Floyd Mayweather Jr

Posted by Bill Scherer Nov 29, 2007

Most people who bother constructing their own pound for pound lists have had Floyd Mayweather Jr. on top of it for at least a couple years now. His 10th round TKO of Diego Corrales in 2001 got people thinking that this kid had real talent.

Floyd has managed to whip through some good fighters with relative ease. Genaro Hernandez, Jesus Chavez, Arturo Gatti, Demarcus Corley, Zab Judah, and Oscar De La Hoya have each tried and failed to beat "Pretty Boy."

Could his fights be more exciting? Sure. But the reason Floyd is undefeated at 30 and Fernando Vargas is retiring at 29 is that Floyd has the talent and skills to win without taking unnecessary punishment.

Could Floyd and Oscar have mixed it up a bit more? Yes. But if Floyd was close enough to Oscar to land on the Goldenboy's face, then Oscar was close enough to deliver equally. But he didn't. Why? Because Oscar isn't as talented.

A glance at my 1953 edition of Nat Fleischer's Ring Record Book tells me that Nat, who was the founder and editor of The Ring Magazine, didn't have Sugar Ray Robinson listed as one of his top six welterweights of all time.

This is significant because the pound-for-pound title was created for Robinson, who is almost universally recognized as the greatest boxer of all time. Fleischer put Joe Walcott in his #1 slot and Jimmy McLarnin at #6. Fleischer was human and just as prone to using his heart over his head as the rest of us.

These pound-for-pound lists are arbitrary and essentially meaningless. It's as foolhardy as predicting the weather--too many variables and not enough of them are known. But if I had a silly pound-for-pound list, Floyd would be on top.