The Boxing Experts on ...
BySeconds Out
Published 18/01/2006 at 23:00 GMT
By Paul Upham: Many critics and fans consider Floyd Mayweather Jr the best boxer in the world today pound for pound. Others will point to his recent opponents and say despite his obvious talents, he needs to fight better opposition to prove it. Some say that at his best, he cannot be beaten. SecondsOut asked ten boxing experts to give their thoughts on Mayweather.
BOXING 2006 glove
Image credit: Imago
By Paul Upham: Many critics and fans consider Floyd Mayweather Jr the best boxer in the world today pound for pound. Others will point to his recent opponents and say despite his obvious talents, he needs to fight better opposition to prove it. Some say that at his best, he cannot be beaten. With WBC world titles in three weight classes at junior lightweight, lightweight and junior welterweight and an undefeated record of 35 wins from 35 fights with 24 knockouts, 28 year-old Mayweather from the USA looks to be boxing better than ever. But how good is he really and is there anyone who can beat the man known as "Pretty Boy Floyd"?
SecondsOut spoke to ten of boxing's most knowledgeable experts on the sport today and industry insiders to help define the current status of Floyd Mayweather Jr by posing two main questions.
<b>How good is Floyd Mayweather Jr, is he pound for pound No.1 today?</b>
<b>Larry Merchant</b> (has covered some of the world's top boxing events on television and currently serves as special analyst for HBO Sports' presentations of "World Championship Boxing", "Boxing After Dark" and "HBO Pay-Per-View". A former sports columnist with the Philadelphia Daily News and the New York Post, and a general columnist with the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, Merchant joined HBO Sports in 1978 as an expert analyst)
"Yes, he is No.1 pound for pound. He is what I would call a virtuoso boxer/puncher right now. He is doing things that are almost a lost art and he was raised virtually from the cradle to do so by having a father and two uncles who were fighters. His father fought Sugar Ray Leonard. His other Uncle Roger, who now trains him, was a champion. He is a just a brilliant all-round fighter. He may indeed compare to the greats of the past. Although, what is happening is that he is out classing his opponents and is moving up in weight class and eventually he will probably climb too high and lose fights to bigger, stronger guys and be in tougher fights. But if he were able to stay as a lightweight, he might establish a reputation as good as any lightweight that ever was. But in this day and age you follow the money, as always. He has moved up to 140 where he was able to make some pretty good money for fighting Arturo Gatti and he hopes down the road that he will be able to fight Ricky Hatton.
"He throws the names of Winky Wright and Oscar De La Hoya out there, but I've never taken that seriously. He puts those names out there because he could make a lot of money for fighting those guys and because it makes a good headline. I'll believe those kinds of fights when I see them. Maybe later in his career, that might happen. I'm sceptical now. But he certainly wants to fight the Brit Ricky Hatton. I don't know if that will ever happen until Hatton has cleaned up as much as he can in Britain where he is such a big box office attraction. Although, I think Hatton is the kind of fighter who is so good, so exciting and such a great popular figure that even if he were to lose to somebody like Mayweather I don't think it would necessarily directly affect him. But I don't think they are going to go to Mayweather anytime soon. The other one at 140lbs right now, or possibly 147 later on is Miguel Cotto who is a very exciting Puerto Rican fighter. Some people are calling him the Puerto Rican Arturo Gatti and he does have a lot to offer. He is going to have some big fights. But Floyd is clearly the best one out there."
<b>Thomas Hauser</b> (senior writer at SecondsOut.com and author of 34 books including "Muhammad Ali: His Life And Times". In 2005, he was honoured by the Boxing Writers Association of America, which bestowed the Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence in boxing journalism upon him. He was the first Internet boxing writer ever to receive the honour)
"Right now, I think the pound for pound throne is vacant. I think that the last person who clearly deserved it was Roy Jones and probably I would have given it to Bernard Hopkins after Roy. My guess is that Floyd is the leading candidate for the throne, but he has to win a big fight convincingly for me to give him that. Last year, if you look at the three people that he fought, Henry Bruseles, Arturo Gatti and Sharmba Mitchell, none of them was an elite opponent. I think he just has to prove himself and if he does that, he deserves it. But right now, it is vacant. It is easy for somebody with Floyd's skills to look good against Arturo Gatti and I don't know who there is quite frankly in his weight class who can really test him. I don't think he should have to go up and fight Winky Wright who is just much bigger than he is. I wouldn't mind if he fought Antonio Margarito. But I just don't think he deserves it yet. No.1 can be vacant for a while. As far as I'm concerned, the heavyweight championship is vacant too. (Great fighters need fellow great fighters to beat?) When you think of Ali, you think of Joe Frazier, Sonny Liston and George Foreman. Even Roy Jones early in his career had Bernard Hopkins and James Toney."
<b>Aaron "Hawk" Pryor</b> (WBA and IBF junior welterweight world champion with a record of 39-1 (35). Never defeated as world champion. Defeated Alexis Arguello twice. Inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame in 1996. More information can be found at his website www.HawkTime.com)
"I am so happy that Floyd is at 140. He is going to max out at 140 and be a Hall of Famer. Floyd has won world titles in other weight divisions and has moved up just like Alexis Arguello did. He rose up through the weight divisions and won titles in three divisions before we fought. Floyd finally made it home at 140lbs. I don't think he should fight at 147 or 154lbs. He's home at 140lbs. My home plate was at 140lbs after I started as a lightweight. Floyd has the hand movement, the co-ordination, the height and the ability to manage great fights at 140. He's the best in the world today. I really do believe that. I'm going to give that to him. He can fight under pressure. He sees things and goes out and makes it happen. Boxing has changed since when I was fighting. Now a days, it is really hard to hold on to the world titles. Floyd has won world titles in three divisions and as he has moved up in weight he has become greater. He is very economical in the ring. I think Floyd is just so good. Styles make a difference no matter how good you are. You have to be able to punch and box, adapting to your opponent. But Floyd is able to adapt so well, it makes no difference who he fights."
