FLOYD MAYWEATHER has revealed his top five favourite fighters of all time and, unsurprisingly, placed himself at the top of the list.
Speaking to ESPN Deportes, Mayweather was given a list of ten fighters to choose a top five from, and they were: Sugar Ray Robinson, Sugar Ray Leonard, Joe Louis, Henry Armstrong, Muhammad Ali, Pernell Whitaker, Floyd Mayweather, Roberto Duran, Julio Cesar Chavez, Rocky Marciano.
After claiming he would not be biased, he chose himself for the top spot and said: โHeโs beaten more world champions than any other fighter here. Heโs done it in a shorter period of time than any other fighter up here and heโs done it with less fights than any other fighter up here.
โRecord-breaking numbers all around the board. Pay-per-view, live gate, landed punches on a higher percentage and took less punishment. Done it in 19 years, been world champion for 18 years, done it in five different weight classes.โ
In second place he put Roberto Duran, saying: โUnbelievable. He was the guy that came from lightweight and was the first guy to beat Sugar Ray Leonard. He went from lightweight to 160lbs and became world champion. Heโs a legend, I love that guy.
โWe canโt talk about what happened in the second fight (with Leonard) we have to talk about from the beginning. Once you make mistakes you can go back and correct it. I donโt make mistakes so I donโt have to correct anything, I get the job done right the first time.โ
In third came Pernell Whitaker and he commented: โHe knew how to win. He didnโt lose until the end of his career. He beat Chavez for real, and Iโm a Julio Cesar Chavez fan even though he beat my uncle, Roger Mayweather, twice.โ
After placing Chavez in fourth and Ali in fifth, he said: โChavez was 80-0 before he lost and he went to different weight classes, Muhammad Ali was only at one weight class. Ali really lost all three times to Ken Norton. This is me just being honest. Itโs so hard, this is my top five.
โWhat Ali did was he stood for a cause in an era where African Americans didnโt stand up for their people and he stood up for a strong cause.โ