The next British Heavyweight World Champion

[billabong]

Then I would withdraw entirely coz clearly YDKSAB xx

Ahh the oxymoron that is "clearly YDKSAB" lol

[pottr]

More of a statement

Feel free to retort... Who is a more worthy fighter with a claim to be greatest of our generation?

[billabong]

ahh, get it now, the K threw me for a moment. .

What's your take on Golovkin btw ?

[pottr]

It's the classic Floyd to Merchant "you don't know **** about boxing"

[billabong]

although not as classic as the doctor asking Hagler if he could see ok. . . .

[pottr]

Granted

GGG, exciting fighter... Not fought a marquee name yet. I don't think that's his fault, he's certainly avoided at Middleweight...

Made himself look a bit of a twat by calling out Froch and then demanding a catch weight to fight Ward... Incidentally I feel both would beat him.

If he wants to unify at middleweight then I can only see Cotto giving him anything to worry about stylistically. GGG doesn't really fight from range or up close, he's more of a mid range ambusher with excellent range and timing... cuts off the ring really well. Cotto like to get in the pocket and work opponents with pressure and physicality... Unfortunately, Cotto fights Canelo next with GGG mandated to fight the winner... I don't think Cotto beats Canelo and I don't think Canelo matches up well vs GGG so I doubt we will see the GGG/Cotto match up... Boxing triangles don't work out.

If GGG moves up... I think he will get beat by 3 or 4 super middleweights... He is very hittable and there is no guarantee his power would carry... Arthur Abraham was a similar knockout artist before he moved up to Super Middle so there is an argument for that...

I think he might drop down to be honest after he unifies super middle... There are bigger fights for him at that weight in the future... Potentially Lara, Kell Brook, Andrade...

If he moves up to Super middle then the only money fight for him is Ward and I think GGG simply wants no part of him.

[pottr]

Also, I'm not sure how well GGG's PPV will do

Going up against Floyd/Berto and Cotto/Canelo... If it doesn't do enough buys, then GGG's career is in danger of stalling again... Nothing to do with his talent, he's just not as marketable as the other fighters.

[billabong]

They were saying that. He fights ppv, if not good uptake, it's back to hbo for a few, then try ppv again.

I don't ( can't ) read boxing as well as you, so it's interesting to read from someone who obviously knows >sab.

I'd noticed GGG taking and walking through some big punches in his last few fights, but then I always played Doom in "invincible mode" LOL

Can't see Mayweather fighting him. He doesn't want a Holmes / Spinks scenario happening. .

[pottr]

Why should Mayweather fight him? Floyd's will be 39 in May is he wants a 50th fight and GGG will still not have fought anyone near the top of any division...

I would still take Floyd in that fight at 154 but again it wouldn't happen...

Everyone hates on Floyd. He beat the guy (comprehensively) who was supposed to be the antidote... Folks need to take their medicine and congratulate the master craftsman... Boxing is the sweet science, hit and not be hit...

No one in history has done is like Floyd.

Put it this way... Floyd's next fight is against Andre Berto... and people are calling it a joke... Personally, I don't mind it coz it frees up all the other top welterweights to potentially match up against each other.

But even with all the hate against Berto... GGG hasn't fought a fighter anywhere near the calibre of an Andre Berto... But it's fine for him to take a Willie Monroe jr or a Martin Murray as a defence... Why isn't GGG a joke?

It's these consistent double standards against Floyd that irritate me... Perpetuated by the media... keyboard warriors. Even if he beat GGG, they'd say he should take on Klitschko

Ah well... rant over.

[gavpowell]

Castillo, Corrales, Hernandez, De la Hoya, Judah, Moseley, a peak Hatton, Marquez

An undefeated Canelo. Miguel Cotto, both of whom went on to win world titles after Floyd beat them.

Who hasn't he fought? I guess you could only say Paul Williams or Margarito?

In Mayweather's case, though there is a decent list of people he never fought, it's often a question of when or how: Canelo had a stupid catchweight/rehydration limit imposed on him, Mosley was shot to bits(though fair play, Mosley ducked out on Mayweather years ago), he retired mid-promotion for the DLH rematch, possibly worried OScar had enough left to beat him next time. He didn't fight Margarito or Cintron(both one-dimensional sluggers, but still), or Freitas, or Tszyu, he fought Cotto after Miguel had been battered to crap by Margarito, Clottey and Pacquiao. He's opted for Berto instead of a Thurman or at a push even a Khan.

I never understood why Mayweather didn't go up and dethrone Martinez - he would have seriously boosted his legend had he done so.

I think Mayweather beating Pacquiao just tips the scales in his favour, but Mayweather sat in the welterweight division for several years fighting nobody special, while Pacquiao came up and fought everyone Mayweather should have been fighting - he waited for the welterweight division to clean itself up before he really made the effort, and despite talking about fighting in Britain etc., he rarely even left Vegas.

Mayweather's skills are superb, but I think De la Hoya, Margarito and even Judah showed he can be surprisingly vulnerable to a stiff jab.