<b>William Dettloff</b> (long time senior writer for "The Ring" magazine and author of the new book "Box Like the Pros" with Joe Frazier, published by Collins in the USA)
"Yes he is No.1. That is not a unanimous opinion universally in the boxing industry because of the different criteria that exists from person to person. My criteria is this. If you took the best fighters in the world and shrunk them all down to the same weight and put them in a tournament, who would have the best chance of coming out of that tournament as the winner? My pick would be Floyd Mayweather Jr. This sounds very simplistic, but it is important I think. He does whatever he wants to when he is in the ring. If he doesn't want to get hit, you can't hit him. If he feels like getting hit a little bit and feels like being a puncher as he was against Sharmba Mitchell for example, you can hit him a little bit and he is going to hit you back. Whatever he wants to do in the ring, he does. He kind of reminds me, and this is going to sound like a strange analogy, but he kind of reminds me of George Foreman in that sense. When he is in the ring, the opponent can only do what he lets them do."
<b>Pat Burns</b> (trainer of undisputed middleweight champion Jermain Taylor and former coach of Floyd Mayweather on the 1996 USA Olympic team)
"I think pound for pound he is the best fighter in the world. He has speed and power and can fight at two or three different weight classes. I just think he is a great fighter. His defensive skills, his offensive skills, his ability to deliver a punch, his ability to take a punch and his ability to set up. His pace. He can go from 20 miles an hour to 100 miles an hour at the drop of a dime. He has got it all. He was on my team at the Olympics and he was a great fighter then. The problem with him in the Olympics was that he fought a lot like a pro instead of an amateur with the computer scoring. He was a great fighter back in those days. He has just become much more settled down and much more confident. Right out the Olympics till now he just gets better and better."
<b>Steve Farhood</b> (SHOWTIME analyst for their "ShoBox" series. Writes for "Boxing Monthly" magazine and is a former editor-in-chief of "The Ring" and "KO" magazines)
"He is certainly pound for pound No.1. The combination of the fact that he is a born fighter from a family of fighters. He has that coaches' son mentality. He is so comfortable in the ring and his natural physical skills. He has incredible reflexes and tremendous speed and he is never ever in anything but top condition. The intangibles with Floyd are always underrated in my opinion. At this point I would say he is No.1 by a clear margin. With that said, he is in desperate need of a big, big fight. His win over Arturo Gatti served him well in terms of shining the spotlight on him, but now he becomes a victim of his own success, because we know how good he is and we want to see it against the very best. Mayweather has the advantage that he can jump weights. He can fight at 140lbs now and he can fight at 147. It's not his fault that Zab Judah lost. That would have been viewed as an attractive fight. He is the best junior welterweight in the world, but he is not the champion. Ricky Hatton is, so that is one fighter to fight. Miguel Cotto is another. Antonio Margarito is another at welterweight."
<b>James Leija</b> (WBC junior lightweight & IBA lightweight champion. Retired in 2005 with a record of 47-7-2 (19). Fought Azumah Nelson four times, Gabriel Ruelas, Jeff Mayweather, Oscar De La Hoya, Shane Mosley, Micky Ward, Kostya Tszyu and Arturo Gatti. More information can be found at his website www.JesseJamesLeija.com)
"I see him as No.1 pound for pound and you could almost back it up with his performances in the weight classes that he has gone up in. How no one can touch the guy. He has amazing hand speed and what I think makes him unique is his defence. You can't hit the guy. You may hit him once or twice, but that is going to be it. He is going to hit you so many times. His hand speed and his defence are incredible. He may not be the strongest puncher, but I don't care who you are man, after a while those punches start hurting. You can catch maybe the first twenty, but after twenty-four, twenty-five, you are going to start feeling them and you don't want to get hit anymore. Floyd has been incredible in the different weight classes as he has moved up. I won a world title at 130 and 135. I went up four weight divisions and something that I am proud of is that I was ranked in the top ten in every weight division that I was in. I take pride in that because it is a hard thing to do because you are fighting guys who are much bigger than you. For Floyd to be doing what he is doing with ease, it is incredible. He is doing it with ease. He fought my cousin Louie Leija who was a strong puncher early in Floyd's career. Floyd just knocked him out on his feet. I saw Floyd training here in San Antonio at our gym and he was amazing even back then. He was just starting out as a pro."
<b>Patrick Kehoe</b> (former co-editor of BoxingPress.com and current contributing editor at SecondsOut.com. Presently working on a book chronicling the Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier rivalry and the sports entertainment ethos it engendered)
"He is pound for pound No.1 for sure. I certainly didn't think that Bernard Hopkins had been pound for pound No.1 for quite a long time. That was just my view. Technically, Floyd is at his peak right now. He is the most inventive boxer out there. He has sort of that blend of speed when he wants it and intuitive reflex. He has such grounded technique too, built from the fact that he has been boxing since he was a little kid and has been schooled very, very well. He has a nice combination obviously of speed and power, but he is defined by the combination of his intuition, his technique and his speed as far as I'm concerned."
<b>Sharmba Mitchell</b> (WBA and IBF Interim junior welterweight world champion with current record of 56-5 (30). Fought Floyd Mayweather Jr in his last fight on November 19)
"Floyd is a very good fighter. I like Floyd and I have always liked Floyd because he has an old man kind of style. I would give him that he is the best in the world today. Until someone else comes up and beats him, you would have to say that. I take my hat off to him. He hit me with me a very, very good body shot. It was a very good body shot. It was a spot where the pain was just so excruciating at that time. It's not him punching hard or anything like that. It's just where he placed his shot. I took one knee, which is what I wanted to do and then I got up ready to fight. But when you have a referee like that, you can't say anything. There is nothing you can do."
