Holyfield: Mayweather Was Never Undisputed At Any Weight!

[Primetyme199]

http://www.boxingscene.com/holyfield-ma ... ht--124112


Former undisputed cruiserweight and heavyweight world champion Evander Holyfield considers Floyd Mayweather Jr. to be a great fighter - but he also points out that the retired pound-for-pound king missed the boat by not making attempts to become an undisputed champion.

Mayweather won titles at super featherweight, lightweight, junior welterweight, welterweight and junior middleweight - but he was never the undisputed champion in any of the five divisions.

The closest Mayweather came to cleaning out all of the titles was in 2015, when he defeated Manny Pacquiao in a WBC, WBA, WBO welterweight title clash. After the fight, Mayweather refused to pay the WBO a sanctioning fee and he was stripped of the belt.

Mayweather retired for good last August, when he raised his record to 50-0 with a stoppage win over UFC superstar Conor McGregor, who was making his professional boxing debut.

The retired boxer feels a sense of pride for capturing the WBC title in five different weight divisions, but Holyfield feels that is not enough - that Floyd needed to fight the other champions and beat them too.

"My whole thing [is this], he is a great fighter. But to actually say that [he's beaten everyone], you've got to be the undisputed. You need to get all the belts at one time and let everybody know that I beat everybody who had a belt and I am undisputed. You can't just say 'I got this WBC belt, I got this WBC belt and I got this WBC belt,' and all of them are WBCs and you don't got the rest of the belts to say you are undisputed," Holyfield told Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports.

"The whole big thing is, its not just this one belt - its all of these other belts. I wanted to be undisputed, where you can say that I am the undisputed champion of the world. Ever since [Muhammad] Ali left, there wasn't an undisputed champion until [Mike] Tyson was the first one to be made undisputed, then Buster Douglas, then me, then Riddick Bowe and then Lennox Lewis. Lennox was the last one [at heavyweight]. That was five guys who took the time and said 'I don't just want to be one of the champions - I want to be undisputed where everyone knows at that time that I was the very best.

"That's the only thing that Floyd is missing, because he was never the undisputed world champion in any weight division."

[gilgamesh]

Undisputed is hard to come by these days. You'll often get stripped of one title or another on your way through the damn process to try to unify them lol. It's all kinda circumstantial, right place, right time kinda stuff these days that you'd even be able to get the opportunity to unify all the titles.

Promoters, Money, so many little things.

I definitely would've liked to have seen Floyd fought Leonard Dorin and Spadafora at Lightweight, and of COURSE I would've loved to have seen him fight Tszyu at 140. It's too bad we didn't get those, but he had some big ones.

He picked up quite a few of the titles at Welterweight didn't he? I know he held the WBC, IBF and WBA Welterweight titles at one point or another. Not sure if he ever had the WBO or not.

[dwightmac83]

Undisputed is hard to come by these days. You'll often get stripped of one title or another on your way through the damn process to try to unify them lol. It's all kinda circumstantial, right place, right time kinda stuff these days that you'd even be able to get the opportunity to unify all the titles.

Promoters, Money, so many little things.

I definitely would've liked to have seen Floyd fought Leonard Dorin and Spadafora at Lightweight, and of COURSE I would've loved to have seen him fight Tszyu at 140. It's too bad we didn't get those, but he had some big ones.

He picked up quite a few of the titles at Welterweight didn't he? I know he held the WBC, IBF and WBA Welterweight titles at one point or another. Not sure if he ever had the WBO or not.

I want to say he won the WBO from Manny but was stripped very quickly. And he held the WBC and WBA at 154 i think

[gilgamesh]

I guess he probably didn't hold 'em all simultaneously, but hell if he picked 'em all up that's pretty close lol.

[Cagiva9]

I suppose there is some truth there, if Floyd had fought Manny and won in 2009/2011 (no sure thing) I think you could make a good case for him at that time....but he didn't

looking forward to hearing some intense indignation about this though

[Presteezh]

The closest Mayweather came to cleaning out all of the titles was in 2015, when he defeated Manny Pacquiao in a WBC, WBA, WBO welterweight title clash. After the fight, Mayweather refused to pay the WBO a sanctioning fee and he was stripped of the belt.

Close enough to me

[KiNg_DaDdY_2o9]

Winning all the bullshit titles doesn't make one undisputed. Being 'The Man' and vanquishing any other fighter in your division with that claim makes you undisputed. You mean to tell me if Canelo or Golovkin would've gotten the decision last September, they wouldn't be considered undisputed because BJS owns a bullshit WBO strap? Yea, right.

