Mayweather - Pacquiao fight will never happen

Yet another excuse from Floyd....i find it puzzling how Bob Arum being Pacquiao's promotor did not prevent Mayweather offering manny $40 million to fight a couple of years ago.

http://www.espn.co.uk/boxing/sport/story/267829.html

Floyd Mayweather Jr has hinted the long-awaited encounter against Manny Pacquiao will never go ahead while the Fillipino star remains with promoter Bob Arum, according to FightHype,com.

The fight is predicted to gross around $300 million if it goes ahead - which would be the highest total in history - and has been talked about by boxing fans and pundits for years.

But it seems that a long-running feud with Arum could be the road block for any potential fight for Mayweather, stemming from the days the promoter used to work with the undefeated American.

Mayweather split with Arum in 2006 amid accusations of underpaying and undermarketing him and has vowed to never work with anyone associated with his fellow countryman.

Mayweather told FightHype.com: "We all know the Pacquiao fight, at this particular time, will never happen, and the reason why the fight won't happen is because I will never do business with Bob Arum again in [my] life, and Pacquiao is Bob Arum's fighter.

"Bob Arum gives Pacquiao a date, whereas Floyd Mayweather gives Floyd Mayweather his own date. I will be fighting again in May and I will be fighting again in September.

"And I want to see Manny Pacquiao's real pay-per-view numbers. Get his pay-per-view numbers from his last fight and compare them to my pay-per-view numbers with Canelo Alvarez. Did he do 1.2 million homes? He has done one million homes."

Pacquiao is understood to want to find a solution to make the fight happen, but it seems unlikely now in the wake of Mayweather Jr's comments.

what were kahns, canelos and guerreros PPV numbers??
why si that an excuse not to fight Manny

If it look like a duck, it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck........

Strongback wrote:If it look like a duck, it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck........

Its probably Miley Cyrus

Remember Top Rank put the lil clock on their website for Floyd to sign??

Ahhhhh those were the days

Was JMM a top rank fighter when Floyd fought him?

First the drugs test, then he retires, then its the split and now it Bob Arum. How many more excuses will Floyd find to duck Manny, there is clearly something about the way Manny fights that makes Floyd, his dad and his uncle all want to avoid him.

I don't think Mayweather is at all worried about Pacquiao and never has been, from the start it's all been about getting one over on Arum. Some may see that as ducking while I see it as being a childish git who should be thinking about the amount he himself will be earning not the rival promoter.

Just shows how bad boxing has gone that a fight like this will never happen.

Hammersmith harrier wrote:I don't think Mayweather is at all worried about Pacquiao and never has been, from the start it's all been about getting one over on Arum. Some may see that as ducking while I see it as being a childish git who should be thinking about the amount he himself will be earning not the rival promoter.

I am not so sure, Floyd has always been very careful about risking his 0 and if he lost to Manny he was always going down as number 2 in his era and that is what he fears about Manny in my opinion.
I know if it happens Floyd will rightly be a big favourite, but i still think even know Manny has a good chance the speed and angles that he works from could give Floyds normally iron defence problems and if he keeps the pressure on tightly enough its possible Floyd could unravel i dont think it will be the easy nights work some will be predicting, before getting caught by that peach of a shot by JMM he was looking the best i have seen him in years.

I do disagree somewhat and above lightweight I can't think of anyone that was expected to trouble Pacquiao himself. The third fight against Marquez was seen as a massive mismatch before it happened but it transpired very differently and for the life of me can't see Mayweather struggling with him. He was looking apart from the knockdown and the eventual knockout but those are the two key moments in the fourth fight, he was looking good but still very vulnerable to the counter.

Call it a duck if you like but I don't think Mayweather is anyway inclined to help fill Arums pockets any more than they already are.

I honestly think if Manny left Top Rank tomorrow Floyd would find another excuse to not take the fight, though i am not sure its as much Floyd as his Uncle and Dad who dont want the fight.

he was happy to fill arums pockets, when he said the only thing in the way of the fight was Manny refusing the drug testing flloyd demanded!

he was also willing to work with arum when he said he would fight if manny accepted 40%

he went into negotiations with arum. so theres no way this has ALWAYS been about flloyd not wanting to work with arum again. it may be a genuine problem now, but any flloyd fans thinking this is their mans only problem are well wide of the mark.