<b>Sean Sullivan</b> (Editor of Boxing Digest magazine)
"I think he is pound for pound No.1. Before this year I thought Bernard Hopkins was No.1 with Floyd No.2. Of course, with Hopkins losing twice, I had to drop him and I put Floyd as No.1 because of that. He has a tremendous amount of skills. He has beaten most of the top guys in any division that he has been in up to now and I think he is going to continue to do so. You look at his physical attributes. His speed, reflexes and quickness. But besides that, with the guys that he has fought, with the exception of Jose Luis Castillo, he has pretty much dominated them extensively."
<b> Is there anyone out there today who can beat Floyd Mayweather Jr?</b>
<b>Larry Merchant</b> (has covered some of the world's top boxing events on television and currently serves as special analyst for HBO Sports' presentations of "World Championship Boxing", "Boxing After Dark" and "HBO Pay-Per-View". A former sports columnist with the Philadelphia Daily News and the New York Post, and a general columnist with the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, Merchant joined HBO Sports in 1978 as an expert analyst)
"There is one fighter. They talk about fighting De La Hoya and Wright and they wind up fighting Sharmba Mitchell and Henry Bruseles and so on. He wants to fight at welterweight. He was looking to fight Zab Judah, who I never felt was that good of a fighter and got himself licked by a pretty tough journeyman in Carlos Baldomir from Argentina. It is possible that Mayweather winds up fighting Baldomir. But the guy they don't want any part of is Antonio Margarito at 147lbs. Margarito is the toughest guy out there. He is a very strong, tough fighter. They see him as a larger version of Jose Luis Castillo who gave Mayweather his best fight and a real fright and who I thought beat him. But it is that type of fighter, Castillo, maybe Hatton or Margarito who will give Mayweather the most trouble simply because they are so strong and tough. Floyd has really got the body of a lightweight. He started at 130lbs of course. Those guys who can put constant pressure on him and try to neutralise his quickness will give him the most trouble because nobody is going to outbox him."
<b>Thomas Hauser</b> (senior writer at SecondsOut.com and author of 34 books including "Muhammad Ali: His Life And Times". In 2005, he was honoured by the Boxing Writers Association of America, which bestowed the Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence in boxing journalism upon him. He was the first Internet boxing writer ever to receive the honour)
"I don't know. That is the tricky thing. Zab certainly wasn't going to beat him. At 147, I think Shane Mosley would be competitive against him. Margarito is a big strong guy who hits hard. It would be an interesting fight. I'm not completely sold on Margarito yet. Baldomir certainly isn't going to test him. Ricky Hatton, probably not. I think that would be a slightly more competitive version of the Gatti fight. I just don't think Ricky is quick enough but it would be fun while it lasted. Ricky would me more of a test than Gatti was. I'm not sold on Miguel Cotto. I think Cotto would be an interesting fight, but I think Cotto is over-rated. Winky Wright is too big for Floyd. To me, that is not a fair fight. I'd like to see Floyd go in tougher than he has and I think the people at HBO are silly for paying him as much as they do for the awful fights that he has been in."
<b>Aaron "Hawk" Pryor</b> (WBA and IBF junior welterweight world champion with a record of 39-1 (35). Never defeated as world champion. Defeated Alexis Arguello twice. Inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame in 1996. More information can be found at his website www.HawkTime.com)
"I was looking to Zab Judah to give Floyd a great fight, but Zab didn't fight like he really wanted it against Baldomir. I thought he would give Floyd a challenge. It just shows and this is what I tell my kids, you can't talk your way to the top. It is a long time since a fighter has come along like Floyd Mayweather. Floyd has greatness about him. Today things have changed. The kids do everything but boxing and they have really changed. For Floyd to get that high and excel after all the fights he has had is very special. I don't know if there is anyone out there who can beat him right now. But I'm really excited that Floyd is at 140. There are some great fights out there for him at 140lbs. You have some good fighters coming on up from lightweight. It's going to be explosive with any opponent because Floyd can box and punch. You got to be able to box and punch like Sugar Ray Leonard and Tommy Hearns did and I'm just impressed with what Floyd can do in the ring. When I fought, I pressured my opponent but if I was fighting Floyd, it would be very hard to put that pressure on him because of his speed. It's hard to fight someone who has speed and skills like that."
<b>William Dettloff</b> (long time senior writer for "The Ring" magazine and author of the new book "Box Like the Pros" with Joe Frazier, published by Collins in the USA)
"It is going to sound odd considering what I just said about him, but it is largely a matter of styles in this business and I think if there is one guy who can trouble Floyd tremendously, it is Ricky Hatton. Ricky has got the style to do it. You beat a great boxer with a high volume of punches and pressure and that is Ricky's game. That is a very interesting fight and a very competitive fight in my opinion. I think Floyd can beat bigger guys without too much of a problem. He is fast enough, skilled enough defensively and smart enough to handle the bigger guys. I think when he gets beaten eventually and it will happen of course, it will be because the guy who beat him had the right style to beat him and the right combination of skills and other factors other than their size. He will beat a lot of guys who are bigger than he is. I would pick him to Oscar De La Hoya. But Ricky Hatton, I think he has a real good chance to beat Floyd. Antonio Margarito is not a good style match up for Floyd, but I would still go with Mayweather. Margarito has kind of got the right style and he may have what it takes to beat Mayweather, but he hasn't shown it yet. He is a good fighter. But he had a lot of problems with Daniel Santos in their second fight and whether or not that ended prematurely or in some other controversial fashion. I didn't think it did. But if Daniel Santos is going to give Margarito problems, I think Floyd would, so I would pick Floyd in that fight."