[Just a guy]

I don't think that means as much any more.

Who else were people talking about that they wanted to call out during Mayweather's reign as champion at any weight, save Manny?

Are you the man because you have all of the belts or are you the man because you are who everyone is focused on calling out?

It's a fair point, but I don't think that diminishes anything... but nor does it mean that Mayweather took on all comers.

There is an argument that Mayweather should have fought so and so when he was at x weight, but there should be no argument that he was a great fighter (and Holyfield didn't say different). However, Holyfield should remember that in his last quest for a belt, he wasn't worried about undisputed... he just wanted a trinket... any trinket that could have him claim to be the heavyweight champion again.

[KSTAT124]

Caring about whether one is or isn't the "undisputed" champion gives too much credence to the sanctioning bodies' titles. If it were guaranted that each of the four major organizations' top titleholder was one of the four top fighters in a given division, then it would make sense. However that usually is not the way it is.

[yoloswaggy911]

Caring about whether one is or isn't the "undisputed" champion gives too much credence to the sanctioning bodies' titles. If it were guaranted that each of the four major organizations' top titleholder was one of the four top fighters in a given division, then it would make sense. However that usually is not the way it is.

This

[jeff_lacy_ko]

Good post kstat

[gino7799]

Holyfield is not wrong. Floyd was never an undisputed champion.

[Canvas]

Stupid comment from Holyfield. Who cares? The trinkets are nearly meaningless.

[theVAMP]

Holyfield has CTE.

[Cagiva9]

I think Holyfield's point was that to become an undisputed champion, Floyd would have had to be willing to fight ANYONE in his division at any time and such was never the case. Holyfield, on the other hand, took some losses but it would be hard to argue that he ever avoided anyone.

[gilgamesh]

Holyfield is not wrong. Floyd was never an undisputed champion.

I'd say the definition of Undisputed is pretty much that everybody agrees you're the man to beat. Floyd was definitely that. Lots of "Champions" these days are just contenders with belts, and should be looked at as such.

[NoPropaganda 253]

Undisputed means you have all the belts. The end.

[Presteezh]

Undisputed means you have all the belts. The end.

technicality

[theVAMP]

Undisputed is 3 out of the 4 belts.

[Based]

Floyd was Undisputed At WW after beating Pac, no doubt. He may have been close to 40 years old when he did it, but he did it. The reason he never did it before was because he was afraid to fight real challenges, that's the truth. The cherry picking caused the current mess we have in boxing, where everyone is cautious to fight anyone talented. If Floyd was a HW, he'd have a shit load of losses.

[KiNg_DaDdY_2o9]

If we look up the very definition of the word:

un·dis·put·ed
not disputed or called into question; accepted

Floyd was the unquestioned, accepted champion at most, if not all of the weights he fought at.

[NoPropaganda 253]

You have to win the fights to get credit or actually unify. Floyd didn't fight the fights. Evander is correct. Floyd chose a different path that obviously was the right way to go. I wouldn't get sensitive about it if I was fan. Still one of the best to ever lace 'em up. Still one of the best of the modern era. But he was never undisputed at any weight.


Lol at definitions and the other shit. We've watched enough boxing in our lives. We know what Evander meant. This era's boxers stars aren't concerned with all that and they shouldn't be with the roadblocks and politics. Considering all that it still means something if and when a fighter can pull that off. Reason Triple has stayed at 160 hunting for that legacy.

[KSTAT124]

Undisputed is 3 out of the 4 belts.

Only according to the WBA

[KiNg_DaDdY_2o9]

You're putting too much stock into Billy Joe Saunders' bullshit WBO strap, prop. Fuck his title.

Winner of Canelo/ Triple G II is undisputed @160.

[KSTAT124]

Floyd was Undisputed At WW after beating Pac, no doubt. He may have been close to 40 years old when he did it, but he did it. The reason he never did it before was because he was afraid to fight real challenges, that's the truth. The cherry picking caused the current mess we have in boxing, where everyone is cautious to fight anyone talented. If Floyd was a HW, he'd have a shit load of losses.

Mayweather regained lineal recognition when he beat Pacquiao (for the vacant lineal world welterweight title). He was not "undisputed" because Kell Brook held the IBF world welterweight title at that time.