This is the exact problem with modern day fighters and the reason why when discussing all time P4P rankings very few fighters from 1980's feature. Whilst many would agree plenty of fighters within the years 80's-modern day could challenge for a top 10 spot, far to many can bring up reasons why they don't belong.

Would you have seen Sugar Ray Leonard avoiding anyone?! Would you have seen Sanchez doing everything he could to avoid Nelson? The simple answer is no.

Whichever way anyone wishes to look at the situation between the two greats, the simple and straightforward answer is that both avoided one another. I wouldn't even care if evidence came out suggesting one was to blame more than the other, they simply both owed it to boxing fans to 'get it on', the fact they didn't (whilst others think they may still, I don't)
puts a huge shadow over both legacies!

Lets take a look at names that feature amongst most people's Top 10-15 fighters:

Ali - Frazier, Foreman
Leonard - Duran, Hearns, Hagler

I could go on but I don't think I need to. Even in the 90's/00's you had the likes of Naz fighting Barrera, Barrera fighting Morales, De La Hoya fighting Hopkins.

We complain many times that the best don't fight each other these days, but I think many forget how good we had it up until the early 00's.

Trinidad fought the likes of Camcho & Whittaker
Holyfield fought Tyson & Lewis
De La Hoya fought Trinidad, Chavez, Quartey but to name a few
We had Toney vs Jones jr
Naz vs Kelly/Barrera
Barrera vs Morales


Could keep going and going but I won't. The simple fact is that no matter how far you want to go back in any era the best always end up fighting the best, even if it is a little too late. I don't believe that will ever be the case in this circumstance. Even if they do get it on, I'm not sure any 'best of the generation' would have left it so late to determine who is truly the stand out fighter of the era.

Sad reality is that whilst this sport will always throw up moments of excitement, passion and genuine greatness it will continuously shoot itself in the foot and retract any progress it makes because that is the nature of this sport; whether we wish to accept it or not!

I said 5 years ago they will be each other's last fight! Mannys contract is up end of next year Floyd still has 2 fights remaining so they will either fight may 2015 or September! With both fighters being there own boss and taking in all the money! Unless Floyd loses his next fight then the fight happens in May next year

September next year

Unfortunately in the upper echelons of the sport, boxing as a business seems more important to the major players than boxing as a competitive sport and that is why, in my opinion, it can only be described as being in a perpetual decline.

Maybe not in one-off PPV numbers, as witnessed by Floyd's fight with the over matched Canelo, but in terms of credibility it's on a slippery slope.

Having recently watched the sports life documentary on Chris Eubank, it evoked memories of watching his battles with Benn, Watson etc as a teenager.

What an era that was and how it shows up the attitude of modern day boxing where careers are steered down the path of lease resistance and public clamor for the best fights are ignored in favor of over hyped, one-sided contests.

Il be glad to see the back of Mayweather after his showtime deal expires, he is the clearest representation of where boxing is losing it's appeal.

Supremely talented as he is, he is as his nickname suggests, in it for the money and nothing else.

That is his right and he has earned the right to make that choice but it's a shame because he could have elevated his status to even greater heights had he continued his career the way he started it.

Apart from Pacquiao, who else would enhance his already glowing reputation in and around his weight class though?

Bradley? Garcia? JMM? Khan?

There are NO big names left for him to go against.

Rose tinted much there BA, Eubank did follow the path of least resistance but is let off because they happened to be british contemporaries.

Mobilemaster - Perhaps he lacks names now but he most certainly didn't 6/7 years ago. From around 2006-2010 Mayweather could have taken a host of fights.

In 2005 he beat Gatti to claim the WBC Light-Welterweight title; he then defended it towards the end of the year against Sharmba Mitchell. He then stepped up to Welterweight where he beat Judah for the IBF title followed by Baldomir for WBC & IBO.

In those two years he could have fought Hatton at Light Welterweight - there was nothing stopping him given he campaigned at the weight and even stayed to defend his title. During his original 12 month foray into the Welterweight scene he arguably took the two easiest options...lest we forget Miguel Cotto had established himself as a contender within the division by the time Money was there.