<b>Pat Burns</b> (trainer of undisputed middleweight champion Jermain Taylor and former coach of Floyd Mayweather on the 1996 USA Olympic team)
"Who can beat him? Yes, Jermain Taylor! (smiles) You want to know who can beat Floyd? Jermain Taylor. A lot of guys are doing a lot of talking and I'd like to see Floyd fight Winky Wright at 154. That would be a great fight. I would say there is no one in Floyd's weight class that can beat him right now. Against Ricky Hatton, Floyd would beat him with his speed. Floyd can sit there and bang, but he can move when he needs to. I think Ricky Hatton is a hell of a fighter though. There is Mayweather in that division and then there is everyone else."
<b>Steve Farhood</b> (SHOWTIME analyst for their "ShoBox" series. Writes for "Boxing Monthly" magazine and is a former editor-in-chief of "The Ring" and "KO" magazines)
"I think Ricky Hatton would be a difficult fight for him because of styles. Ricky forces the issue and makes it a physical fight. Ricky would jump on Mayweather and thus at least partially nullify a lot of Mayweather's speed and skill advantages. I think that Hatton is the toughest opponent right now. Margarito would be difficult too, much in the same way Jose Luis Castillo was. Durable guy. Fairly big for the weight. Won't try to knock Mayweather out. Will try to outwork him. Style wise, I think he is a difficult opponent for Mayweather and anyone else."
<b>James Leija</b> (WBC junior lightweight & IBA lightweight champion. Retired in 2005 with a record of 47-7-2 (19). Fought Azumah Nelson four times, Gabriel Ruelas, Jeff Mayweather, Oscar De La Hoya, Shane Mosley, Micky Ward, Kostya Tszyu and Arturo Gatti. More information can be found at his website www.JesseJamesLeija.com)
"I thought the only fighter who may give Floyd trouble because he has the same speed, is Zab Judah. But he doesn't have the same chin that Floyd does. We saw what happened with Carlos Baldomir. You need someone with speed who is not only fast with their hands, but fast with their feet. You can't hit what is not in front of you. At 147, there is no one who can beat Floyd. The only one who may have a decent chance is Antonio Margarito, only because of his height. At 140, I think Floyd would win a fight with Ricky Hatton easy. A tough fight of course, but Floyd would do the same thing he did with Arturo Gatti. I think it would be the same type of fight."
<b>Patrick Kehoe</b> (former co-editor of BoxingPress.com and current contributing editor at SecondsOut.com. Presently working on a book chronicling the Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier rivalry and the sports entertainment ethos it engendered)
"Well, his comment to that question that Larry Merchant asked recently was, 'the only person who can beat me is myself'. I think that is an accurate answer. Normally, the only type of fighter that beats a guy like Mayweather, if we are going to use history for a moment, is the guy who can sustain the all-out attack and break through situationally, all of that technique and all of that speed. Force it, force it. Basically, do what Julio Cesar Chavez did, but do it for twelve rounds and do it with a little more pop on his punches. That is generally how that happens. Anytime Mayweather creates a little bit of space or is able to angle off, he is really hard to beat. The only caveat to that statement is the fact that he is now pressing the envelope with respect to his size. He is really maxing out his possibilities. If he goes to 154 and fights say, a De La Hoya. Well, Oscar is at the end of his career that is a fight he may be able to win. But let's say he had to fight De La Hoya, Ike Quartey, Fernando Vargas and somebody else. That might be pushing it a bit. The theory that I have always held about Roy Jones was people would say it wouldn't have mattered if he had fought so and so and so and so, he was technically better than all of them. Well, yes, but there is the aggregation argument. That is to say that if you fight enough tough guys over a period, physiologically you just will have an off night. The cliché that clicks in there is that great fighters win the big fights on their off nights. That is true and we found out that Floyd is the kind of guy that can do that. We found out for example that Zab Judah is the kind of guy that loses that kind of fight. Mayweather is the kind of guys who wins that fight.
"Mayweather is 28 now. It's all there physically and mentally. I don't think there is a Frazier to his Ali at the moment, if we can put it that way. I think Ricky Hatton would be a great fight. Hatton has certain disadvantages. One is the fact that, and I believe this, maybe I am wrong. But from what hear, they are going to fight at 147. Hatton is going to be a little heavier and that is going to take maybe a little edge off him with respect to the distance he can close. He is not the fastest guy in the world anyway. He is a very strong guy. He is a punishing guy. He is a relentless guy to a certain extent. It may not be the fight people want to see, but certainly if he boxes, flurries and gets out and maybe then when Hatton is a little less fresh later on, it could be a good fight. He also has the vulnerability of cutting, which is now becoming a repeating pattern in his career, so that is a danger against a precise strong hitter like Mayweather. He could just cut Hatton up. Margarito, I can actually see him giving Mayweather a harder fight. He is the danger guy to me for a guy like Mayweather. He is like a bigger version of Jose Luis Castillo. Stylistically, I don't see Miguel Cotto as the one."
<b>Sharmba Mitchell</b> (WBA and IBF Interim junior welterweight world champion with current record of 56-5 (30). Fought Floyd Mayweather Jr in his last fight on November 19)
"I don't think Ricky Hatton can give him trouble because Floyd has very good experience, he has a lot of heart and he wants to win. That's very, very important. Margarito is too slow for Floyd. You would have to have someone who has the same hand speed just as Floyd has. That is the only thing that is going to give him trouble. When I was mixing it up with him, I gave him trouble. I wanted to see which way I could go. Either I could box him, or I could go inside with him. Five or six years ago, it would have been a different kind of contest."
