It may be just another tease, but after the fight last night, Floyd was asked about Pacquiao, and he replied, “let’s make it happen”. We’ll see if there’s anything to this after Manny’s upcoming fight, assuming he wins it, which he certainly should.
In Mayweather’s defense, which I don’t come to very often, he has fought a lot of world champions and future HOFers. Beyond Pacquiao, I don’t think he’s avoided anyone who stands out as someone he should have fought. The biggest criticism of him has been that he has often fought great fighters past their prime (de la Hoya, Moseley, Cotto; he also avoided Margarito when the latter was really feared, and of course if the Pacquiao fight is actually made, this will be another example), or forced them into unfavorable weight classes (Hatton, Marquez, and he used this ploy to avoid an earlier fight with Moseley). He also could have done what Pacquiao did, go up in weight classes to face bigger men, e.g., Martinez when he was in his prime.
I agree he won’t be considered as great as he thinks he is, but except for fighting Pacquiao in his prime, and these other points I mentioned, I don’t think there’s much more he could have done. Certainly there’s no one else out there now that he’s passing up who would make a decent match. To a large extent his legacy is defined by who was around to fight him when he was in his prime, and it also doesn’t help that he is a defensive, counter-punching specialist, so he doesn’t get into those epic toe-to-toe battles that the fans love.
In Mayweather’s defense, which I don’t come to very often, he has fought a lot of world champions and future HOFers. Beyond Pacquiao, I don’t think he’s avoided anyone who stands out as someone he should have fought. The biggest criticism of him has been that he has often fought great fighters past their prime (de la Hoya, Moseley, Cotto; he also avoided Margarito when the latter was really feared, and of course if the Pacquiao fight is actually made, this will be another example), or forced them into unfavorable weight classes (Hatton, Marquez, and he used this ploy to avoid an earlier fight with Moseley). He also could have done what Pacquiao did, go up in weight classes to face bigger men, e.g., Martinez when he was in his prime.
I agree he won’t be considered as great as he thinks he is, but except for fighting Pacquiao in his prime, and these other points I mentioned, I don’t think there’s much more he could have done. Certainly there’s no one else out there now that he’s passing up who would make a decent match. To a large extent his legacy is defined by who was around to fight him when he was in his prime, and it also doesn’t help that he is a defensive, counter-punching specialist, so he doesn’t get into those epic toe-to-toe battles that the fans love.