He had his 2 year hiatus between 2007-2009...a period which he could have spent fighting any number of people who had established themselves and were seen as threats to his crown...at the time of his self imposed retirement he was the WBC Welterweight Champion and Ranked number 1 in the division by Ring Magazine... at 2) Cotto 3) Williams 4) Mosley . Floyd went no where near them, instead deciding to retire for 2 years...strangely enough once they had fought one another, been beat or moved up in weight Mayweather decides to return.

His foe upon his comeback; Marquez at Welterweight, not only was Marquez merely a blown up lightweight at the time of the fight, Mayweather didn't even bother making weight.

Whilst Floyd is a once in a lifetime fighter and a boxing great his ledger can be questioned quite easily. He has had plenty of opportunities to put the question of where he stands in an all time list to bed; he hasn't taken any of them. A shame really as he has had opponents available which could have easily put him into the Top 3 fighters of all time...maybe even the best of all time.

Mosley came 3 years too late, Cotto also came around 3 years to late. He passed on Cotto, Williams & Mosley during their 'peak' years, instead retiring and he fought Hatton at a weight which everyone knew he wasn't as effective in. Upon his return he fought Marquez in 09 , Mosley in 10, Ortiz in 11 all at Welterweight. In that period there was only one man he should have been fighting and he was in the exact same division.

I give Mayweather huge credit for beating Alvarez, something which many don't because they felt it was a mismatch (something which wasn't said prior to the fight)...yet the fact is that whilst he does have a few legitimate 'big wins'...he has passed on plenty of others for 'easier' pay days.

He didn't pass on Mosley during his peak years it was in fact the complete opposite, it still beggars belief that that one is thrown out there with nothing to back it up. I've said before that Williams' name only gets thrown out there because he didn't face Mayweather, lest we forget he was busy losing to Quintana then immediately rematching him. Cotto is one that could and should have happened while suggesting that Hatton was at a disadvantage fighting at Welterweight is ludicrous. As the bigger man Hatton would have benefitted from having less weight to cut not by having more to cut.

Hammersmith harrier wrote:He didn't pass on Mosley during his peak years it was in fact the complete opposite, it still beggars belief that that one is thrown out there with nothing to back it up. I've said before that Williams' name only gets thrown out there because he didn't face Mayweather, lest we forget he was busy losing to Quintana then immediately rematching him. Cotto is one that could and should have happened while suggesting that Hatton was at a disadvantage fighting at Welterweight is ludicrous. As the bigger man Hatton would have benefitted from having less weight to cut not by having more to cut.

Is there anything to back up your claim that it was the exact opposite?! As for Williams his name doesn't just get thrown out their because he didn't face Mayweather, in 2007 on the back of beating Margarito he was considered a possible opponent, yes he lost to Quintana but he went on to blast him out in the rematch in emphatic fashion. The fact was that his unique size and reach were attributes which Mayweather had never dealt with; that was the intrigue of a possible match up. He was no less of a name than Baldomir or Mitchell, both opponents in the 2 years before Floyd's 1st retirement. As for Hatton, you only need to look at his performances at Welterweight to see he was no where near effective. His weight benefited him at Light-Welterweight because he was so much bigger than his opponents...this simply wasn't the case at 147lbs. The fact is that whilst Mayweather beat him fair and square he did not do so at Hatton's favoured weight...you know the one where he was unquestionable the Number 1 fighter in the division? Mayweather fought in the division, twice, and at a time when Hatton was still campaigning there and had took out Tsyzu.

It doesn't matter how great you are and let me say this clearly Mayweather is an absolute genius. That doesn't mean he gets a free pass when looking at his record. The fact remains there have been plenty of fights which haven't happened which should of...and given the money which surrounds any Floyd fight it's inexcusable.

Lets assume for a moment he fights Khan next and then faces Maidana (who is now a possible opponent after his victory over Broner) would you say they are sufficient enough fights for his legacy given that you have Bradley, Garcia, Lara and Pacquiao all around?!

Watch the rematch between Mosley and Vargas then tell me his post fight comments aren't squirming out of the fight.

