logo
Floyd Mayweather reveals he only had FIVE ‘tough' fights in entire career as Conor McGregor and Canelo Alvarez snubbed

Floyd Mayweather reveals he only had FIVE ‘tough' fights in entire career as Conor McGregor and Canelo Alvarez snubbed

The Sun21 hours ago

FLOYD MAYWEATHER can count on one hand the amount of tough fights he had during his legendary career.
Mayweather officially retired in 2017 at 50-0 - a record that is yet to be matched - with world titles in FIVE different weights.
6
Up until his final bout - against UFC star Conor McGregor - the American beat 15 champions in a row.
But he named Emanuel Augustus - who famously adopted the Drunken Master technique - as one of his toughest fights.
Mayweather beat Augustus in 2000 but credited the unorthodox showboater as one of his hardest opponents alongside Miguel Cotto.
He told FightHype in 2013: 'I probably had six tough fights, if that, probably five tough fights.
"Cotto was a tough fight, Emmanuel Augustus was tough, Cotto you know he was tough.
"[I can name] those two that I can name off the top of my head, probably a few other fights but we got through it.'
Augustus would act drunk during fights, prancing awkwardly around the ring to try and throw off his opponents.
And even Mayweather struggled to cope with Augustus' unusual style in their bout - which he won on points.
Augustus finished his 78-fight career with 38 wins, 34 defeats and six draws - losing his last six bouts before his 2011 retirement.
Cotto meanwhile is a four-division world champion who faced Mayweather for the WBA light-middleweight title in 2012.
Justis Huni's incredible dressing room reaction just moments after Fabio Wardley's comeback KO
Mayweather came up from welterweight to win over 12 rounds - but he was bloodied from the nose due to Cotto's effective roughouse tactics.
Cotto retired in 2017 after an iconic career just months after Mayweather's final bout.
Mayweather - who beat Canelo Alvarez in 2013 - left the sport as the richest boxer of all time - boasting of earnings over £1BILLION.
Around half of that were made for his pair of wins over Manny Pacquiao and McGregor.
The Pacquiao fight was over five years in the making and resulted in Mayweather outfoxing his great rival over the distance.
6
6
6
And he told The Million Dollaz Worth of Game podcast: "The best fighter I ever fought, probably was Manny Pacquiao. Because of his movement.
"But he's a helluva' fighter and I can see why he won so many fights and I can see why he's going down as a Hall of Famer, it's just certain moves that he made.
"But the roughest fighter probably was a guy named Emanuel Augustus. The Drunken Master. He was tough.
"And Miguel Cotto was very, very physically strong. So, you've got different fighters, different days you feel different ways.
"So some days you can go over there and you may not feel that good but you go over there and feel superb."
Mayweather - snubbing McGregor from any list of tough fights - continues to box in exhibition bouts after retiring.
His last came in August 2024 against the grandson of notorious New York crime boss John Gotti.
6
6

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Report: Rockets, Wolves rebuff Knicks' request to poach coaches
Report: Rockets, Wolves rebuff Knicks' request to poach coaches

Reuters

time38 minutes ago

  • Reuters

Report: Rockets, Wolves rebuff Knicks' request to poach coaches

June 11 - The New York Knicks' coaching search is reportedly off to a sputtering start. The Houston Rockets and Minnesota Timberwolves refused the Knicks' request to speak with head coaches Ime Udoka and Chris Finch, respectively, ESPN reported Tuesday night. The news comes a week after former Villanova coach Jay Wright reportedly stated that he would not be a candidate to take over for the fired Tom Thibodeau. According to multiple media reports, the Knicks also are eyeing Dallas Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd. However, The Athletic reported Tuesday that the Mavericks expect Kidd, 52, to remain with them. According to ESPN and The Athletic, the Knicks have not yet asked the Mavericks if they can talk to Kidd, whose contract runs two more seasons. Thibodeau was ousted days after the Knicks made the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 2000, with their playoff run including a six-game second-round victory over the reigning NBA champion Boston Celtics. In five seasons with New York, Thibodeau, 67, compiled a 226-174 record, leading the team to the playoffs four teams. He also was head coach of the Chicago Bulls (2010-11 to 2014-15) and the Timberwolves (2016-17 to 2018-19) and owns a career mark of 578-420 during the regular season. Udoka, 47, led the Celtics to the NBA Finals in his lone season as Boston's head coach in 2021-22. He was suspended by the team for the following season due to a violation of team policy after allegedly having an improper relationship with a female staffer and ultimately was fired. Udoka coached the Rockets the past two seasons, producing a combined 93-71 regular-season record. Finch, 55, just finished his fifth season in charge in Minnesota and led the Timberwolves to the postseason for the fourth year in a row, including Western Conference finals appearances the past two years. He has a 209-160 regular-season coaching record. --Field Level Media

