Thaboxingvoice.com caught up with Floyd “Money” Mayweather Jr. this week as discussed his career and upcoming rematch with the Argentine, Marcos Maidana. Mayweather Jr.’s defensive style of fighting seems to seep into his personality, as he defends his decision to rematch Maidana as well as his fight choices in the past.

To his credit, boxing writers and fans constantly pressure Mayweather to fight the best. Boxing, however, with its multitude of rating bodies, does not do a great job of objectively quantifying which fighters are the best. Even pound for pound boxers like Sergio Martinez, are only required to fight once a year and may hold belts and ranking long after their athletic decline. Mayweather’s critics constantly criticize him for hand-picking his opposition to fight lesser foes, or, alternately, he has been accused of waiting until his opposition have softened with age. He addresses these critics who claimed that “When [Mayweather] fought Marquez, he was over the hill, he was washed up”, citing Marquez’s come-from-behind knockout of Manny Pacquiao as evidence that he was still a live dog.

Mayweather has another example in mind, though he never seems to be any good at remembering names. Miguel Cotto is another name on Mayweather’s list of defeated foes that has recently given a good account of himself by routing Sergio Martinez for the lineal middleweight championship of the world. “Remember Cotto?” Mayweather quips, “They said I caught him at a bad time, but now he’s middleweight champion”. Truthfully, Cotto’s recent success should be a feather in Floyd’s cap. Cotto fans absolutely did make excuses for him after the Mayweather loss, as did fans of Marquez. It seems for Mayweather, winning fights or looking good will do little to deter some critics.

The next question from the interviewer probes deep into Mayweather’s career in order to stimulate some discussion of Mayweather’s past experience with defeat. The fact is, you have to go back to his amateur days to see him lose. Even still, Mayweather chalks these losses up to the scoring system used in the amateurs. He seems to be completely sure of himself, like someone who has never accepted defeat into their heart. This dimension of Mayweather’s character only encourages his critics to label him as a cherry-picker who uses his money and influence in boxing to secure non-competitive fights while boasting an undefeated record.

Mayweather is, in all reasonable estimation, a living legend in the sport, however, if there is one barrier to his canonization in the hall of all-time greats, it is his lack of ambition in making his fights. Though Mayweather refuses to name him, a fight with Manny Pacquiao would probably be the most anticipated bout of the decade. Even if Mayweather does roundly refuse to face the Filipino, a fight with his once-vanquished foe Miguel Cotto would be a shot for him to win a title in yet another division without taking much real risk. The fact is that Mayweather is a legend, but some of his recent choices in opponents do not reflect that level of expertise. Though Maidana gave a good account of himself in their first meeting, rematching with him shows yet again Mayweather’s refusal to “dare to be great”.

Link For The Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDCiK8VTibo