You can try and write as much as you want but none of it is based on any concrete evidence just personal conjecture.

As for your Hatton comments the bigger man would benefit from the higher weight limit as he simply has less cutting to do. Were Mayweather the naturally bigger man then yes the lower weight would have helped Hatton but that is not the case. The pair would weigh the same on fight night regardless of the weight limit.

Hammersmith harrier wrote:Watch the rematch between Mosley and Vargas then tell me his post fight comments aren't squirming out of the fight.

You can try and write as much as you want but none of it is based on any concrete evidence just personal conjecture.

Isn't that the point though? when all is said and done it is people's opinion which will decide where Floyd stands in terms of his legacy and all time ranking. It's no different to you saying Mosley was squirming his way out of a fight in a post press conference....if Froch has shown anything lately it's to take what is said in an after fight interview with a pinch of salt.

I am not even saying that Mayweather is totally to blame for certain fights not happening...but given two opponents step into the ring he has to share at least some of the responsibility for fights with Williams, Mosley (before he was shot to bits), Pacman, Cotto (back in 2006-2009) not happening.

Regarding Hatton, you can bang the drum all you want, but as you pointed me towards a video...I shall do the same for you. Go back and watch any fights involving Hatton at Welterweight...then watch him at the height of his powers at Light Welter; are you trying to tell me he was as much a force at the higher weight? No is the answer...and my point stands...a win over Hatton at Light-Welter does more for his legacy than beating him at Welterweight did.

No matter who Floyd fights he makes plenty of dollars, he knows that more than anyone...a fact which shows in some of his selections when it comes to opponents.  

As such his legacy is harmed in many people's opinion though I imagine he cares very little.

Did you bypass my question regarding Bradley etc by accident..or on purpose as you have no grounding to make a case for Mayweather not having to fight any of them?

You mean his single fight against the southpaw Collazo when it's clear to all that he's fairly clueless against them. The weight had no bearing on the fight at all, to suggest the bigger man is at a disadvantage at a higher weight is nonsensical to me.

I bypass most of your comments Owen because they tend to be pointless and long winded. You have little to say but write a lot in doing so.

To suggest Hatton was as effective as a Welterweight as he was as a Light-Welter is even more nonsensical to me; given the evidence points to the contrary.

Your entitled to your opinion Harrier, though I would hazard a guess people find my 'ramblings' more insightful than your short repetitive sentences which provide very little substance to any point you try to make.

I would hazard a fair few people find you a bit up yourself and somebody who thinks his opinion is worth more than it is.

With regards to Hatton he had very clear technical difficulties against southpaws. Whether it be Collazo, Magee or Pacquiao his defence wasn't up to the job. It's a convenient excuse to use the weight against Collazo but it was the stance and awkwardness that made him look bad. Were he moving up to face men bigger than himself the opinion would hold some water but both Collazo and Mayweather were smaller. Let's look at Chavez vs Vera, who benefits from the higher weight limit, oh yes it's the bigger fighter.

Hammersmith harrier wrote:I would hazard a fair few people find you a bit up yourself and somebody who thinks his opinion is worth more than it is.

With regards to Hatton he had very clear technical difficulties against southpaws. Whether it be Collazo, Magee or Pacquiao his defence wasn't up to the job. It's a convenient excuse to use the weight against Collazo but it was the stance and awkwardness that made him look bad. Were he moving up to face men bigger than himself the opinion would hold some water but both Collazo and Mayweather were smaller. Let's look at Chavez vs Vera, who benefits from the higher weight limit, oh yes it's the bigger fighter.

First paragraph is a little uncalled for, let's debate sensibly?

However, agree with your size debate having little bearing, it was more a technical issue re: Hatton's short comings.

In terms of Mayweather & Pacquiao. They both beat Bradley quite comfortably, so I don't see him as a challenge. Will the fight ever happen? Not until Arum/ HBO is out of the question therefore, September 2015 is a good bet.

Not quite sure why you resorted to public slanging match, I shall refrain from remarking on you as a person in the interest of keeping the thread on top.