<b>Sean Sullivan</b> (Editor of Boxing Digest magazine)
"Prior to last week, I though Zab was going to beat him. Now I'm not so sure. I thought they would match speed and Zab would have the edge in power and that would do it for him. But now, I don't really know. I think Winky Wright could beat Floyd Mayweather, but that might be too much of a step up for him in weight. If he stays at 140lbs, he can beat Miguel Cotto, no question. I think Ricky Hatton might give him a good test with the pressure he puts on fighters. But I think Floyd would still find a way to beat Hatton. But I think Hatton would be a good test. You can't forget about Margarito, who would definitely give him a good test. But I think Hatton would have a better chance of beating him than Margarito might. If you look at Margarito's last HBO fight with Daniel Santos, he lost that fight. I just think he might be able to hit Floyd a couple of times and as dangerous as he is, I still think Mayweather would beat him."
Paul Upham
Contributing Editor
SecondsOut spoke to ten of boxing's most knowledgeable experts on the sport today and industry insiders to help define the current status of Floyd Mayweather Jr by posing two main questions.
<b>How good is Floyd Mayweather Jr, is he pound for pound No.1 today?</b>
<b>Larry Merchant</b> (has covered some of the world's top boxing events on television and currently serves as special analyst for HBO Sports' presentations of "World Championship Boxing", "Boxing After Dark" and "HBO Pay-Per-View". A former sports columnist with the Philadelphia Daily News and the New York Post, and a general columnist with the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, Merchant joined HBO Sports in 1978 as an expert analyst)
"Yes, he is No.1 pound for pound. He is what I would call a virtuoso boxer/puncher right now. He is doing things that are almost a lost art and he was raised virtually from the cradle to do so by having a father and two uncles who were fighters. His father fought Sugar Ray Leonard. His other Uncle Roger, who now trains him, was a champion. He is a just a brilliant all-round fighter. He may indeed compare to the greats of the past. Although, what is happening is that he is out classing his opponents and is moving up in weight class and eventually he will probably climb too high and lose fights to bigger, stronger guys and be in tougher fights. But if he were able to stay as a lightweight, he might establish a reputation as good as any lightweight that ever was. But in this day and age you follow the money, as always. He has moved up to 140 where he was able to make some pretty good money for fighting Arturo Gatti and he hopes down the road that he will be able to fight Ricky Hatton.
"He throws the names of Winky Wright and Oscar De La Hoya out there, but I've never taken that seriously. He puts those names out there because he could make a lot of money for fighting those guys and because it makes a good headline. I'll believe those kinds of fights when I see them. Maybe later in his career, that might happen. I'm sceptical now. But he certainly wants to fight the Brit Ricky Hatton. I don't know if that will ever happen until Hatton has cleaned up as much as he can in Britain where he is such a big box office attraction. Although, I think Hatton is the kind of fighter who is so good, so exciting and such a great popular figure that even if he were to lose to somebody like Mayweather I don't think it would necessarily directly affect him. But I don't think they are going to go to Mayweather anytime soon. The other one at 140lbs right now, or possibly 147 later on is Miguel Cotto who is a very exciting Puerto Rican fighter. Some people are calling him the Puerto Rican Arturo Gatti and he does have a lot to offer. He is going to have some big fights. But Floyd is clearly the best one out there."
<b>Thomas Hauser</b> (senior writer at SecondsOut.com and author of 34 books including "Muhammad Ali: His Life And Times". In 2005, he was honoured by the Boxing Writers Association of America, which bestowed the Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence in boxing journalism upon him. He was the first Internet boxing writer ever to receive the honour)
"Right now, I think the pound for pound throne is vacant. I think that the last person who clearly deserved it was Roy Jones and probably I would have given it to Bernard Hopkins after Roy. My guess is that Floyd is the leading candidate for the throne, but he has to win a big fight convincingly for me to give him that. Last year, if you look at the three people that he fought, Henry Bruseles, Arturo Gatti and Sharmba Mitchell, none of them was an elite opponent. I think he just has to prove himself and if he does that, he deserves it. But right now, it is vacant. It is easy for somebody with Floyd's skills to look good against Arturo Gatti and I don't know who there is quite frankly in his weight class who can really test him. I don't think he should have to go up and fight Winky Wright who is just much bigger than he is. I wouldn't mind if he fought Antonio Margarito. But I just don't think he deserves it yet. No.1 can be vacant for a while. As far as I'm concerned, the heavyweight championship is vacant too. (Great fighters need fellow great fighters to beat?) When you think of Ali, you think of Joe Frazier, Sonny Liston and George Foreman. Even Roy Jones early in his career had Bernard Hopkins and James Toney."
<b>Aaron "Hawk" Pryor</b> (WBA and IBF junior welterweight world champion with a record of 39-1 (35). Never defeated as world champion. Defeated Alexis Arguello twice. Inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame in 1996. More information can be found at his website www.HawkTime.com)
"I am so happy that Floyd is at 140. He is going to max out at 140 and be a Hall of Famer. Floyd has won world titles in other weight divisions and has moved up just like Alexis Arguello did. He rose up through the weight divisions and won titles in three divisions before we fought. Floyd finally made it home at 140lbs. I don't think he should fight at 147 or 154lbs. He's home at 140lbs. My home plate was at 140lbs after I started as a lightweight. Floyd has the hand movement, the co-ordination, the height and the ability to manage great fights at 140. He's the best in the world today. I really do believe that. I'm going to give that to him. He can fight under pressure. He sees things and goes out and makes it happen. Boxing has changed since when I was fighting. Now a days, it is really hard to hold on to the world titles. Floyd has won world titles in three divisions and as he has moved up in weight he has become greater. He is very economical in the ring. I think Floyd is just so good. Styles make a difference no matter how good you are. You have to be able to punch and box, adapting to your opponent. But Floyd is able to adapt so well, it makes no difference who he fights."
