โPERFECTION is not attainable,โ said Vince Lombardi, the legendary NFL player and coach, โbut if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence.โ
At first glance, the word perfection would appear to encapsulate Floyd Mayweatherโs 50-fight professional better than most โ yes, better even than โPretty Boyโ and โMoneyโ and โTBEโ (The Best Ever). The stats, 50-0, are perfect and his style, too, whether operating as a super-featherweight, lightweight, super-lightweight, welterweight or super-welterweight, was often the very embodiment of fighting perfection; his every move, be it the flick of a wrist or roll of a shoulder, designed to inflict maximum damage while minimising the return.
Such was his brilliance, in fact, we speak of Mayweatherโs shortcomings not in terms of fights lost or opponents unconquered but in terms of the memorable punches landed on him and the scorecards not indicative of a dominant, landslide victory. We focus less on his ring record and more on his criminal record. We highlight human flaws in lieu of him looking anything but human when wearing boxing gloves. For him we have โ have always had โ different rules.
Yet Mayweather was human, even in the ring, and his record, though defined by a zero, attests to this. Forget the numbers, the devil is in the detail: the odd controversial decision, the notable big punch received, the momentary crisis, the avoided rival. Look hard enough โ a cursory glance wonโt suffice โ and youโll find imperfections with Mayweather just as youโll find them with any fighter. Youโll find the rough spots. Youโll find the asterisk. Youโll find the men who thought they had cracked the code; the men who made Mayweather appear, if only for a short time, human like them.
Men like Jose Luis Castillo, for example, the marauding Mexican who took the fight to Mayweather in April 2002 and refused to hand over his WBC lightweight crown without a fight. Some, to this day, maintain Castillo deserved the nod over Mayweather following the 12 rounds they spent together and the scorecards of Anek Hongtongkam (116-111), John Keane (115-111) and Jerry Roth (115-111) irk them as much as they did Castillo at the time.
โI think, to a certain degree, he underestimated me, but he was certainly very good, very difficult to catch,โ Castillo told Steve Kim. โHe had very good speed and quickness, but I just kept putting pressure on him as much as I could. After 12 rounds I thought I had done more than enough, certainly more than he did. But they didnโt give me the decision.โ
Their December rematch appeared easier for Mayweather yet would somehow deliver closer scorecards than their first encounter: Ken Morita saw it 115-113, Larry OโConnell had it 116-113 and Daniel Van de Wiele settled on 115-113. Still, whatever the margins, it put the rivalry, this one Mayweather never asked for, to bed. Floyd had made it 2-0 and Castillo and his fans were left to forever curse three Vegas judges.
Mayweatherโs next hairy moment arrived not when waiting for a decision to be rendered but during the second round of a supposedly routine May 2004 fight against the former WBO super-lightweight champion DeMarcus Corley.
It occurred when Mayweather squared up, flung a wild right hand and found himself countered by a sharp, compact right hook from Corley, a shot he never saw coming. It was then two previously sturdy, reliable legs stiffened, and two gloves instinctively found their way to his face โ for protection. It was then Corley, pinning him against the ropes, understood two things: one, this was his moment and, two, such moments tend to be short-lived. He swung and he missed. He swung and he missed. By the third swing and miss he acknowledged it was far tougher to land on Mayweather when Mayweather was hurt and on the defensive and able to anticipate all that was heading his way. He then acknowledged the moment had passed.
โI remember everything,โ Corley told Boxing News. โWe trained hard for Floyd and the game plan was there. We knew he wasnโt a power puncher but heโs very quick. The game plan was to get Floyd to exchange. We wanted to get him in a shootout where we could hurt him and try to finish him.
โI did that in the first and second rounds and in the third I caught him and in the fourth we tried to finish him, but he went to the ropes where he recovered. He listened to his corner very well. His uncle Roger told him, โDonโt bang with him. Box him.โ He then stopped banging with me and started boxing with me. He knew if he banged with me, I was going to knock him out. I would have caught him again. It was just a matter of time.โ
Upon realising Mayweather had switched up his tactics, Corley was consigned to the same painful pattern endured by most Mayweather opponents. From active to passive, he resorted to pot-shotting from range and counting down the rounds, acutely aware he was winning none of them.
โI wasnโt thinking about winning the fight or him surviving and outpointing me,โ said Corley, who was dropped in the eighth and tenth rounds en route to being widely outpointed. โAll I was thinking about was getting him to fight with me.
โIn the fourth and fifth rounds I remember he started talking to me. He was trying to get me out of my game plan. He was saying, โCome on, fight me. You canโt hit me. I beat your best friend.โ That was James Baker. We came up in the amateurs together. He was trying to talk to me to take away my focus. He didnโt want my focus to be on putting pressure on him and trying to knock him out.โ
Two years later, in April 2006, Mayweather met Zab Judah, an athletically gifted sharpshooter cut from the same cloth, and for four rounds seemed perplexed by his own reflection, one standing southpaw, inside a Vegas ring. For once, to the dismay of onlookers, Mayweather had met his match where speed was concerned and struggled to contain the explosiveness of Judah. He even appeared to touch the canvas with his glove in round two, though it was ruled only a slip.
