Mate too many excuses but because you like making excuses here we go:
Excuses? Since when does making an observation/s equate with making excuses?
the version of Pac that impress you so much vs Hatton 1. Floyd beat him first when he was considered unbeatable and any fight fan knows the hardest thing to do is beat an undefeated fighter. Floyd did that.
Sorry, but the bolded bit is a crock of ****, and not by a little margin either. Being undefeated in this day and age usually means that the fighter in question has been very carefully managed and fed scrubs and fighters to pad his record with. Billy Conn once said show me an undefeated fighter and I'll show you someone who hasnt fought anyone, and there is a lot of truth to that statement.
Hatton while undefeated was nevertheless a very good fighter, but he was carefully managed and built up on his way to his title fight against Kostya Tszyu which to his credit he won the fight albeit not without some significant leeway being accorded to him during the fight by the ref Dave Paris.
And for the record Hatton was never, at any point in his career, considered unbeatable by boxing pundits and experts who know and regularly follow the sport of boxing, so I have no clue where you came up with that statement.
Cotto vs Manny at 147lbs cotto like DLH was weight drained reason they both look like crap.
Cotto was not weightdrained while he was campaigning at 147lbs, at 140lbs I would agree that he was and he admitted as much himself, and that is why he moved up to welterweight shortly after his nearly disastrous but highly entertaining fight against Colombian power-puncher Ricardo Torres in which he was dropped twice and wobbled several times before prevailing by KO in the 7th.
DLH on the other hand was a walking corpse the night he fought Pacquiao, on that we can both agree on however, and as a result I dont rate it particularly highly as a victory for Pacquiao in terms of significance.
DLH and Cotto are at their strongest at 154lbs in boxing it makes a world of difference. Floyd beat them both at 154.
DLH arguably defeated Mayweather in their fight... personally I scored it a draw but it was not a runaway and one-sided affair for Floyd by any stretch, and Cotto also gave him a lot of difficulty but to his credit he handled it well and won the fight.
Give credit where credit is due. Boxing is not about going toe to toe it's a science!!
I've been following the sport of boxing since I was 8, started boxing at 9 and have continued to do so for over two decades, and I've also witnessed thousands of fights of fighters starting from the early 1900s up to today's era by amassing a collection of over 6 thousands fights.
So no need to tell me what the Sweet Science is all about for I am well aware, and I never suggested that Floyd should have gone toe-to-toe with Pacquiao so I dont know what your comment was supposed to achieve here?
Floyd had a great game plan and simply frustrated Manny with his technique and elusiveness, quickness and smarts.
Indeed, the point that I was making however is that the Manny of 5 years back who was a wrecking ball of a welterweight would have given Floyd the fight of his life, and arguably defeated him had they fought back when the fight made the most sense with both men at the peak of their abilities.
The Manny we saw this past Saturday was a mere shell of his former self, and thus a win over such a depleted and diminished fighter doesnt rank as highly all-time as it would have had he defeated him when Manny was cutting a destructive swath through the welterweight division annihilating everyone in his path.
Pac flattened Hatton and ended his career, battered Cotto en route to a 12th round stoppage and fractured the much bigger and tough as nails Antonio Margarito's cheekbone en route to a 12 round sustained beating, a fighter that Mayweather avoided at all costs under the pretext that there was no money to be made in a fight against a tough as nails come forward pressure fighting mexican Margarito.
Yet funnily enough there was a market for a fight against the boxer-puncher Canelo a few years later, so yes that was a clear duck on Mayweathers part for my money. Pac on the other hand fought JMM 4 times even though he was a stylistic nightmare for him and he got KOed in their 4th and final meeting as a result, but at least he challenged himself and took risks, whereas Floyd will always be remembered for his aversion to taking on risks where the odds where not significantly in his favor.
And it is for that reason, among many others, that his all-time standing will suffer greatly. I will concede that he is among the ten best defensive fighters of all-time (somewhere in the #4-7 range) and that at 130lbs he was as good as anyone that ever fought at the weight from what I have seen, but to say that he is THE GOAT with his body of work is simply not going to cut it.
He could have done more, but money and keeping that 0 where concerns #1 and #2 respectively for Floyd, legacy and the history books came a very distant 3rd in terms of importance to him.
And thats all there is to it.
