Floyd Mayweather returned to the exhibition scene this month, showing flashes of the brilliance that saw him unbeatable during his 50-fight campaign.
Formerly ‘Pretty Boy’ Floyd then ‘Money’ Mayweather, the Michigan-born elite operator retired in 2017 as a multi-weight world champion whose speed and technical prowess will be studied for years to come.
With wins over Manny Pacquiao, Oscar De La Hoya, Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, Miguel Cotto and more, no fighter could find a route to sustained success against Mayweather. Could any fighter in the current crop do it?
Four-weight world champion Mikey Garcia was posed this question by ES News in a resurfaced interview, specifically how Ukraine’s master of movement Vasiliy Lomachenko would fare.
“I still think Floyd beats Lomachenko in both primes. You could look at Mayweather when he was at 130 pounds and he beat [Carlos] Hernández, when he beat Diego Corrales, those were great performances. Maybe some of his best.
That was a young Floyd. He beat Arturo Gatti then moving up in weight, he was fast and strong. It’s not till recent till he kind of backed off from looking for the stoppages and focused more on his defence towards the end of his career. Earlier he was dangerous. I think a prime Floyd beats a prime Lomachenko.”
Lomachenko is one of the most successful amateurs boxers of all time with a reported record of 396 wins and just one loss. Since turning over to the paid ranks he has become a three-weight world champion and currently holds the IBF World Title in the lightweight ranks. Known as ‘The Matrix’, the Ukrainian is a master at setting traps and feinting his way to scoring shots.
Despite taking the rest of 2024 off, the 36-year-old has said he is not retiring just yet.