I would like to say that I do agree with you that the weight did not have an affect on the fight. The outcome would have been the same at 140 or 147; but if you had read what I am saying properly you would note that the point I am making isn't about Hatton's weight but about the significance of Mayweather choosing to fight him at 147 rather than Ricky's more favoured 140 limit.

By doing so, when people look back at Mayweather's record they will put a question mark over the win; rightly or wrongly. The fact is that whilst he beat Hatton & credit to him for doing so, he chose to fight him (and Ricky agreed obviously) at 147, where Hatton was not the regarded number 1 of the division, far from it.

What would you regard as a more significant win... beating a guy at a weight he campaigned at only twice in his career....or beating the Undisputed #1 Light-Welterweight..at Light Welter?

I would regard either as exactly the same and you're also overlooking that Hatton wanted the fight at 147lbs not 140lbs, he loses and he keeps his title. It was Hatton who chased the fight with Mayweather and used the Collazo fight as a bargaining chip, beating a two weight world champion looks better than a one weight champion moving up. A win over Hatton is merely a good one in any case, he lived of beating a faded Tzuyu for years when his performances and opponents didn't deserve such high praise.

Yeah - but he weighed in at exactly what he would have weighed in at Light-welterweight. In effect, what you or anyone else are saying that - Mayweather should have cut more weight just to accomodate hatton and thats just ridiculous. Same with this pac etc etc multiweight champion Love sacks or any accusations of drugs springing through their ability to keep their power through their rise in weight . They were still light welter/welterweight - its just that they cut enough to make the limit for the day and picked it up again. So Manny's power hasn't really translated well up - it was always there or thereabouts on fight night.

Mayweather doesnt do this because it will shorten his career so only ever fluctuates 1 or 2 lbs.

It matters not a jot to me where the fight was at - Hatton weighed the same and Mayweather gets marked down for not cutting more weight so Hatton can outweigh him more?!!

ShahenshahG - I'm not saying he should have cut weight?! Read all of the above posts, may take you a while as they are long winded   , but I stated that Mayweather could have fought Hatton at Light Welterweight. Given he fought in the division from 2004 through till the end of 05; he had 4 fights in that period...Corley, Brussels,Gatti & Mitchell...none of them were the marque name in the division...Kosta Tsyzu was at the time of him entering the division & then Ricky Hatton was mid 2005 yet neither of those two fights happened.

For starters he fought Mitchell as a tune up fight at welterweight and what does it matter if he didn't fight Hatton straight after beating Gatti. He moved up to secure a fight with Judah which was unexpectedly derailed by Baldomir but went ahead any way but tell me how a fight with Hatton makes more sense than going for the then undisputed welterweight champion?

He didn't fight Gatti instead of Hatton because he wasn't an option at that point, he then didn't move up to avoid Hatton, he moved up to take on what was then seen as a greater challenge. As it transpires Judah was a bigger challenge and offered a puzzle to solve which Hatton did not.

ShahenshahG wrote:Yeah - but he weighed in at exactly what he would have weighed in at Light-welterweight. In effect, what you or anyone else are saying that - Mayweather should have cut more weight just to accomodate hatton and thats just ridiculous. Same with this pac etc etc multiweight champion Love sacks or any accusations of drugs springing through their ability to keep their power through their rise in weight . They were still light welter/welterweight - its just that they cut enough to make the limit for the day and picked it up again. So Manny's power hasn't really translated well up - it was always there or thereabouts on fight night.

Mayweather doesnt do this because it will shorten his career so only ever fluctuates 1 or 2 lbs.

It matters not a jot to me where the fight was at - Hatton weighed the same and Mayweather gets marked down for not cutting more weight so Hatton can outweigh him more?!!

Yeah but no but yeah!

Hammersmith harrier wrote:For starters he fought Mitchell as a tune up fight at welterweight and what does it matter if he didn't fight Hatton straight after beating Gatti. He moved up to secure a fight with Judah which was unexpectedly derailed by Baldomir but went ahead any way but tell me how a fight with Hatton makes more sense than going for the then undisputed welterweight champion?

He didn't fight Gatti instead of Hatton because he wasn't an option at that point, he then didn't move up to avoid Hatton, he moved up to take on what was then seen as a greater challenge. As it transpires Judah was a bigger challenge and offered a puzzle to solve which  Hatton did not.

