Did Floyd Mayweather’s temporary retirement cost him the fighter of the Decade?
Did anyone tell Floyd he was en-route to equalling a record held by “Marvellous” Marvin Hagler. The long reigning middleweight champion was ring magazine pound for pond fighter for four consecutive years, (1983, 1984, 1985 and 1986). Three consecutive year winners include Mike Tyson, Pernell Whitaker and Floyd Mayweather.
Floyd Mayweather was undefeated when he entered temporary retirement after his tenth round stoppage of England’s Ricky Hatton on December of 2007. Mayweather stated he had nothing left to prove. The American was born in to a boxing family and had been competing for many years, it was time for a rest and to let the body breakdown and regenerate. Probably a sensible choice, no one knows their body better than the fighter themselves.
Pretty boy had already been anointed pound for pound king in 2005 after the then king Bernard Hopkins lost his undisputed middleweight title to Jermain Taylor. So had Mayweather fought on, 2008 would have been his fourth consecutive year. Hot on his heels was Filipino Manny Pacquiao, back then a bout between the two looked unlikely as they were separated by 17 pounds. So in retrospect let’s look at what Pacquiao achieved in 2008, and who Floyd would need to have faced to keep his pound for pound crown.
While Mayweather was dancing with the stars Manny Pacquiao was on a mission to cement his pound for pound status in the absence of Money Mayweather. The Pac-Man kicked the year of with a rematch against old rival Juan Manuel Marquez, the two met four years earlier in a bout that ended in a draw, this time round was another close fight with Manny Pacquiao wining a split decision.
Three months later he stepped up to the lightweight division and inflicted a beat-down on WBC champion David Diaz. To wrap up the year Pacquiao took on his toughest challenge to date, a bout with Oscar De La Hoya who had been competing in and above the welterweight division for over a decade. This was a huge challenge considering it was not only Pacquiao’s first fight in the division; he had skipped the light welterweight division and only ever had one bout at the lightweight division.
Pacquiao sensationally dominated De La Hoya forcing him to retire at the end of the eighth, Oscar has not fought since. So the Filipino set a benchmark, retaining a title, winning another while competing in three different weight categories compiling a record for the year of 3-0 (2).
So hypothetically just what could Mayweather have done to trump this. Before his retirement Mayweather had already beat the best the light middleweight division had to offer (Oscar De La Hoya) and the light welterweight division (Ricky Hatton). So let’s focus our attention on Floyd actual weight class, the welterweight division.
At the beginning of 2008 the welterweight division had plenty of worthy opponents, Miguel Cotto was still undefeated back then with a record of, 30-0 (25), a win over the Puerto Rican would only have strengthened Mayweather’s claim to the throne. But this would not have been enough, considering Manny accomplishments. So let’s look for another opponent for Floyd, Paul Williams was another undefeated fighter with a record of 30-0 (24) and sat just behind Miguel Cotto in the rankings. Williams had a reputation of being an avoided fighter, so a win over “The Punisher” would have only added to Floyds ring credit. Wins over these two undefeated fighters may have been enough for Floyd to stay ahead of Pacquiao and equal the record of Marvin Hagler, if not he could have ended the year out with a fight against Shane Mosley or Antonio Margarito just to be sure.
by Mark Leroy
