Floyd Mayweather Jr. once again declared himself the greatest and best boxer of all time.
During a guest appearance on ESPN, where he had to choose the five greatest boxers of all time from ten offered, Floyd Mayweather Jr. did not surprise anyone with the choice of whom he would put in the first place, nor with the style in which he explained his choice. The statements were transmitted by the SPORTbible portal.
“He’s beat more world champions than any other fighter in a shorter time and less fights than any other fighter. Landed punches at the highest percentage and took less punishment. He’s been world champion 18 years in five different weight divisions.”
– said Mayweather, deliberately putting himself in the third person, thus trying to give himself even more value
Still, the fact that most of such charts are led by Muhammad Ali was what he was asked to comment on, especially since he had previously made some statements revealing that he is not a big fan of Ali’s boxing style and doesn’t consider his successes so great.
“Ali, only one weight class and really lost to Ken Norton three times”, said Floyd briefly, only to turn to what Ali stood out for and why he thought he was considered a bigger boxer than he really was:
“What he did is he stood for a cause in an era when African Americans didn’t stand up for their people. But what are we going to judge boxers by? If we are to judge by the influence and the struggle on that question, then to Ali every honor. But if we’re going to look at receiving as little damage as possible and breaking records, then the biggest is Floyd Mayweather. Muhammad Ali is the legend that built the path for me to be where I am today. But if we talk about the results, we have to mention that Ali lost the world title to a boxer who had only seven matches.”
In the latter statement, Mayweather refers to the defeat that Ali, in 1978, towards the end of his career, suffered from Leon Spinks. But in doing so, he ignored the fact that Spinks had previously gained the status of one of America’s most successful boxing Olympians. Still, he eventually dropped the “ball to the ground,” expressing once again respect for Ali, but again with an addition in his own style.
“Kudos to Ali, but I haven’t given 40 years to this sport to say today that someone is better than me. I’m here today to teach the fighters something. The name of this game should be how to hit an opponent without him hitting you. It all comes down to avoid receiving damage. I love Ali, but hanging on ropes and receiving damage, that’s not right,” he explained his theory to the end.
Mayweather eventually put Ali in fifth place, while he explained the rest of the list like this:
“The second is Roberto Duran. He came from the lightweight division and became the world middleweight champion, I love that guy. The third is Pernell Whittaker. He beat Julius Cesar Chavez, and he defeated my uncle Roger twice. The fourth is Chavez, he was 79-0 through several different categories, before losing for the first time.”
The remaining five boxers offered but not making it to Floyd’s list are Sugar Ray Robinson, Rocky Marciano, Joe Louis, Henry Armstrong, and Sugar Ray Leonard.
