Is Floyd Mayweather's Career Questionable?

Who is Floyd Mayweather?

Here is a quick background about Floyd Mayweather

Floyd Mayweather was born on February 24th, 1977, in Grand Rapids Michigan with a professional record of 50-0 known as possibly pound for pound the best to ever lace up a pair of boxing gloves. He is also known as "Money May" because of the lifestyle that he lives. 

Mayweather has no problem flaunting the millions of dollars he had made in his career. From showing off his luxury car collection, to showing off his expensive homes, to showing off his 18 million dollar watch the most expensive watch in the world. Mayweather has earned over 1 billion dollars in the sport of boxing the first and only to ever do it so he has the right to be called "Money May".

Did Floyd Mayweather avoid certain fighters?

Now that you know a little about Floyd's background it is time to jump in the topic of did Floyd Mayweather avoid fighters.

When talking about Floyd's career him avoiding dangerous fighters is always a topic brought up in the discussion. The fighters that many believe Floyd Mayweather ducked were Kosta Tszyu, Antonio Margarito, Paul Williams, a younger Shane Mosley, and Manny Pacquiao.

Here is the breakdown of why Floyd Mayweather did not avoid each opponent previously mentioned.

Did Floyd Mayweather duck Kosta Tszyu?

This is a fight that everyone wanted to see but, never happened why?

There are multiple reasons why this fight did not happen, one of the reasons why this fight didn't happen was due to the fact that Kosta Tszyu suffered a shoulder injury in 2003, that kept him out of the ring for a year.

Another reason is that Mayweather at the time just began to move up in weight. Mayweather was moving up from featherweight to welterweight while Tszyu was already established at welterweight.

The last reason and most important reason why this fight didn't happen was that Tszyu lost to Ricky Hatton. After Tszyu lost to Hatton he never returned to the square circle again.

To answer the question no Floyd Mayweather did not duck Tszyu actually, Floyd called Tszyu out during his post-fight interview after the Chavez fight saying that was is looking forward to fighting him at 140lbs.

What about Antonio Margarito?

Why did Floyd Mayweather avoid Margarito who was the WBO welterweight champion?

Margarito wanted to fight Floyd in 2006, this fight wasn't going to happen since the fight everyone wanted to see was Floyd vs Zab Judah. That fight made more sense money-wise and "Money May" was not going to turn it down.

Zab Judah was coming off of a loss against Carlos Baldomir and many fans believed that it was not fair that Zab Judah had the opportunity to fight Floyd after he lost his belt to Baldomir. Speculations of Floyd ducking Baldomir occurred and the fight happened a year later with Floyd winning.

Margarito wasn't going to get the fight in 2007, either because Mayweather decided to fight the biggest attraction in boxing at the time Oscar Delahoya. This was one of the biggest fights in boxing history. Margarito had a fight scheduled a month after the Floyd vs Oscar fight in which he lost.

His loss had a big reason why the fight didn't happen and to make matters worse Floyd decided to fight the undefeated champion, Ricky Hatton. Which was another big money fight for Floyd Mayweather.

The biggest reason that the fight didn't happen later on in their career was that Margarito was caught cheating. He replaced the padding in his gloves with plaster and ended up being caught.

Floyd Mayweather did not duck Margarito, Floyd had better opportunities and moved on.

Why did Paul Williams not get a shot?

Why didn't Floyd challenge the man who beat the man?

Paul Williams was an up-and-coming fighter who really wasn't recognized by the fans. Even though the fight between Mayweather and Williams would have been a good fight, it wouldn't have made Floyd a lot of money.

After Williams beat Margarito he suffered a loss to Carlos Quintana although he did come back months later and avenged his loss. 

Both fights happened in 2008, which was the year Mayweather first retired from the sport of boxing. Even though Mayweather came back in 2009, the fight had been overshadowed by possible fights with Manny Pacquiao and Shane Mosley.

Mayweather fought a washed up Shane Mosley

Many people feel that Mayweather faced Mosley when he was out of his prime but, is it Mayweather's fault?

The fight between Floyd and Mosley took place May 1st, 2010, Mosley was 38 years old. Many people blame Floyd for fighting Mosley this late in his career but, the blame should be placed on Mosley.

When Mosley was one of the biggest names in the sport of boxing he did not want to fight Mayweather because he was not recognized as a star yet. When Mayweather started coming up as a rising start he kept calling Mosley out but, Mosley never took the challenge because Mayweather wasn't a big money fight.

In 2010 Mosley after Mayweather's win against Marquez, Mosley entered the ring and called Mayweather out. They fought the following months after this with Mayweather dominating. In conclusion, Mayweather never ducked Mosley when he was young and a big name. It was Mosley who waited until he felt that the money was right.

Floyd Mayweather fought an old out of prime Manny Pacquiao.

This fight was supposed to happen between 2010-2011 but, never happen because of negotiations.

This was a fight that was talked about all the time with reporters and critics drilling Mayweather about not fighting Manny. Mostly every reporter and critic was making articles about Mayweather ducking Manny.

The fight did not happen in 2010 because Manny refused to take a random blood and urine test given by USADA. There was speculation that Manny might have been using steroids. Almost a year later Manny said that he would take the drug test but, he wanted a 50/50 split.

Mayweather denied that because Manny was not making close to what Mayweather was so a 50/50 split wasn't really fair. They both went their separate ways with Manny losing 3 fights after that and Mayweather still being undefeated.

Finally, in 2015 The fight happened and was disappointing because Manny didn't bring the fire everyone had expected. Mayweather was 38 and Manny was 37. Mayweather was older than Manny but, yet they make the excuse Manny was old and out of his prime.

In 2019 Manny faced and beat undefeated hard-hitting Keith Thurman the question is how was he out of his prime when 4 years later he beat the p4p number 1 guy?

Is Mayweather's career questionable?

No, Floyd Mayweather's career is not questionable, while his career was on the rise he was calling out and beating the best fighters the sport had to offer. Mayweather did in fact have questionable wins against the likes of Oscar, Castillo, and Maidana.

Never the less he beat a lot of his opponents when they were coming off of the biggest wins of their career. A lot of critics give Mayweather a hard time because he did not fight the fighters when they wanted him to.

If you take a look at his resume it speaks for itself. Mayweather has made the most money in boxing history, fought the most world champions, landed the highest punch percentage in boxing history, held the light/welterweight belt the longest since Duran, undefeated, and the best defensive fighter in the history of the sport. Now does that sound questionable?