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Originally Posted by Salvy_Mic  To be honest, I'm glad he's not fighting Oscar again, considering how boring the first fight was. Mayweather has an enormous ego, but that's usually trumped by his love of money, which was the sole reason he was fighting Oscar again. The reason Mayweather retired is because he can't handle boxing fans criticizing him for talking about wanting to rematch Oscar and Hatton, fights he already won, while dismissing guys like Cotto and Margarito as "not being on his level and thus, not worthy of his time". When the fans called bullshit on that, Mayweather's ego didn't know how to handle it. So he retired, where he won't need to deal with it.
Screw him. Oscar de la Hoya was never as talented as Mayweather, nor did he win many of his big fights, but one thing Oscar never did was duck a dangerous fighter. Do you think Mayweather would have moved all the way up to middleweight to fight Hopkins? Do you think Mayweather would have fought a dangerous guy like Ike Quartey, with the knowledge that a virtually assured huge money fight with Felix Trinidad could get blown with a loss? Do you think Mayweather would have given Fernando Vargas a shot at him, even though he suffered a loss to Trinidad? Do you think Mayweather would have ever fought a prime, dangerous Shane Mosley who didn't have anywhere the big name that Oscar had? I don't think so. And that's why Oscar gets the love (not from the hardcore, mind you) he does and Mayweather doesn't.
Granted, the Oscar of late deserves the criticism he gets from the hardcore. He's guilty of being the huge pink elephant in the room, distracting fighters in and around his weight class of from not fighting other quality opposition in hopes of landing a big fight with him, while Oscar hasn't been an elite fighter for some time. Not to mention some of the promotional shenanigans he's gotten caught up with as of late (the runaround Golden Boy's been giving Nate Campbell, the whole Pacquiao affair, and the poaching of the best boxers to fight under his banner while not developing his own stars like Arum). Mayweather will undoubtedly go down as the greatest boxer of this generation. He should, too, probably just on what he did at 130 and 135. But ever since he moved up to 140, his legacy has suffered until the past year because he took questionable fights and ducked big fights when they could have been made. He should have fought Hatton at 140 when both were coming off big wins over respected titlists (the Tszyu and Gatti wins). He should have fought Margarito when he became the welterweight champion after already beating Judah and Baldomir. And most of all, he should have fought Cotto. That's the sort of shit he'll be remembered for.
Sugar Ray Leonard, before he retired the first time, fought HUGE fights with Wilfred Benitez, Roberto Duran, and Thomas Hearns, at times when Benitez was undoubtedly the best welterweight in the world, when Duran was undoubtedly the best figher in the world, and when Hearns was undoubtedly the most dangerous welterweight in the world and a bad stylistic matchup. Ask yourself, do you think Mayweather would have done all that? |
I agree with everything your saying except for the DLH didn't win as many big fights and isn't an elite fighter right now:headscratch:
DLH has an extensive record of extremely big wins that range from:
Jorge Paez, Rafael Ruelas, Genaro Hernandez, Jesse James Leija, Julio Cesar Chavez, Miguel Angel Gonzalez, Pernell Whitaker, Hector Camacho, and Ike Quartey. That's what made DLH the highest paid boxer today because he had beaten soo many big names in convincing fashion.
He's still one of the P4P best today as well. He gave PBF the toughest fight of his career and was taking the fight to BHop before that body blow. Mind you DLH is naturally 130lb and moved up to 160 to fight BHop. It takes nothing away from DLH to lose that fight.
Reguardless of the record, DLH really beat SSM the second time and he lost the Trinidad fight himself when he ran for 4 rounds.
How is he not still elite?