He moved up to secure a fight with a guy whose puzzle had already been solved 3 months prior to Mayweather fighting him...and lest we forget had been solved by Spinks and Tsyzu as well. The guy regularly froze on the big occassion, a statement which could not at that point be leveled at Hatton.

If he had moved up to take on Judah straight away fair enough, he didn't...he went up and fought the all conquering Sharmba Mitchell; whilst you will no doubt say that was a tune up fight to settle into the division...the fact he fought him 5 months after that Gatti suggests he was more than comfortable stepping up to 147 and he knew it.

A fight with the undefeated and Ring Magazine #1 Light-Welter was in my opinion bigger in the long term than beating a guy who had already been exposed 3 times at the highest level.

At the time Judah hadn't actually been beaten by Baldomir had he, the fight had been signed prior to that bout, Mayweather fought Mitchell while Judah was fighting Baldomir. There is a lot of revisionism that goes on and Hatton had one meaningful fight at the time and that was against Tzuyu, it wasn't until he landed that peach of a body shot on Castillo that everyone started to take notice.

Judah offered a very different stylistic challenge to anything Mayweather had faced before, a blindingly fast southpaw. Watching the two fights it's quite obvious who posed Mayweather the most problems. How is saying Judah had already lost any different to saying that Williams, Margarito, Mosley and Tzuyu had already lost, very rarely is a top level fighter undefeated.

Fighting Mitchell was a tune up to see how the extra weight suited him, he was then at his physical limit and lest we forget he hadn't long moved up from lightweight.

Having just beaten Tzuyu do you think Hatton had much interest in risking everything in his next fight because I don't, his whole 140lb title reign was against low risk fighters. He only took on Pacquiao because he wrongfully thought he could walk through him and was showing signs of regressing.

This fight lost all credibility when the fight fell through pre Pacquiao-Bradley. Back then you could have made a case for it being fight of the century. We the boxing public were denied and imo it would be a tremendous joke to fight now, when the stakes are much lower. All pales in comparison to the fight that never happened 2-3 years ago.

Personally, I don't have any qualms with Mayweather's career development or selection of opponents up until about, say, 2008 or so, when he took that first 'retirement' which really was fooling nobody. That said, missing an unbeaten 147 lb Cotto at that stage would have become insignificant had he ever fought Manny, which we'll get to.

Mayweather-Mosley, any time between about 1999 and 2004 (any win against Shane after that point would always come with a slight asterisk denoting that it was no longer anything like a peak version of him in any case) was closer to being one of those fights that would have been nice, but not essential in my opinion, rather than one of those fights which simply had to happen and on which a good chunk of both men's reputation depended. A fight between those two was at its most valuable at about the turn of the century, I guess, but even without fighting each other at that stage each of them was able to go on to become Ring Magazine pound for pound number ones in the years that followed, and also score their best (up until then at least) career wins (Corrales for Floyd, De la Hoya I for Shane) within months of that potential optimum meeting point.

By the second half of 2000, who cared about Mayweather-Mosley any more?

As for Mayweather supposedly bypassing the cream of the crop at 140, well I see it as a bit of a red herring, really. Easy to forget that Mayweather wasn't a big money spinner when he first set his sights on a Light-Welterweight title; he actually got the short end of the purse against Gatti, despite every man and his dog knowing that he was going to beat the snot out of him.

When Mayweather first landed at Light-Welter, Tszyu was injured and out of commission (and he was out for a long time), so there wasn't really an option to go after him. Mayweather had already fought an eliminator (he was made to fight two of them in the end!) for Gatti's WBC belt by the time Tszyu returned to action to start defending the IBF version - which he promptly lost to Hatton. Now granted, Hatton was impressive in beating Kostya and earned Ring Magazine recognition, but anyone thinking that Hatton in 2005 was being given a prayer against Floyd at that stage should read some of the archived Ring Magazine, Sports Illustrated or Boxing News articles from the summer of 2005, just after Floyd had routed Gatti (which came about a month after Hatton-Tszyu). Hatton may have been undefeated while Judah wasn't (and again, it's key to remember that Judah was still the top dog at 147 when Mayweather signed to fight him), but I don't think anyone really saw Hatton as being the more difficult or testing fight, particularly in the States.