<b>William Dettloff</b> (long time senior writer for "The Ring" magazine and author of the new book "Box Like the Pros" with Joe Frazier, published by Collins in the USA)
"Yes he is No.1. That is not a unanimous opinion universally in the boxing industry because of the different criteria that exists from person to person. My criteria is this. If you took the best fighters in the world and shrunk them all down to the same weight and put them in a tournament, who would have the best chance of coming out of that tournament as the winner? My pick would be Floyd Mayweather Jr. This sounds very simplistic, but it is important I think. He does whatever he wants to when he is in the ring. If he doesn't want to get hit, you can't hit him. If he feels like getting hit a little bit and feels like being a puncher as he was against Sharmba Mitchell for example, you can hit him a little bit and he is going to hit you back. Whatever he wants to do in the ring, he does. He kind of reminds me, and this is going to sound like a strange analogy, but he kind of reminds me of George Foreman in that sense. When he is in the ring, the opponent can only do what he lets them do."
<b>Pat Burns</b> (trainer of undisputed middleweight champion Jermain Taylor and former coach of Floyd Mayweather on the 1996 USA Olympic team)
"I think pound for pound he is the best fighter in the world. He has speed and power and can fight at two or three different weight classes. I just think he is a great fighter. His defensive skills, his offensive skills, his ability to deliver a punch, his ability to take a punch and his ability to set up. His pace. He can go from 20 miles an hour to 100 miles an hour at the drop of a dime. He has got it all. He was on my team at the Olympics and he was a great fighter then. The problem with him in the Olympics was that he fought a lot like a pro instead of an amateur with the computer scoring. He was a great fighter back in those days. He has just become much more settled down and much more confident. Right out the Olympics till now he just gets better and better."
<b>Steve Farhood</b> (SHOWTIME analyst for their "ShoBox" series. Writes for "Boxing Monthly" magazine and is a former editor-in-chief of "The Ring" and "KO" magazines)
"He is certainly pound for pound No.1. The combination of the fact that he is a born fighter from a family of fighters. He has that coaches' son mentality. He is so comfortable in the ring and his natural physical skills. He has incredible reflexes and tremendous speed and he is never ever in anything but top condition. The intangibles with Floyd are always underrated in my opinion. At this point I would say he is No.1 by a clear margin. With that said, he is in desperate need of a big, big fight. His win over Arturo Gatti served him well in terms of shining the spotlight on him, but now he becomes a victim of his own success, because we know how good he is and we want to see it against the very best. Mayweather has the advantage that he can jump weights. He can fight at 140lbs now and he can fight at 147. It's not his fault that Zab Judah lost. That would have been viewed as an attractive fight. He is the best junior welterweight in the world, but he is not the champion. Ricky Hatton is, so that is one fighter to fight. Miguel Cotto is another. Antonio Margarito is another at welterweight."
<b>James Leija</b> (WBC junior lightweight & IBA lightweight champion. Retired in 2005 with a record of 47-7-2 (19). Fought Azumah Nelson four times, Gabriel Ruelas, Jeff Mayweather, Oscar De La Hoya, Shane Mosley, Micky Ward, Kostya Tszyu and Arturo Gatti. More information can be found at his website www.JesseJamesLeija.com)
"I see him as No.1 pound for pound and you could almost back it up with his performances in the weight classes that he has gone up in. How no one can touch the guy. He has amazing hand speed and what I think makes him unique is his defence. You can't hit the guy. You may hit him once or twice, but that is going to be it. He is going to hit you so many times. His hand speed and his defence are incredible. He may not be the strongest puncher, but I don't care who you are man, after a while those punches start hurting. You can catch maybe the first twenty, but after twenty-four, twenty-five, you are going to start feeling them and you don't want to get hit anymore. Floyd has been incredible in the different weight classes as he has moved up. I won a world title at 130 and 135. I went up four weight divisions and something that I am proud of is that I was ranked in the top ten in every weight division that I was in. I take pride in that because it is a hard thing to do because you are fighting guys who are much bigger than you. For Floyd to be doing what he is doing with ease, it is incredible. He is doing it with ease. He fought my cousin Louie Leija who was a strong puncher early in Floyd's career. Floyd just knocked him out on his feet. I saw Floyd training here in San Antonio at our gym and he was amazing even back then. He was just starting out as a pro."
<b>Patrick Kehoe</b> (former co-editor of BoxingPress.com and current contributing editor at SecondsOut.com. Presently working on a book chronicling the Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier rivalry and the sports entertainment ethos it engendered)
"He is pound for pound No.1 for sure. I certainly didn't think that Bernard Hopkins had been pound for pound No.1 for quite a long time. That was just my view. Technically, Floyd is at his peak right now. He is the most inventive boxer out there. He has sort of that blend of speed when he wants it and intuitive reflex. He has such grounded technique too, built from the fact that he has been boxing since he was a little kid and has been schooled very, very well. He has a nice combination obviously of speed and power, but he is defined by the combination of his intuition, his technique and his speed as far as I'm concerned."
<b>Sharmba Mitchell</b> (WBA and IBF Interim junior welterweight world champion with current record of 56-5 (30). Fought Floyd Mayweather Jr in his last fight on November 19)
"Floyd is a very good fighter. I like Floyd and I have always liked Floyd because he has an old man kind of style. I would give him that he is the best in the world today. Until someone else comes up and beats him, you would have to say that. I take my hat off to him. He hit me with me a very, very good body shot. It was a very good body shot. It was a spot where the pain was just so excruciating at that time. It's not him punching hard or anything like that. It's just where he placed his shot. I took one knee, which is what I wanted to do and then I got up ready to fight. But when you have a referee like that, you can't say anything. There is nothing you can do."
<b>Sean Sullivan</b> (Editor of Boxing Digest magazine)
"I think he is pound for pound No.1. Before this year I thought Bernard Hopkins was No.1 with Floyd No.2. Of course, with Hopkins losing twice, I had to drop him and I put Floyd as No.1 because of that. He has a tremendous amount of skills. He has beaten most of the top guys in any division that he has been in up to now and I think he is going to continue to do so. You look at his physical attributes. His speed, reflexes and quickness. But besides that, with the guys that he has fought, with the exception of Jose Luis Castillo, he has pretty much dominated them extensively."
