Picking and choosing-The Floyd Mayweather Record

Floyd Mayweather Jr may be one of the best boxers of the best 30 years, in fact if you listen to Floyd himself you may even be told he's the greatest ever. Though as with any fighter if you look deep enough you can rip his record to shreds. Whether fans like it or not Floyd's recent record is relatively poor, not garbage but pretty poor. The self proclaimed “Money” may be brash, confident and arrogant, happy to tell the world how he'd beat any one, though of course the problem is he hasn't faced everyone. Though this isn't a look at just who he's not fought, but also who he has fought who have been a combination of past it old men, smaller men or men who were struggling to make weight. He's been clever and well managed through his whole career.

Every fighter gets easy fights to ease them into the professional ranks, so we'll ignore those and start from when Floyd first became a world champion. Floyd first world title was the WBC super featherweight title, so I've broken his career into 2 bits. The fights from 130-135 and then one for Floyd's fights at 140 and up.

At 130 Floyd beat the very good Genaro Hernandez to take the title, although it would be Chicanito it's not a fight you can complain about in the slightest. Hernandez was 38-1-1 and was only 32 with his only loss coming to Oscar De La Hoya. In fact at 130 it's difficult to fault Floyd's record in terms of who he fought, though he did face popular journeyman Emanuel Augustus in 2000. It was Floyd's first fight at 135 and Augustus, a popular fighter due to his unique style was 22-16-4 entering the bout.

One questionable bout around the turn of the millennium however is one of the most impressive statistically though also one which is covered over for it's flaw. Diego Corrales was 33-0 though had been all but going up to Lightweight then had to make Super Featherweight. Corrales struggled to make the weight and was subsequently badly beaten being sent to the canvas 5 times before finally being stopped. The win was a good one, though Corrales was drained at the weight and it showed.

2002 saw Mayweather in his most controversial fight to date, his first Lightweight title fight in which he faced Jose Luis Castillo. Castillo out landed Mayweather (4 to 3) at a better rate as well (40% to 35%), the power punch stats favoured Castillo (173 to 66) and it appeared to many that Castillo had won the fight. HBO's Harold Lederman had it 115-111 to Castillo, yet all 4 judges gave a clear decision to Mayweather (116-111 and 115-111 twice all for Floyd). Although the rematch would see Floyd winning clearly the first fight between the two will always be remembered as “the fight Floyd lost”.

After the 2 Castillo fights Floyd fought Victoriano Sosa (35-2-2), his record looked pretty though deep down it was padded and he'd lost his only meaningful fight to Paul Spadafora. In the previous 1.5 years Sosa had gone 4-0-1 with opponents having a combined record of 64-45-6. Two of those 5 Sosa fights had been with Luis Sosa (18-15-3 and 19-19-3 the second time) and 2 had been against fighters with out a win. This is a fight that really needs to be seen as a poor opponent one of very few that Floyd had at this stage of his career.

Mayweather would debut at 140 in 2004 and face DeMarcus “Chop Chop Corley”. Corley would generally be a decent opponent though was coming in from a 10 month lay off after a loss to Zab Judah. The win, a wide decision on all 3 cards, saw Corley dropped twice and it had a reason, it was a fight that saw Mayweather in line for a WBC title shot. Though oddly Floyd's second fight at 140 was also a WBC Eliminator, this time against Henry Bruseles. Bruseles was 5-3-1 in his previous 9 (including a 3^rd round TKO loss to Roberto Ortega) and although some may have called it a lure to get Cotto in the ring it was nothing more than cynical and intelligent match making.

Floyd's 3^rd and final fight at 140 was one of his greatest performances in his career. Aturo “Thunder” Gatti was a true boxing name and this was to be Floyd's first fight on Pay Per View, “Thunder and Lightning”. Although Gatti was the bigger name Floyd was the favourite (around 3/11) and it showed as Floyd dominated the popular but poor Gatti. Gatti's wars had caught up with him and although he took a 39-6 record to the ring that night he would only win one of his final 4 (including the Mayweather bout) to retire 40-9. Gatti had been a smaller man who had won 6 of his previous 8 , though had walked through hell in the infamous Gatti v Ward series.

Mayweather's record at 140 misses out fighters like Judah, Kostya Tszyu and Ricky Hatton, who were all a threat between 2000-2005. Instead Mayweather would jump up to Welterweight and make his debut there by facing Sharmba Mitchell. Mitchell had only fought once at 147 himself and had been stopped 4 times in his previous 60 contests, twice by Kostya (including 2 fights earlier) and once down at Lightweight. Basically a 34 year old Mitchell was far from a good opponent for Floyd, though as Mayweather's career went on it became a common problem.

Zab “Super” Judah was a fight signed with Judah to have a tune up fight against Carlos Baldomir, few expected Judah to have any problems though that's all he had as he dropped a decision to Baldomir who thoroughly dominated the Brooklyn born fighter. Judah's fight with Mayweather was marred with incidents which saw corner men from both fighters camps entering the ring and chaos ensuing, though what it seemed to do was prove that Judah's career was on a definite slide.

Mayweather would beat Baldomir next. Although it's a fight that made “sense” the way Floyd did it was dull and sleep inducing with fans leaving before the end and those that stayed generally started to boo. Mayweather claiming he'd retire after one more bout didn't help him get fans on side though the next fight was seen as the most difficult of his career. Floyd was moving up to 154 to face Oscar De La Hoya. Although the fight, like the Corrales fight, is often celebrated as one of Floyd's best wins, it needs to be remembered that this fight was questionable for several reasons. Oscar was 34, had been inactive for a year, in fact Oscar had fought just 6 rounds in over 2 and a half years and could easily have been going in 1-3 since September 2003. Although Floyd out landed Oscar it's worth noting that had Jerry Roth scored the final round the same as fellow judges Tom Kaczmarek and Chuck Giampa the fight would have been a draw.

Mayweather would drop back down to 147 to face unbeaten British boxer Ricky Hatton. Hatton had fought once previously at 147 and been lucky to escape with an unbeaten record against Luiz Collazo. Many fans felt that Collazo had done enough to take the decision, though it was the fact Hatton was out on his feet at the end of the bout that left questions over this bout. Hatton hadn't been the same fighter he once was, he had struggled with the crude novice Juan Urango, as well as Collazo. Mayweather struggled in the early going though quickly got the upper hand and stopped the British fighter in round 10.

After taking a break from the sport Mayweather returned in 2009 to face Juan Manuel Marquez. Marquez, a brilliant technician and amazing fighter at Lightweight had to go up 2 weight classes to face Mayweather and Floyd's size dwarfed over the little Mexican. Marquez had little success and was dropped on the way to losing a wide decision, since then Marquez has dropped back to 135 where he has continued to be impressive. Floyd's most recent fight was against another legendary name of the sport, “Sugar” Shane Mosley. Mosley, like the other big wins for Floyd, was a win with caveats written all over it. Mosley was 38, had been out of the ring for 16 months and had looked poor in all but one of his previous 3 fights. This wasn't the Sugarman of the late 1990's but the the early 10's and it showed.

Although Mayweather is doubtlessly one of the masters of the fine art of hit and don't get hit, it's hard to look over his record with out thinking many of his wins are more about getting names on it than proving he's the best. He seems unwilling to fight prime contenders or the top fighters at their prime for a while and when he's been able to get an uneven playing field he's seemed happy to take it.