In terms of the best ever, I think Floyd will be top 20 maybe, but he wouldn't make my top 10 - Robinson, Leonard, Duran, Monzon, Chavez, Pep, maybe Greb...

Re: Golovkin, I've been saying for a while he needs some live opponents(Geale was fine, that's about it), but I also think he doesn't bother moving his head or blocking if he knows a guy can't hurt him - he was quite animated against Crawford, but then against the likes of Macklin and Murray, just thought "Sod this, let's just get on with it."

[pottr]

If you scrutinise every aspect, you can pick holes in anything...

Protecting your assets in life is what you do... All these caveats and limits, fighters agreed to and yet they still could not better Floyd in any contest. If Floyd wasn't such a colossal *****, everyone would accept that he's a phenomenon...

With all that considered and however you look at it... I ask again, who is a more worth fighter to be crowned best in our generation?

Ironic really, that we're discussing boxing on a snooker forum and ROS is universally loved and considered a tortured genius...

Floyd Mayweather Jr has dedicated his life to his craft and maximised his potential and skill... He had a far tougher upbringing that ROS who is pretty much a spoilt little rich kid... Noone would say ROS has maximised his talent.

If you can love ROS, why can't you love Floyd?

I never understood why Mayweather didn't go up and dethrone Martinez - he would have seriously boosted his legend had he done so.

Do you really think Sergio would have agreed to fight Floyd in Vegas? I don't.

[pottr]

I forgot to mention Clottey... I do think he may have given Floyd some headaches stylistically... As I think Amir Khan would...

But NEITHER would get the W against Floyd... I'm not biased towards Floyd, I just recognise how intelligent he is... The things he does in the ring are so simple, yet when you lace them up for a spar, even if you remind yourself to try those things, you can't react quick enough to make them worth while...

Floyd's body of work is there for him to be judged on... He could even fight Rod Salka next and it wouldn't matter at all... TBE (maybe)

Masterful boxer... at the tail end of his career and still the best out there.

I forgot he beat GATTI too! Was just about to comment, I love the Gatti type, but it's not as deep an appreciation as I have for the true boxers like Floyd.

[gavpowell]

He beat a guy who used to be Arturo Gatti, just as Pacquiao beat a guy who used to be Erik Morales. And Gatti was always more excitement than ability - you don't go life and death with Micky Ward if you're an elite fighter!

I said several years ago when I was talking about him taking on Martinez, I don't think there was a fighter below middleweight(except maaaaaybe De la Hoya) who could beat Mayweather, and I think that still holds today. But just because it would probably be an easy win, doesn't mean you shouldn't fight them.

And I didn't think Khan deserved a shot anyway, it was hilarious watching Floyd toy with him. But if he was going to pick Berto, he could at least have taken Khan and shut his mouth. Again.

I'm a Mayweather fan in terms of his ability and the like, and I don't care what a sportsperson's personality is like - Morales is something of an arsehole, Monzon was a wife-beating murderer, ROS is a manchild. But I object to fighters putting stupid clauses in contracts and putting weight stipulations on - I don't like that Leonard did it, I don't like that Pacquiao did it and I don't like that Mayweather did it. You yourself have described Pacquiao as the catchweight king, so why should Mayweather get a pass?

Yes, he could beat all his opponents regardless, which is why he should have done so, same as Pacquiao. If you want to fight a light-middleweight for the light-middleweight championship, GO TO LIGHT-MIDDLEWEIGHT. When Robinson fought LaMotta, he didn't say "Well, I'm a superstar and I want the middleweight title, so how about you weigh in at 152?"

And again for Martinez - a radical idea, but fight outside of Vegas. But I don't see why he wouldn't have agreed anyway - Martinez fought in Vegas a few times.

[pottr]

Pacman fought DLH at 147 too... holes everywhere which is why I just look at records for what they are...

I've never met Amir Khan, but he does come across as a muppet... Self righteous... You're exactly right... Floyd toyed with him. I don't think Floyd likes Amir Khan... he will never get the fight.

Thurman still has a lot to prove too... Not yet got that stand out name on his record.

[gavpowell]

Pacman fought DLH at 147 too... holes everywhere which is why I just look at records for what they are...

That was De La Hoya's hubris though - I don't blame Pacquiao for that fight - De La Hoya, sulking about the failed attempt to poach Pacquiao from Arum, decided to feed his ego by dropping down to a weight he hadn't fought at since forever, so he could say "Look! I came down to his own weight and showed him a thing or two!" I said before the fight that Pacquiao would batter him and so it proved. I mostly just ignore the fight as it was largely meaningless, whereas credit to Mayweather for fighting him at 154.

Yeah Thurman is nothing special to me, but it's like Calzaghe's last fights - I think it looks far better if you beat the young pretender rather than go for some shot-to-bits fighter with name recognition. Look at what Froch has achieved since and look at what Roy Jones has achieved since. Calzaghe benefited from Hopkins' miraculous efforts above middleweight after he'd retired, otherwise Hopkins would have been a pretty poor opponent on the record, as he was considered at the time he agreed to fight Calzaghe.

You can't look at the records without context, or else you end up with Marciano as the greatest heavyweight of all time - after all, he beat Joe Louis!