<b> Is there anyone out there today who can beat Floyd Mayweather Jr?</b>
<b>Larry Merchant</b> (has covered some of the world's top boxing events on television and currently serves as special analyst for HBO Sports' presentations of "World Championship Boxing", "Boxing After Dark" and "HBO Pay-Per-View". A former sports columnist with the Philadelphia Daily News and the New York Post, and a general columnist with the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, Merchant joined HBO Sports in 1978 as an expert analyst)
"There is one fighter. They talk about fighting De La Hoya and Wright and they wind up fighting Sharmba Mitchell and Henry Bruseles and so on. He wants to fight at welterweight. He was looking to fight Zab Judah, who I never felt was that good of a fighter and got himself licked by a pretty tough journeyman in Carlos Baldomir from Argentina. It is possible that Mayweather winds up fighting Baldomir. But the guy they don't want any part of is Antonio Margarito at 147lbs. Margarito is the toughest guy out there. He is a very strong, tough fighter. They see him as a larger version of Jose Luis Castillo who gave Mayweather his best fight and a real fright and who I thought beat him. But it is that type of fighter, Castillo, maybe Hatton or Margarito who will give Mayweather the most trouble simply because they are so strong and tough. Floyd has really got the body of a lightweight. He started at 130lbs of course. Those guys who can put constant pressure on him and try to neutralise his quickness will give him the most trouble because nobody is going to outbox him."
<b>Thomas Hauser</b> (senior writer at SecondsOut.com and author of 34 books including "Muhammad Ali: His Life And Times". In 2005, he was honoured by the Boxing Writers Association of America, which bestowed the Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence in boxing journalism upon him. He was the first Internet boxing writer ever to receive the honour)
"I don't know. That is the tricky thing. Zab certainly wasn't going to beat him. At 147, I think Shane Mosley would be competitive against him. Margarito is a big strong guy who hits hard. It would be an interesting fight. I'm not completely sold on Margarito yet. Baldomir certainly isn't going to test him. Ricky Hatton, probably not. I think that would be a slightly more competitive version of the Gatti fight. I just don't think Ricky is quick enough but it would be fun while it lasted. Ricky would me more of a test than Gatti was. I'm not sold on Miguel Cotto. I think Cotto would be an interesting fight, but I think Cotto is over-rated. Winky Wright is too big for Floyd. To me, that is not a fair fight. I'd like to see Floyd go in tougher than he has and I think the people at HBO are silly for paying him as much as they do for the awful fights that he has been in."
<b>Aaron "Hawk" Pryor</b> (WBA and IBF junior welterweight world champion with a record of 39-1 (35). Never defeated as world champion. Defeated Alexis Arguello twice. Inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame in 1996. More information can be found at his website www.HawkTime.com)
"I was looking to Zab Judah to give Floyd a great fight, but Zab didn't fight like he really wanted it against Baldomir. I thought he would give Floyd a challenge. It just shows and this is what I tell my kids, you can't talk your way to the top. It is a long time since a fighter has come along like Floyd Mayweather. Floyd has greatness about him. Today things have changed. The kids do everything but boxing and they have really changed. For Floyd to get that high and excel after all the fights he has had is very special. I don't know if there is anyone out there who can beat him right now. But I'm really excited that Floyd is at 140. There are some great fights out there for him at 140lbs. You have some good fighters coming on up from lightweight. It's going to be explosive with any opponent because Floyd can box and punch. You got to be able to box and punch like Sugar Ray Leonard and Tommy Hearns did and I'm just impressed with what Floyd can do in the ring. When I fought, I pressured my opponent but if I was fighting Floyd, it would be very hard to put that pressure on him because of his speed. It's hard to fight someone who has speed and skills like that."
<b>William Dettloff</b> (long time senior writer for "The Ring" magazine and author of the new book "Box Like the Pros" with Joe Frazier, published by Collins in the USA)
"It is going to sound odd considering what I just said about him, but it is largely a matter of styles in this business and I think if there is one guy who can trouble Floyd tremendously, it is Ricky Hatton. Ricky has got the style to do it. You beat a great boxer with a high volume of punches and pressure and that is Ricky's game. That is a very interesting fight and a very competitive fight in my opinion. I think Floyd can beat bigger guys without too much of a problem. He is fast enough, skilled enough defensively and smart enough to handle the bigger guys. I think when he gets beaten eventually and it will happen of course, it will be because the guy who beat him had the right style to beat him and the right combination of skills and other factors other than their size. He will beat a lot of guys who are bigger than he is. I would pick him to Oscar De La Hoya. But Ricky Hatton, I think he has a real good chance to beat Floyd. Antonio Margarito is not a good style match up for Floyd, but I would still go with Mayweather. Margarito has kind of got the right style and he may have what it takes to beat Mayweather, but he hasn't shown it yet. He is a good fighter. But he had a lot of problems with Daniel Santos in their second fight and whether or not that ended prematurely or in some other controversial fashion. I didn't think it did. But if Daniel Santos is going to give Margarito problems, I think Floyd would, so I would pick Floyd in that fight."
<b>Pat Burns</b> (trainer of undisputed middleweight champion Jermain Taylor and former coach of Floyd Mayweather on the 1996 USA Olympic team)
"Who can beat him? Yes, Jermain Taylor! (smiles) You want to know who can beat Floyd? Jermain Taylor. A lot of guys are doing a lot of talking and I'd like to see Floyd fight Winky Wright at 154. That would be a great fight. I would say there is no one in Floyd's weight class that can beat him right now. Against Ricky Hatton, Floyd would beat him with his speed. Floyd can sit there and bang, but he can move when he needs to. I think Ricky Hatton is a hell of a fighter though. There is Mayweather in that division and then there is everyone else."