How a crazy week has shifted the lightweight division landscape drastically
How a crazy week has shifted the lightweight division landscape drastically

The Independent

time44 minutes ago

  • The Independent

How a crazy week has shifted the lightweight division landscape drastically

In boxing, one decision can have a domino effect that changes the entire look of a division overnight. Some divisions are so delicately poised that fighters wait on the sidelines, waiting for the status quo to collapse whilst hoping things fall in place for their own personal gain. In the lightweight division, it was not just one decision that caused ripples throughout the weight class, but a crazy week has seen the entire picture at 135lbs completely change. Vasyl Lomachenko's confirmed retirement clarifies IBF landscape Vasyl Lomachenko announced his retirement from professional boxing last week, putting to bed a year of speculation regarding his future in the sweet science. Negotiations for a unification bout with WBC champion Gervonta 'Tank' Davis fizzled out last year, with the 37-year-old vague when discussing his retirement plans. Lomachenko had been on hiatus for some time, fighting just once in two years, before his year-long absence dragging on long enough for the IBF to start looking for an interim champion. Raymond Muratalla only served as interim for a month after defeating Zaur Abdullaev in May, with Lomachenko's official retirement seeing the American promoted to full champion this week. The full IBF title picture will be made fully clear by the end of this week. Prior to Lomachenko's retirement, the sanctioning body did not list a fighter at number one or two in their rankings, owning to the fact that Muratalla was effectively both champion and mandatory. This weekend, third-ranked Andy Cruz takes on the IBF's fifth-highest rated lightweight Hironori Mishiro on the undercard of Hitchins-Kambosos Jr, with the bout serving as a final eliminator for mandatory status. As such, Muratalla's first fight as full champion will likely be a defence against either Crux or Mishiro, rather than a unification bout with a divisional rival. Missing weight sees Keyshawn Davis drop out of title picture A few months ago, Keyshawn Davis was aiming to unify his WBO title with Lomachenko's IBF belt. Fast forward to June, and neither man has a belt anymore. Days after Lomachenko announced his retirement, Davis forfeited his WBO lightweight strap after missing weight by four pounds. His challenger, Edwin De Los Santos, backed out from the fight after concessions could not be made. It remains to be seen whether Davis will continue to operate at lightweight, or whether he will now make the jump to 140 pounds. Davis' failure to make weight has its consequences, both for the American, and the division at large. De Los Santos, a previous challenger for the WBC lightweight title, looks to be bypassed, with the WBO reportedly interested in pitting Abdullah Mason against Sam Noakes for the vacant belt. Noakes is number one with the organisation, with Mason ranked just behind in second. Both fighters are unbeaten with impressive knockout power, Noakes stopping 15 opponents from 17 bouts, Mason securing 17 early stoppages from 19 fights. Unification bouts seem some distance away The unification conversation at 135lbs is firmly in the future tense, with the two other lightweight champions already scheduled to make defences in their next bouts. Shakur Stevenson is next in action, the WBC champion facing the organisation's interim title holder, William Zepeda, live on DAZN July 12th in New York. WBA belt holder Gervonta 'Tank' Davis is reportedly in action the following month, facing Lamont Roach in a rematch on August 16th. Davis and Roach shared a controversial draw earlier this year, outraging stemming from Tank taking a knee that was not declared a knockdown. The division has not been completely unified since Devin Haney defeated George Kambosos Jr in 2022, nor have any of the belts been unified since Haney moved up to super lightweight in 2023. It seems likely that the division will remain fractured beyond 2025, but the shaken-up status of the weight class may lend itself to unification in the not-so distant future.