โHe struggled because I was quick and because we knew each other,โ Judah explained to BN. โI knew him, and he knew me. There was nothing that surprised me. Nothing I hadnโt seen before. In โ96, we were best friends โ me, him, Zair (Raheem). Iโd been around Floyd at a younger age in different tournaments. He was always Detroit; I was always New York. We always kicked it.โ
This knowledge worked both ways. Initially, it allowed Judah to predict Mayweatherโs next move and establish a foothold, yet, as the fight progressed, it would work more in Mayweatherโs favour, so cognisant was he of the fact Judah blew hot and cold and that his undoubted talent was often undermined by wavering concentration. Ultimately, it resulted in the final six rounds of the fight being as disappointing for Judah as the first six were encouraging. Oh, and a unanimous decision (119-109, 116-112 and 117-111) for Mayweather after twelve.
โLike he says, I won six rounds, he won six rounds,โ argued Judah. โIf he won six and I won six, what does that mean? I would have accepted a draw. At least then I know I would have messed up his pretty record. Back then he was known as โPretty Boyโ and I would have messed up the โPretty Boyโ record.
โBut it was a great night, a very big night, and I felt excellent in there. I felt like at the end of it I would get a draw. I really believed that. I didnโt think they would just let me walk out of there with all of that s**t.โ
One of the few Mayweather opponents capable of matching Mayweather for marketability was Oscar De La Hoya. He met Mayweather in May 2007 and, though 34 years of age, remained relevant and important and, well, โThe Golden Boyโ. He also rolled back the years that night, some three years after being stopped by Bernard Hopkins, and got his tactics spot on. He took the fight to Mayweather. He got close and stayed close. He roughed him up and hit whatever flesh was available to be hit, often flurrying his hands as though trying to break free from a confined space.
The approach led to one judge, Tom Kaczmarek, awarding the fight to De La Hoya by a score of 115-113 (Kaczmarek remains the only judge to have ever scored a pro fight against Mayweather), only to be outnumbered by the other two judges, Chuck Giampa and Jerry Roth, who scored it 116-112 and 115-113 respectively in favour of Mayweather. The outcome was jeered by those in attendance at the MGM Grand, Las Vegas and for once โThe Golden Boyโ had to settle for silver.
โIf I didnโt press the fight, there would be no fight,โ Oscar said at the time. โI hurt him with a few punches, I was pressing, and I wanted to stop him. I was trying to close the show. I was the champion and youโve got to do more than that to beat the champion. I believe I won the fight.โ
A rematch never happened. Mayweather retired after beating Ricky Hatton in 2007 and didnโt unretire until the second half of 2009, by which point De La Hoya was even more faded than he was the first time they met and out the door himself. Mayweather, the new money man in the sport, made do with other big names. He had fun against Juan Manuel Marquez, a blown-up featherweight, on his 2009 return, before then underestimating the degree to which โSugarโ Shane Mosley was faded the following May.
This crisis, the first of Mayweatherโs โsecondโ career, was triggered by a jab to the body followed by a rapid right hand fired over the top; the first shot was clever while the second rocked Mayweather, locking his feet in place and forcing him to grab hold of Mosleyโs right arm as if he were drowning and it were the only bit of driftwood in sight.
More was to come, too, as for a round Mayweather functioned on sea legs.
โHistory could have been changed,โ Mosley told BN. โI think Floyd thought, Oh, heโs an older guy, heโs not as strong or fast as he used to be. He didnโt believe in the power.
โWhen I hit him the first time, I think it caught him off guard. You could see him thinking, How did he get that right hand in? He still wasnโt convinced, so then he tried his little check hook and I went over the top again with the right hand. Thatโs when I almost knocked him out. I think for a moment he saw black and thought he was going to be knocked out.
โHe proved he was a champion by recovering from it. He started holding and doing what it takes to survive. Thatโs what champions do. They find a way to survive and then win. He did just that.โ
Unlike most Mayweather opponents, Mosley had seen the light. He knew not only could he touch a chin for so long deemed out of reach but that he also had the power to erase the cocksure smirk from Mayweatherโs face.
โThe game plan, as always, was to knock him out,โ he continued. โBut, more specifically, it was to land that overhand right, break him down with body shots, and to slow him down and confuse him to the point where I could then land certain shots he didnโt think I was going to be able to land.
โBut I think he managed to nullify it with different positioning and with the way he bobbed and weaved and moved. When he moved to his right and dipped down, I couldnโt really let go of my shots and land anything.
