to build Manny up to the status of some sort of super force, who is unstoppable either, before anyone thinks I am completely biased towards one side of this ever-lasting argument.

Manny is not without his flaws either, and his 3 defeats and 2 questionable draws will easily tell you that.

I have always been a fan of raw power, rather than the "sweet science" of boxing, so I will almost always find it easier to favour a guy who displays the most in terms of KO power, but I can easily picture both outcomes of this fight;

 

Floyd marching onto a 12 round unanimous decision, using his superior technical and defensive abilities to largely avoid being hit and thus cementing his place, finally, among the greatest of his generation.

 

OR

 

Manny showing that he really is a monster at the weight, and that his KO's and speed demonstrated against the bigger guys is no fluke or dictated by the circumstances at the time. He could just as easily walk Floyd down, given he should have little to worry about in terms of power punches returned. Cotto couldn;t take it, Hatton couldn;t take it, and Floyd could be the ultimate scalp to go the same way.

 

 

Either way, these guys are spending far too long dicking around avoiding this fight, and ultimately, just like Joe Calzaghe, by the time it comes around, it could be about as pointless as his fight with Roy Jones Jr.

Had this happened 5 years earlier, we could have been looking at the best mid-weight fight of all time.

The longer this drags on, the less relevance it is going to have...