by James Slater – Floyd Mayweather Junior has been talking again. And talking, and talking, and talking…….. In a recent claim, the unbeaten fighter known as “Money” has come out and questioned the revered status boxing history has for the man known as The Greatest, Muhammad Ali. In the past, the 32-year-old who is currently in the final stages of getting ready for his ring return against Mexico’s Juan Manuel Marquez, has even discussed a flaw or two he has seen whilst watching footage of the incomparable Sugar Ray Robinson – mentioning how the man born Walker Smith Junior had a tendency to over commit with some of his punches and who had flat footwork.. It’s no real shock, then, that Floyd is capable of criticising Ali if he’s done the same thing with regards to The Sugar Man.
In an interview that has appeared in The People, Mayweather has spoken about how Ali was not a “complete fighter,” whereas he himself is.
“They say Ali was The Greatest, right? Well, to be the greatest you have to be a complete fighter,” Mayweather Junior said. “Ali was a fighter who never threw one body shot, not one, and he lost to Leon Spinks, but people seem to forget about that. I’m not saying he wasn’t a hell of a fighter and I’m not saying I’m the greatest of all time. They say Ali is the greatest of all time.
“They called him TBE – The best ever – and I don’t want to take anyone else’s title. But I’m one of a kind, I’m just totally different to Ali.”
But does “Money” – a man who in the past HAS called himself the greatest in history – even deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as Ali? Sure to cause debate, I think this is a valid question. What, for instance, was Mayweather’s defining fight? Does he have one? And when Floyd mentions Ali’s loss to Leon Spinks by way of validating his criticism of the heavyweight legend, he forgets to mention that Ali was 36 at the time, was coming towards the end of a brutally long career and that he may even have been in the early stages of Parkinson’s in early 1978.
Mayweather Jr is correct when he says Ali never threw body shots, though. But it didn’t seem to affect Ali’s ability to get the job done, did it? If one wanted to be critical of Mayweather – a fine, fine fighter, but not yet an all-time great – you could point out the fact that he tends to fight safe and spend too much time pot-shotting at his opponent.
Still, Floyd has proven, once again, that he knows how to get the fans talking. Trying to stir up further interest for the Marquez fight – that as yet has failed to reach red hot status – Floyd’s best bet always was to use his mouth.