Well that's why as an old school thinking cat, I can't call him a great champ.....what if Pac had just been content to go 12 with Oscar? Guys like Duran, Leonard, Hagler, they were never just content to collect a check, it wasn't enuff just to win, back then you had to look GREAT in every fight if you wanted to get a fight with the Oscar of his time - Ray Leonard. But that doesn't change the fact that Floyd IS one of the most accurate punchers and best defesive fighters I've ever seen talent-wise. And he's the only dude that ever made the great Chico Corrales cry, NOW THAT was an ass whuppin, niccas talk about dismantling? That performance was the definition of the word, I thought we were gonna get to see that everytime Floyd fought, but it wasn't to be. It's funny because Chico went on to become way more popular with fans than Floyd ever did. Floyd never sold out an arena until he fought Gatti in Gatti's turf, Gatti sold out that arena. Oscar sold out their arena and HAtton was the draw for their fight, Floyd by himself has never been a money draw which is another reason why he picks his fights, he has to fight a gy who is a draw or else it's just a "fight fan's fight" and those aren't known for making huge money.[/QUOTE]
I don't agree with this sentiment at all. Oscar hadn't done more than a million buys since Trinidad and then does 2.44 million with Mayweather, a guy with (at that time)no mainstream pub at all. Hatton hadn't done any ppvs before his fight with MM and they do 1.5m. He hasn't done any since. It seems the draw for both fights was Mayweather. Now Gatti was the draw in Atlantic City, he could probably still sell it out now.
On that note, I think he's a draw like a great wrestling villain/heel: he makes a large number of people tune in to see him lose.
On your earlier point about past greats
Guys like Duran and Hearns did not have to look great to fight Leonard, they were just great and the money for those fights would be (and was) incredible. Unlike Cotto and Margarito in comparison to Mayweather, the gap between Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran or a Tommy Hearns wasn't as obvious. Shit, had they been going 12 instead of 15, Tommy Hearns most likely would have beaten Ray.
You mentioned Hagler but he's different. Leonard challenged him after years of ignoring "Marvelous'" challenges. He even retired to avoid fighting Hagler in his prime. I love "Sugar" Ray Leonard but he didn't fight "Marvelous" Marvin Hagler until he saw that the battles with Hearns and Mugabe had worn on him.
I've heard numerous promoters including Bob Arum, make the point of Floyd not being a draw, and the commentary I made about those three fights comes from insiders, most of the arena was British when he fought Hatton, I'm not talking about PPV buys I'm talking about selling out an arena. Zab vs Floyd was a better fight than any of the three others I just mentioned, a true fight fans fight, one that Floyd was in danger of losing because the other guy had as much natural talent as he did, and there were alot of empty seats in the crowd and the PPV numbers were dissappointing and this was months before he fought Oscar, that makes my point. Then he fights Oscar and it's by far the biggest PPV buy in history and you think it's because of Floyd?!?!?
C'mon man Oscar has generated close to a billion during his career, Oscar is the biggest draw in the sport, you got to admit that even if you don't like him or Mexicans.
Duran and Hearns each had to run through the best at welter, guys like Cuevas and Cervantes who were great fighters themselves just to get to Leonard and Duran was already one of the best fighters in the world at that point. And we don't know how far the gap is between Margarito, Cotto and Floyd because he's never fought them. How many people thought Sugar's handspeed and boxing were going to be his tools for an easy win against Duran, and they were, just not during the first fight. Leonard never fought Pryor who I think he could've beaten just because Aaron wasn't a money man, and this was after Pryor had dismantled Arguello twice. And if anyone was diminshed by the time they fought, it was Sugar(and his eye) rusty and coming out of retirement AND moving up in weight, not Marvin, it's the biggest reason why Sugar got the nod in their fight. Marvin is one of the few fighters I respect for retiring, saying that the biz was bullshit and he never came back for any amount of paper.
He was fighting inferior competition that were simply overmatched.