But as much as I'll defend Floyd in that regard, I'm sorry, his outright avoidance of the Pacquiao fight has been a joke and he deserves all the scorn that's been poured over him for it. I actually can't believe that people, still, are claiming that he's never had any apprehension about taking the fight or has tried to put it off until he knew that Pacquiao had regressed somewhat. I have never, ever in my entire life seen any other fighter give as many excuses (some of them almost impossibly ridiculous) as to why one particular fight can't or won't happen as Mayweather has when it comes to fighting Pacquiao. In fact, I find it almost mildly embarrassing that people can say it with a straight face.

In terms of Ring IQ, Mayweather leaves us all in awe, but come, as a personality he's about as odious a cretin as it gets. As I said, NEVER have I seen any one man put up as many barriers and spout of as many reasons as to why he won't fight another man.

Put it far better than I could with regards to everyone but Pacquiao which I don't quite agree with. The Pacquiao and Cotto fights should have happened but whatever reason they didn't, i'm not going to apportion all the blame at Mayweathers door because it simply isn't his sole fault.

It is kind of his fault mostly - not so much the fight not happening but that he gets so much stick for it - its evident he wants the fight and just as evident he won't work with arum but all he does is change his excuse. Pacman has been less gobby so gets less abuse.

Im not really that bothered about a Poochio v Kentucky Floyd Chicken matchup

The Pooch doesnt hit as hard as what he used to. Floyd is still a materclass but doesnt wanna give Panny a payday

mobilemaster8 wrote:Apart from Pacquiao, who else would enhance his already glowing reputation in and around his weight class though?

Bradley? Garcia? JMM? Khan?

There are NO big names left for him to go against.

I would say fights against Bradley, Garcia, GGG, Lara would enhance his reputation a great deal more than a one-sided beating of Amir Khan.

Bradley and Garcia would most likely be comfortable victories but they are good opponents who have earned a crack at Floyd, the same cannot be said about Khan or Maidana.

If Floyd was to bow out with victories over Pacquiao, GGG and Lara his legacy would look a lot more impressive than it does now.

Floyd may be supremely talented but in my opinion he doesn't deserve to be in a list of the top 10 of all time. His record in the last 6-7 years has too many question marks over it. When he has faced other greats such as Cotto, Mosley and Marquez his victories are tainted by the fact that they were not at their peak.

In the case of Cotto and Mosley, both were past their prime and still had Floyd in trouble - it only goes to show what may have happened had the fights happened at their peak.

Top 25 ATG at the moment for me, a notch above Pacquiao.

Floyd avoided Margo and Williams at welter.

A prime Cotto was available from 2007.

Floyd doesn't hide the fact he avoids the more challenging fights.

mobilemaster8 wrote:Apart from Pacquiao, who else would enhance his already glowing reputation in and around his weight class though?

Bradley? Garcia? JMM? Khan?

There are NO big names left for him to go against.

He could fight either GGG or Martinez and before anyone says "Ooh but they're so much bigger than Floyd", they are boxers in the next weight division up from LM - a division in which Floyd is a champion regardless of what he weighs on fight nght & how much his opponent weighs, they are valid fights & more importantly would enhance his legacy, but he won't take them because he's more worried about not losing & earning money than his place in boxing's history.

That argument only works for a natural light middleweight, there does come a point when we can't expect a former super featherweight to move up yet another weight. If they decide to drop down then it's a viable option but until then it simply isn't. As for for avoiding Margarito and Williams, really scraping the barrel there.

Hammersmith harrier wrote:That argument only works for a natural light middleweight, there does come a point when we can't expect a former super featherweight to move up yet another weight. If they decide to drop down then it's a viable option but until then it simply isn't. As for for avoiding Margarito and Williams, really scraping the barrel there.

I believe Martinez has stated previously that he could still make LM so the offer is there if he wanted it.

He like Golovkin has to show he can make 154lbs, they are in the position of having to chase Mayweather not the other way round.

If Mayweather had no interest in ever working with Arum, how come he entered into negotiations first time round?