Iconic venues in NYC that have hosted boxing ahead of return to Madison Square Garden
Iconic venues in NYC that have hosted boxing ahead of return to Madison Square Garden

The Independent

time44 minutes ago

  • The Independent

Iconic venues in NYC that have hosted boxing ahead of return to Madison Square Garden

Boxing returns to Madison Square Garden this weekend, with Richardson Hitchins' IBF super lightweight clash against George Kambosos Jr headlining an evening of the sweet science in the Big Apple. Whilst the Garden has become the Mecca of boxing for many fans, New York City as a whole is littered with many iconic venues that have staged big fights over the decades. Here is a rundown of some of the stops in NYC boxing has paid a visit to. Watch over 180 fight nights a year live on DAZN To many, Madison Square Garden is a sporting Mecca. Described as the world's most famous arena, MSG is home to NHL franchise the New York Rangers, as well as the NBA's New York Knicks. Aside from sport, the Garden is also a dream venue for musicians, with artists such as Elton John and Billy Joel labelling the arena as their favourite to perform at. However, the biggest crowds the venue can currently hold are for fight nights, with 20,789 able to watch boxing at the Garden. MSG has long been entwined with boxing – even though the venue has been relocated many times over the years. The third incarnation of the famous arena saw Joey Giardallo's seventh-round knockout of Willie Tory in 1954, in what was the first boxing match televised in colour. The Garden will always retain its lofty place in the history of the sport, having hosted the 'Fight of the Century' in 1971. Still regarded as one of the biggest fights in boxing, the bout between undefeated heavyweights Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier more than lived up to expectations, going the full distance with the latter ending up on top. Barclays Center Madison Square Garden is not the only NBA home that frequently hosts boxing. The Brooklyn Nets ' arena, Barclays Center, is far younger than its Manhattan-based counterpart, opening in 2012. 19,000 punters can watch boxing here, and it has hosted plenty of world title fights despite its infancy as an arena. In just the second card hosted at Barclays Center, 48-year-old Bernard Hopkins became the oldest champion in the history of the sport when he claimed the IBF light heavyweight belt with victory over Tavoris Cloud. St. Nicholas Arena Originally an ice rink, St. Nicholas Arena would become one of the first proper homes of boxing in the USA. With legal venues for boxing scarce in the States, the rink started hosting fights in 1906, staging cards until its closure in 1962. Frequent boxing action could be enjoyed by those in attendance at the rink and to others watching at home; so frequent were fights that NBC transmitted a show called Boxing from St. Nicholas Arena during the 1940s. Plenty of big names threw punches at the venue, including Jack Johnson and Rocky Graziano. On one of the final cards hosted at the rink, a young Muhammad Ali, still going by his birth name of Cassius Clay, secured a knockout victory over Billy Daniels. Radio City Music Hall Although standing for almost a century, Radio City Music Hall does not have as much storied history with boxing as other venues in New York City. In fact, it took 68 years for the first night of boxing to be staged at the concert venue, with Roy Jones Jr headlining a card in January 2000. Jones retained his WBC, WBO, IBF, and IBO light heavyweight titles with a unanimous decision victory over David Telesco, with Jones not dropping a round on the judges' scorecards. In 2013, the second and currently last card was staged at Radio City, with another world title clash. Cuban super bantamweight Guillermo Rigondeaux unified his WBA belt with Nonito Donaire's WBO title thanks to a unanimous decision win. Yankee Stadium Boxing has been a part of the schedule at Yankee Stadium since its inception in 1923. 63,000 watched on as former heavyweight champion Jess Willard secure his last win as a professional. Joe Louis frequently fought at the home of the Yankees – in between fights at Madison Square Garden, highlighting both venues' importance to boxing during the first half of the 20th century. Muhammad Ali would headline the final card hosted at the old Yankee Stadium, edging out Ken Norton via a tight unanimous decision. Boxing would return to the home of the Yankees in 2010, shortly after the new stadium was constructed. Miguel Cotto stopped the previously undefeated Yuri Foreman in the ninth round, picking up the WBA super middleweight title in the process. That, until now, remains the most-recent fight staged at Yankee Stadium. Times Square Just over a month ago a new venue played host to boxing, with the iconic tourist destination of Times Square converted into a ring for The Ring 's debut promotion, featuring Devin Haney, Teofimo Lopez, and Ryan Garcia. Fighters' ring walks were replaced by a fleet of NYC yellow taxi cabs whisking boxers from nearby hotels, giving the event even more of a fever dream feel. Whilst the ambition show was admirable, the open air venue saw a limited capacity, leading to a subdued atmosphere, which perhaps led to subdued performances inside the ring.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store