Assuming Floyd's "retirement" is real... will he go down as greater than Roy?

Jesus! This thread even brought your old ass outta hiding!::

 

Well (and diplomatically) put

 

dsimon writes:

:bears: Indeed. Roy is naturally good, you see that type of package once in a long while. The speed, the reflexes, power, the ability to bring these elements together.

AS Muze said, Floyd does not have outstanding natural ability, he has great technical ability. Frankly this is the reason I respect Floyd more, but i recognize the irony... namely that Mayweather is a class below the truly great natural phenominons in the sport.

 

Assuming this retirement for real, I'd say it sort of hurts his legacy. Not in the sense that his all-time standing will suddenly plummet because he chose to retire, but I don't really believe in giving fighters extra credit for retiring early-ish, or fighters for fighting on too long. Most guys fight on too long.

It's more like, what has Floyd done to this point? A lot, but as much as Jones? I'm not sure about that.

A win over Cotto would help his legacy considerably.

 

Not every fighter's reputation grows much after their retirement, and I think Mayweather may fall into this category...especially if Cotto, and/or other welterweights create lasting legacies of their own and he never fights them.

His early career was great, and he was tremendously skilled, but I think the way he selected opponents from 140-154 will leave a lot to be desired (if it stays as is) in reflection...despite the fact that he won titles in the classes.

 

Not quite. I think Roy's dominant wins over Hopkins and Toney trump Floyd's best wins. To my mind the 90's generation go down as so -

1. Roy (roughly low 20's of all time)
2. Hopkins (roughly mid-high 20's of all time)
3. Floyd (low to mid 30s of all time)
4. Oscar (somewhere in the 40's all time)
5. Calzaghe (probably high 50's)

 

Close I guess... Floyd is (was) 1 big fight away from separating himself IMO. He wasn't as dynamic or flashy as Roy but at the end, his textbook perfection and the way he just adapts to anything in the ring is something Roy didn't quite had. Roy was a freak of nature with amazing speed and power, Floyd just knew too much how to fight and win.

 

i don't want to get into an in-depth debate about roy jones' resume - who knows what can of worms that may open. i just rate floyd's comp slightly better than roy's. i felt the DLH win was better than a lot of other people (clearly) and i think the Hatton win counted for quite a lot too.

as The Dude would say - that's just, like, my opinion, man

 

that's odd, considering the greatest victory of his career, legacy-wise, came last december.

 

You guys are all crazy, Floyd is/was a better fighter than Jones. Jones had more handspeed and power but that's it.

PBF has more dimensions as a fighter, more layers to his skill and is technically a far deeper fighter than RJ.

PBF is a legend, his smooth transissions between his offence and defence, the way he sets traps, the way he runs you into shots, the way he stopped a lot of guys in big fights (unlike RJ) ie. Manfredy, Chavez, Corrales, Chicanito H, Hatton...RJ stops Virgil Hill by mistake thats it .

In terms of athletic ability and speed of course Jones is it, but P4P Floyd would have beat him.

 

I don't agree. Oscar De La Hoya hasn't had a significant victory in six years. He's batting a little under .500 since. Legacy-wise, his wins over Genaro Hernandez, Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo trump that.

 

Who in the fuck is this MUZSE guy? Fightbeat is thriving when you booty shows up on the site and contributes some boxing knowledge. Way to go neo. I'll Holla 5000

 

I agree. the victory over delahoya didn't mean shit to his legacy.

but knocking out ricky hatton LAST DECEMBER was the greatest victory of mayweathers career, legacy wise.

 

Roy's best wins in this thread that surpass anything Floyd has done consist of:
a Bernard Hopkins who hadn't really done shit to that point and choked in his next shot at a title a year and a half later and
a James Toney, probably the second most over-rated guy in the past 15 years, with all due respect to the real deal...

 

Which is extremely sad considering that Hatton isn't even in the top 10 at welterweight.

 

hatton was among the ten best fighters in the world when he fought mayweather jr.

 

Sorry, if that's the biggest win on his resume than it's a lot worse than I thought. Thankfully, it's not. And I think Mayweather has an outstanding resume, BTW.

Hatton? No. Are we going by how good these fighters were or how many bums they put in seats? Cuz Ricky Hatton is a mediocre welterweight. I saw it against Collazo, leading me to believe Floyd Mayweather would beat the ever loving sh*t out of him. No, that win isn't as important as a 21yr. old Floyd totally dismantling Genaro Hernandez. Or his five knockdown, "hello world" performance against Corrales. Or others.

 

Look at the lightheavyweight division towards the end of Jones reign, there were no contenders he wouldn't fight, matter of fact he unified the division. Now look at Mayweather's reign at welterweight and the list of fighters he wouldn't fight.

 

Mayweather is no welterweight either.

 

Really? He's been fighting there for over two years now. Heck, he even moved up to junior middle for one fight. Hatton, on the other hand, fights at welter then runs back down, He's 0-2 at 147 as far as I'm concerned. He's not even at 147 now!

 

That's like saying Pacman is not a 130 pounder. The fact is, he is. It's admirable that he started his career as a flyweight, but he has grown into a 130 pounder and that's his division, now he's even movign up to lightweight.

Like Ken said, Floyd has been fighting at 147 for 2 years, that's his weight now, and since being at 147 he never went back down to 140.

With Floyd too, it's admirable that he started as a 130 pounder, but he's grown into a welterweight now.