There’s little argument that Floyd Mayweather will go down as a boxing great for not just his generation but in the history of the sport entire – so who does he consider his peers?
Perhaps the most defensively skilled fighter of all time, ‘Money’ Mayweather made a habit of topping box office charts in his multi-weight world championship winning career. He retired with a perfect 50-0 record – often credited as having a negative impact on younger fighters who are too concerned with keeping a 0 on their resume – and was recorded as the most accurate puncher since CompuBox has been collecting such stats.
Pernell Whitaker, Roberto Duran and Aaron Pryor make his list of the best to ever do it. He will include himself as the fourth of five and leaves room for one big man.
Asked to name a heavyweight for his all-time great list in an interview with Fat Joe, Mayweather skipped over Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis to give the honour to Larry Holmes.
“If we gonna go heavyweights, I’m gonna be honest I gotta go Larry Holmes. Do you want me to give you the breakdown? Cause Larry Holmes beat everybody in his era. When he got beat by Mike Tyson, he got beat by a young, hungry champion and he came out of years retirement.
That man had the basic fundamentals. He had the jab. And even right now he’s still living a great life cause he made smart investments. So he was good from the beginning of his career till the end of his career. And he came back and beat a lot of young guys too. Even though Tyson got him, he beat Ray Mercer.”
Holmes’ campaign spanned close to three decades and his jab, as Mayweather mentioned, is considered one of the best on record. Born in Easton, Pennsylvania, the aptly named ‘Easton Assassin’ went undefeated for 48 contests from debut before losing to underdog Michael Spinks.
He was the only man to defeat Muhammad Ali inside the distance and held the WBC World title from 1978 to 83, The Ring Magazine belt from 1980 to 85 and was the first ever IBF Champion from 1983 – 85.
He retired for good in 2002 with a record of 75 fights, 69 wins with 44 knockouts and just six losses.
