On Saturday September 12th Floyd “money” Mayweather ended his illustrious and glittering boxing career by beating Andre Berto in a somewhat routine 117-111, 118-110, 120-108 points victory.
Although before and after his 49th career win, many slated the Berto fight. Proclaiming it to be a farce, another cherry picked opponent and an expected less than spectacular win.
This was also reflected in the very low PPV sales. I felt for all he had done and achieved in the sport he deserved to go out with a routine victory….Not that most of his last few have been routine anyway.
Floyd will always have his critics. Not just for the way he fights but for all his antics outside the ring. Though his antics outside the ring has proved to be a smart, shrewd and calculated business move.
The fact of the matter is, inside the ring he’s a highly skilled, master technician with naturally gifted, God given talents as a boxer.
Though his last few fights have not been the most exciting for the casual fan. Floyd has revolutionized boxing for all he had done inside and outside the ring, and I fully believe he does not get nowhere near the credit he deserves.
This is why I laugh when the casual fan or the hater fan try to criticise him for being boring, saying he cherry picks his fights or he ducks people yet he has fought a who’s who in boxing.
When it comes to the boring tag, yes, his last few fights has not been the most brutal, toe to toe, Rocky type fights that people want to see.
But it has been a classic display of ring craft and a superb demonstration of the sweet science of boxing.
Even at the ripe old age of 36, 37, 38, younger, fresher boxers find it hard to lay a glove on him.
Haters gonna hate.
Let me just clarify something for the casual fan. The true art of boxing, the sweet science is to hit and not get hit. Very few in the history of boxing have demonstrated that art better than Floyd.
Due to this. Floyd gets stick for what fans feel is lack of excitement and no killer instinct to finish his opponents. “If he’s so much better than them”.
The reason why I laugh and call them the “casual fan” is the criticism only stems from wanting Floyd to lose.
It is as plain and simple as that. I mean, they are criticising a boxer who fought twice a year for the last 3 years of his career, in his mid to late 30’s and made it look easy. That’s unprecedented.
Even more so, in those last six fights he fought Pacquiao the man that everyone was convinced he would lose to and to most. He long rivaled Mayweather as the best pound for pound fighter. Outcome: Easy victory.
He also fought Saul “Canelo” Alvarez the young, strong brawler who many thought would be too young, fresh and strong for Floyd.
Canelo is still considered to be the future of boxing, along with a few other fighters. Outcome: Easy victory. (although one judge scored it a draw) lol
When he fought Maidana, typically most were upset at the choice of opponent. Even though Maidana just humiliated Broner.
But he gave Floyd a better fight than most. So everyone called for the rematch. Floyd boxed and moved in the second fight, just like he said he would and strolled to an easy victory, which got the bandwagon hater fans calling him boring again.
Trip down memory lane
The thing is, the casual fan or even the hater fan seem to forget so quickly.
If you are a boxing fan then you should know a bit about Floyd’s history.
Just in 2012 Floyd fought Miguel Cotto in a tough, all action fight which was one of the fights of the year.
It was the first time we saw Floyd actually bleed and he was losing the fight in the middle rounds before coming on strong in the later rounds, even stumbling Cotto in the 12th, to take a hard-fought but deserved victory.
Floyd retired in 2007 and came back in 2009 to cruise to a dominating victory against widely regarded as a top pound for pound contender at that time Marquez.
Then Mosley in 2010, who gave Floyd the biggest scare he ever had in a ring in the second round, when he was rocked twice before cruising to another routing victory.
Just before Floyd retired In 2007 he had two fantastic fights. The first against the bigger, heavier and much fancied Oscar De la Hoya.
Where Floyd, after only two fights at Welterweight, moved up to light middleweight and really came of age to win a tough, exciting, split decision victory.
Seven months later, he stopped the then undefeated Ricky Hatton.
Who tried his best to rough up Floyd and take him out of his game, in another all action fight where Floyd showed his class, strength and superior boxing skills.
Previous to that he had a grueling and brutal battle with Zab Judah. Was more or less punch perfect when he took out Arturo Gatti, forcing his corner put a stop to the beating after six rounds.
His three punch, straight right hands that took out Philip N’dou in 2003 was a thing of beauty.
Before that, he had two fights with the tough Mexican Jose Luis Castillo. In the first fight Floyd legitimately hurt the rotator cuff in his left shoulder and fought one-handed.
You could clearly hear him moaning about his shoulder between rounds each time he went back to his corner.
Many claimed Floyd lost this fight but again I feel that was more in hope as it was closer than a lot of his other fights.
Due to the closeness of that fight, 8 months later Floyd granted Castillo an immediate rematch and cruised to a points victory which could justify he was fighting one-handed in the first fight.
Previous to that in 2001 he fought Diego Corrales a highly respected fighter.
Floyd dismantled him, knocking him down five times, forcing Corrales’ corner to stop the fight at the end of the 10th round. It was Corrales’ first defeat in 34 fights and the first time he was knocked down in his career.
Those are the fights that really stick out. If you looked into his earlier fights you would see an exciting, all action fighter that threw loads of punches.
By time he fought Castillo, Floyd only went the distance 7 times in 27 fights.
It was only when he retired and came back in his early 30’s did he change his style and became more defensively slick and picky with his punches.
This was well documented that the cause was Floyd had brittle hands, this is the reason he retired after the Hatton fight in 2007 before coming back against Marquez in 2009.
It’s not cool to take punishment.
Floyd has also been prominent outside the ring. He encourages fighters to be self promoted, demonstrated how to really set yourself up for life in the industry by being a smart business man.
Instead of the sneaky and shady promoters who do not risk their life’s in the ring but seem to take the lion share of the money.
Floyd was also the first boxer to bring in USADA type random drug testing to make the sport even more cleaner.
With on-going drug issues in other sports, several boxers have welcomed the random drug testing and adopted a similar stipulation in their own fights.
Again fans will always criticise but personally I admire his business brain. I agree with him that it’s not cool to take punishment.
If you look at a lot of the great boxers of the past, many have severe health issues as a result of too much punishment in the ring.
They may live on in the fans memories and have classic fights but how does that help the boxers families when they hang up the gloves and unable to live a healthy life?
In his late 30’s Floyd was still able to fight twice a year for the last three years of his career and remain sharp, mobile, accurate and at the top of his game.
Though I noticed his movement was slowing down a bit in his last few fights, it was still too good for his younger opponents and the fact of the matter is he remained undefeated over 19 years.
It’s funny how everyone wants to criticise but if you compare many of the greats in their late 30’s. Father time caught up with them all.
They all got exposed and took heavy beatings. Haters say all Floyd does is hug and run but I bet the past greats who got defeated late in their careers, would have loved to been able to do that to avoid punishment and a crushing defeat.
Again, love him or hate him….Which most do. I fully believe in years to come Floyd will be recognised as one of the greatest boxers of all time. Not just this era.
Many of the top fighters did not really get recognition until they took their first loss. Floyd was never in that position so his hate has remained.
But regardless of what anyone wants to say about him, his record speaks for itself and unlike many other fighters with massive records. There is video evidence of all Floyd’s 49 victories.
I guarantee you his fight video’s will be studied, used and more appreciated as the years roll on.
I also believe just like most of the past greats in years to come what he did in and for the sport will start to really hit home and he will begin to get the recognition he deserves.
Despite the critics, despite the hate, regardless of the fact that most were desperate to see him lose. Like it or not, Floyd Mayweather is a icon in the sport of boxing and you have to give him his respect.
There will only ever be one Floyd Mayweather…..He came, he saw, he conquered.
