You can't punish him for fighting in an era where fighters go up and down through weight classes as they please. That's just the evolution of the game.
It's always been part of the game, henry armstrong, robinson, archie moore, etc. etc. etc.
It's not punishing mayweather. It's just he has 8 fights at welterweight. That's it. Like Roy Jones had 6 or 7 fights at 168, so can't really rate him that high there (although 168 is a very new division), see what I'm saying? Welterweight is the most stacked and historic division in boxing so to rank top 10 then is pretty damn difficult with only 8 good wins there.
If Floyd didn't retire for two years and lets say for argument sake he fought and beat an undefeated Cotto, undefeated Paul Williams, prime Margarito, along with Pacquiao, then shit that would of probably done it.
What is he then in terms of weight?? He's a big lightweight, and a tiny middleweight....so I go with welter.
Well he just he started off a little guy (135) and eventually grew out of that division, or purposely got bigger and ended settled at 147. I think he's a true welterweight now, but it took some time to get there.
Oscar is a welterweight even though he ballooned up and fought bigger dudes. Why are you being so selective with Floyd? Sugar ray Leonard fought Hagler at middleweight and Tommy Hearns at super middleweight, but no one is calling him a middleweight?
I'm not being selective with Mayweather. Winning titles in multiple weight classes is a huge deal in boxing. You mention Leonard...here is an example. leonard fought, and beat, Duran at welterweight, Hearns at welterweight & came out of a three year retirement (detached retina) to beat the lineal MW champ in Hagler. That's three all time greats right there, along with wilfred benitez at welterweight. That's crazy. So it's about WHO he beat most importantly (btw, his rematch against Hearns at supermiddleweight, they were both way past prime by then and Leonard only weighed 160 and Hearns 162. The 168 pound division was only created about a year before that).
What I'm saying is Floyd lacks GREAT wins on his resume. Some of that isn't his fault, some of that is, but it is what it is. Klitschko, although I'm NOT comparing Klitschko to floyd, rather using this as an example, has been fighting in an extremely weak heavyweight division. Some people say, "well you can't fault Klitschko for dominating a weak era". No I can't, but at the same time he doesn't have any great wins. This of course is a way more extreme example and floyd is 8972394723482X better than Klitschko! So don't get me wrong here.
Now, if you want to talk
head to head, i.e Mayweather vs Duran, Mayweather vs Emile Griffith, Mayweather vs Robinson, Mayweather vs Leonard, that's a totally different topic as I'm sure Floyd holds his own against a lot of those guys.