<b>Steve Farhood</b> (SHOWTIME analyst for their "ShoBox" series. Writes for "Boxing Monthly" magazine and is a former editor-in-chief of "The Ring" and "KO" magazines)
"I think Ricky Hatton would be a difficult fight for him because of styles. Ricky forces the issue and makes it a physical fight. Ricky would jump on Mayweather and thus at least partially nullify a lot of Mayweather's speed and skill advantages. I think that Hatton is the toughest opponent right now. Margarito would be difficult too, much in the same way Jose Luis Castillo was. Durable guy. Fairly big for the weight. Won't try to knock Mayweather out. Will try to outwork him. Style wise, I think he is a difficult opponent for Mayweather and anyone else."
<b>James Leija</b> (WBC junior lightweight & IBA lightweight champion. Retired in 2005 with a record of 47-7-2 (19). Fought Azumah Nelson four times, Gabriel Ruelas, Jeff Mayweather, Oscar De La Hoya, Shane Mosley, Micky Ward, Kostya Tszyu and Arturo Gatti. More information can be found at his website www.JesseJamesLeija.com)
"I thought the only fighter who may give Floyd trouble because he has the same speed, is Zab Judah. But he doesn't have the same chin that Floyd does. We saw what happened with Carlos Baldomir. You need someone with speed who is not only fast with their hands, but fast with their feet. You can't hit what is not in front of you. At 147, there is no one who can beat Floyd. The only one who may have a decent chance is Antonio Margarito, only because of his height. At 140, I think Floyd would win a fight with Ricky Hatton easy. A tough fight of course, but Floyd would do the same thing he did with Arturo Gatti. I think it would be the same type of fight."
<b>Patrick Kehoe</b> (former co-editor of BoxingPress.com and current contributing editor at SecondsOut.com. Presently working on a book chronicling the Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier rivalry and the sports entertainment ethos it engendered)
"Well, his comment to that question that Larry Merchant asked recently was, 'the only person who can beat me is myself'. I think that is an accurate answer. Normally, the only type of fighter that beats a guy like Mayweather, if we are going to use history for a moment, is the guy who can sustain the all-out attack and break through situationally, all of that technique and all of that speed. Force it, force it. Basically, do what Julio Cesar Chavez did, but do it for twelve rounds and do it with a little more pop on his punches. That is generally how that happens. Anytime Mayweather creates a little bit of space or is able to angle off, he is really hard to beat. The only caveat to that statement is the fact that he is now pressing the envelope with respect to his size. He is really maxing out his possibilities. If he goes to 154 and fights say, a De La Hoya. Well, Oscar is at the end of his career that is a fight he may be able to win. But let's say he had to fight De La Hoya, Ike Quartey, Fernando Vargas and somebody else. That might be pushing it a bit. The theory that I have always held about Roy Jones was people would say it wouldn't have mattered if he had fought so and so and so and so, he was technically better than all of them. Well, yes, but there is the aggregation argument. That is to say that if you fight enough tough guys over a period, physiologically you just will have an off night. The cliché that clicks in there is that great fighters win the big fights on their off nights. That is true and we found out that Floyd is the kind of guy that can do that. We found out for example that Zab Judah is the kind of guy that loses that kind of fight. Mayweather is the kind of guys who wins that fight.
"Mayweather is 28 now. It's all there physically and mentally. I don't think there is a Frazier to his Ali at the moment, if we can put it that way. I think Ricky Hatton would be a great fight. Hatton has certain disadvantages. One is the fact that, and I believe this, maybe I am wrong. But from what hear, they are going to fight at 147. Hatton is going to be a little heavier and that is going to take maybe a little edge off him with respect to the distance he can close. He is not the fastest guy in the world anyway. He is a very strong guy. He is a punishing guy. He is a relentless guy to a certain extent. It may not be the fight people want to see, but certainly if he boxes, flurries and gets out and maybe then when Hatton is a little less fresh later on, it could be a good fight. He also has the vulnerability of cutting, which is now becoming a repeating pattern in his career, so that is a danger against a precise strong hitter like Mayweather. He could just cut Hatton up. Margarito, I can actually see him giving Mayweather a harder fight. He is the danger guy to me for a guy like Mayweather. He is like a bigger version of Jose Luis Castillo. Stylistically, I don't see Miguel Cotto as the one."
<b>Sharmba Mitchell</b> (WBA and IBF Interim junior welterweight world champion with current record of 56-5 (30). Fought Floyd Mayweather Jr in his last fight on November 19)
"I don't think Ricky Hatton can give him trouble because Floyd has very good experience, he has a lot of heart and he wants to win. That's very, very important. Margarito is too slow for Floyd. You would have to have someone who has the same hand speed just as Floyd has. That is the only thing that is going to give him trouble. When I was mixing it up with him, I gave him trouble. I wanted to see which way I could go. Either I could box him, or I could go inside with him. Five or six years ago, it would have been a different kind of contest."
<b>Sean Sullivan</b> (Editor of Boxing Digest magazine)
"Prior to last week, I though Zab was going to beat him. Now I'm not so sure. I thought they would match speed and Zab would have the edge in power and that would do it for him. But now, I don't really know. I think Winky Wright could beat Floyd Mayweather, but that might be too much of a step up for him in weight. If he stays at 140lbs, he can beat Miguel Cotto, no question. I think Ricky Hatton might give him a good test with the pressure he puts on fighters. But I think Floyd would still find a way to beat Hatton. But I think Hatton would be a good test. You can't forget about Margarito, who would definitely give him a good test. But I think Hatton would have a better chance of beating him than Margarito might. If you look at Margarito's last HBO fight with Daniel Santos, he lost that fight. I just think he might be able to hit Floyd a couple of times and as dangerous as he is, I still think Mayweather would beat him."
Paul Upham
Contributing Editor
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