Thinks he is the greatest
Money Mayweather, in training to fight Manny Pacquiao on May 2 in Las Vegas, made that assertion this week with ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith in an all-access interview, including time in Mayweather’s Bentley while he was on his way to pick up $190,000 he’d won in a bet.
Smith didn’t bring up Ali, Mayweather took care of that.
“No one can ever brainwash me to make me believe that Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali was better than me. Nobody could ever make me believe that,” Mayweather told Smith. “But one thing I will do: I’m going to take my hat off to those guys and respect those guys because those are the guys that paved the way for me.”
That last line, on respecting Ali and Robinson, is something Mayweather has said before. He’s paid tribute to black fighters who came before him, though the sport was not as long racially segregated as was others, like baseball, basketball and football.
The first black world boxing champ was Joe Gans, who won the lightweight title in 1902 and held it until 1908. He is still considered by some to be the best lightweight ever. The first black heavyweight champ of the world was the Galveston Giant, Jack Johnson, a superstar in his time, who won the crown in 1908 and successfully defended it until 1915. He fought through racism throughout his career.
Mayweather disses Muhammad Ali
But while Mayweather paid something akin to homage to Ali and Robinson, he did not back down from his bravado. When Smith seemed incredulous that Mayweather would put himself above Ali, and suggested that Ali was the greatest, Mayweather went for the jugular.
“How? In what way? He only fought in one weight class,” he said. That is, of course, true, Ali fought in just the heavyweight division while Mayweather has fought in, and won crowns in, five divisions (Pacquiao has won in eight). But there are now some 68 belts available in 17 weight classes, so moving divisions is easier.
Next Mayweather brought up Leon Spinks, who beat Ali in 1978 when Ali was 36 and may have already begun to suffer from early Parkinson’s Disease (Ali won the rematch months later). Mayweather feels the loss to Spinks, a novice professional and who had fought to a draw with journeyman Scott LeDoux in his previous fight, meant Ali was a lesser fighter than himself.
“Leon Spinks beat him when he had seven fights,” Mayweather said. “They’d never put a fighter in there with Floyd Mayweather with seven fights. Tell me a fighter that could beat me with seven fights? No one!”
He had still more criticisms of Ali, noting an Ali win over George Foreman was questionable tactics as Ali got hit often, tiring Foreman, and then pounced on Foreman late for the win in the Rumble in the Jungle in 1974. Some would call Ali’s performance in that fight gutsy, but not Mayweather.
“So you going tell me that it is cool to lay on the ropes and take punishment and let a man tire himself out from beating you and then he basically fatigued? Mayweather asked Smith. “You hit him with a few punches and he go down and quit, and you want to be glorified for that?”
Despite his being 47-0 (Ali retired at 56-5, but was ailing in his last four fights, three of them losses) Mayweather has not had near the kind of competition Ali had, and when he had good fighters to beat, such as Shane Mosley and Oscar De La Hoya, Mayweather beat them at the very end of their careers.
He has, many would argue, fought largely during an era devoid of great fighters. There’s no Foreman, no Henry Cooper, no Sonny Liston, no Smokin’ Joe Frazier on Mayweather’s resume. So while confidence is a good thing for a boxer to have, ignorance is arguably not.
Which is it with Mayweather?
