Hardly a mistake. He was a member of Haiti's boxing squad in the 2004 Olympics, claims dual citizenship and still proudly represents his roots. Understandable why he's looked at as Haitian first.
Yeah, because we were all sitting here and talking about how amazing the division was when those guys held belts. And why did Brewster have a belt, anyway? The fuck is the matter with some of you?
Mayweather is the poster-boy for all that has gone wrong with things in American boxing. He blends opportunism, half-truths, abuse of bargaining power with copious dollops of schmalz and bravado to create this "Undefeated PfP" myth when the truth of the matter is that the chap has picked more cherries than he's popped. United Fruit haven't cherry-picked like this guy has. Yet there he is. Undefeated and pfp#1, with all his shit paid for. :shit:
Guy goes to a shop and buys 2Kg of steaks. He brings them home and throws them in the freezer. His wife has some friends over, they eat the steaks. Husband walks in and enquires about his steaks. He is told that the cat has eaten them. So he picks the cat up, drops him on the scales and the cat weighs 2Kg's. So the guy says to his wife.....if this is my steaks, then where is my cat? If Floyd is the Welter champ, undefeated, and pfp#1, with all his shit paid for, then who is Manny Pacquaio???
I'd say yes, but the fact that his status can be debated doesn't help. B-Scene recognized Mayweather-Mosley as a championship fight, but there's a strong case to be made that the winner facing Pac would've been the final piece to the puzzle.
It really comes down to whether or not you thought Cotto/Margarito was for all the marbles at welter after Mayweather retired.
Hmm... I wasn't even thinking of that, but if that's the case, then the answer is a resounding no. the only way you consider Margarito champ after that fight is retroactively awarding him the crown. At the time, Williams was still at welterweight, if I'm not mistaken barely a month or two removed from his knockout win over Quintana in their rematch. He was also actively campaigning for a crack at the Cotto-Margarito winner, though failure to make that happen is what led him to 154 and beyond. That's really been the problem in attempting to crown a lineal champ post-Mayweather's faux retirement: Margarito-Cotto - Paul Williams stood in the way Mosley-Margarito - Cotto, even w/ the loss to Margarito, was still ranked higher than Shane Mayweather-Mosley - Manny Pacquiao stood in the way
I just looked it up. You're right, Williams was about a month removed from his rematch with Quintana - also his last fight at welterweight. And I guess Mosley was stripped of whatever belt he took from Margarito between that and the Mayweather fight.
With Mosley, I think he was still WBA champ since Mayweather refused to pay the sanctioning fee, but that he was stripped afterwards. Made no sense, but then when do the sanctioning bo... ah never mind, don't want to want to start another argument between you and mikE. ::
:: Yeah, it's for the best. Before we leave this though, wasn't Margarito pretty universally looked upon as the lineal champ after he beat Cotto? Or am I just losing it?
He was regarded as the man to beat at welterweight, but for the reasons I mentioned above, not the lineal champion. There seemed to be more of a stink about it going into Mosley-Margarito, that if Margarito won he should've been recognized as the lineal champ, but that if Shane won, a Cotto rematch was necessary.
Well that thing at 168 contained the seeds of its own destruction. If something can go wrong, it will, and you best believe it won't take two years to happen either. Still it was a fine idea and may yet throw up more answers than questions.
Lineage is often the strongest argument, but it's not the only thing that matters, imo. Claims get weaker and stronger depending on what is going on with other top fighters in the division and which, if any, belts are being fought for. Welterweight is a good example where the best fighter might not have the best claim to being considered the champ. And it's not clear who the best fighter is. It's just a messy situation right now that probably won't be resolved until one or both of Pacquiao/Mayweather are out of the picture or beats the other and beats any other title holder who has a decent claim. That could be Berto. It could be someone else. It just depends. For the masses, it will just be the winner of Pacq/Mayweather, though.