โHe was a lot faster than me with his feet and his hands. I couldnโt get off. I wasnโt the faster fighter in that equation. He made it difficult for me all the way around and all I could do was land a big shot. I felt like that was the only option available to me.
โHe was much younger than me and I didnโt think I was going to be able to keep up with his punch production. I could feel myself tiring and I could see him getting more energetic by slipping and sliding and countering. My whole thinking was, Okay, Iโve caught him once already in this fight. Let me try and trick him with something else and catch him again. But I could never find the right shot to hit him with to get him started again.โ
In the end Mosley acquiesced like the rest. He made peace with the fact he was past his prime and that his chance had been and gone. Resigned to it, at points during the fight he would even find himself distracted by the thought of what would have happened between the pair had they met in their younger days, perhaps at a lower weight. He was dreaming of fantasy fights before reality had run its course.
โI was thinking, If I was a little bit younger, how would this fight be going right now? How would it be different? Back in my day, I know I would have knocked him out,โ he said.
โDuring our fight I didnโt believe he could take my punches. I rocked him in the second round, and it wasnโt really that hard. I just kind of slid in and got him. So I knew I was going to get him again.
โBut it just never happened. I could never get another clean shot. I think if I was a little bit younger and in better shape I would have been able to throw a lot more punches and get different positions and I think I would have been able to catch him with the shot I was looking for. My timing would have been a lot better and I would have timed him and caught him.
โIf I had fought him in a rematch maybe I could have gone to his body a little more. I could have looped some left hooks at him and come down straight to the body with straight right hands. Maybe I would have tried to fight him a little more like (Marcos) Maidana fought him. Or (Jose Luis) Castillo. Smother him, swarm him, stay close to him. Even hold him a little bit, too, so he canโt come back with counters. Make the fight as ugly as possible.โ
Although his purse was guaranteed, Argentinaโs Marcos Maidana harassed Mayweather as if certain more cash could be prised from his trunks and wouldnโt leave him alone for the 12 rounds they shared in May 2014. He pushed him hard, both figuratively and literally, and landed cleanly, thanks to an ugly approach, more times than most Mayweather opponents.
Mayweather, though, true to form, survived. He survived some shaky patches and the fight, winning a majority decision, ahead of making the necessary adjustments to win the rematch, held four months later, by wider margins.
He survived three subsequent fights, too, against Manny Pacquiao, Andre Berto and Conor McGregor, a mixed martial artist, and survived the sport, retiring โ yet again โ with a 50-0 (27) pro record in 2017.
โA lot of fighters get into boxing and then age as their career goes along but Floyd was born into boxing,โ said Corley. โHis father (Floyd Snr) was a professional fighter, his uncle (Roger) was a professional fighter and his other uncle, Jeff, was also a professional fighter. When he was in Pampers, he was boxing. Before he could walk, he was boxing. From the time his feet first hit the ground to start walking he was already throwing punches.
โHis brain has been developed like a computer. Heโs programmed to do certain things instinctively and that gives him the upper hand on everybody. Heโs a fighting machine. Youโve got to break that code to beat that machine and no one has done it yet.โ
Mosley, a future Hall-of-Famer who believes timing is the only reason he couldnโt break the code, is mostly in agreement with Corley.
โFloydโs obviously a great fighter,โ he said. โHe has great legs and heโs very sharp with his punches. He pinpoints his shots really good. He throws fast shots and his power was pretty decent, too. I was surprised by that. I thought he had some pretty good sting on his shots.
โBut I canโt say anybodyโs The Best Ever because thereโs always a style out there thatโs wrong for someone. (Muhammad) Ali always had a hard time with (Joe) Frazier and had an easier time with (George) Foreman, but Foreman had an easy time with Frazier. Who was the best?
โI donโt know if I can see Mayweather beating โSugarโ Ray Leonard, Tommy Hearns or Roberto Duran. Castillo was a form of (Julio Cesar) Chavez and Castillo is someone a lot of people think beat Mayweather. But everything Castillo did were patterns he had got from Chavez. Would Mayweather beat Chavez based on how he performed against Castillo? I donโt know. Maybe he would, maybe he wouldnโt.
โWe donโt know which era is best. Mayweather was the best in his era. Does that make him the best of all time? No, of course not.
โHe also fought a lot of guys on his terms; at the right time, at the right weight. He was smart. He made a lot of money and he can tell everyone he is The Best Ever because he never lost as a pro. But real fight fans, real people who follow boxing, know what to believe and what not to believe. I canโt say โSugarโ Ray Leonard was the best ever. I canโt say Muhammad Ali was the best ever. The best I can do is say they were the best in their era.โ
That settles it then. โPretty Boyโ Floyd Mayweather, later known as Floyd โMoneyโ Mayweather, was the best of his era but was not, despite what it says on the caps, T-shirts and tracksuits, The Best Ever. Nor perfect.
He was, however, pretty close.