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Mailbag: Farewell Floyd

Yahoo Sports

The mailbag this week will be a special Floyd Mayweather Jr. edition, the last of their kind assuming he sticks to his word and is retired for good.

Not all of you believe he's done – about 74 percent of respondents to our poll believe he'll return to active duty within a year or less – but I'll take the man at his word. Before I get to your emails, I'm going to list a few Mayweather highs and lows.

Mayweather's greatest hits

1. Total manhandling of Diego Corrales – The two were undefeated super featherweight champions living in the same town. That was an explosive combination, and the two nearly came to blows at Mandalay Bay after the Lennox Lewis-David Tua heavyweight title fight in 2000. Early the next year, they met in the ring and Mayweather was at his professional peak. He knocked Corrales down five times in that Jan. 20, 2001, bout, before stopping him in the 10th.

2. Victories over 13 current, former or future world champions – Mayweather is frequently criticized for the level of his opposition, but he fought 13 men who were either champions at the time he fought them, were a world champion in the past or would go on to win a belt. And by saying world champion, I'm only referencing the IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO title belts. His victories were over, chronologically, Genaro Hernandez, Goyo Vargas, Corrales, Carlos Hernandez, Jesus Chavez, Jose Luis Castillo (back-to-back), DeMarcus Corley, Arturo Gatti, Sharmba Mitchell, Zab Judah, Carlos Baldomir, Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton.

3. Total domination – In his last six fights, Mayweather was amazingly dominant. There were a combined 168 scored rounds in those bouts, of which Mayweather won 141, meaning he won 83.9 percent of the rounds against men who were current or former champions. If you add in for the three rounds scored by three judges in his three knockouts, that goes up to 84.7 percent. Even though Gatti and Mitchell were past their primes, that's still impressive.

4. Talking and fighting – During a 2005 fight with Henry Bruseles, HBO announcer Jim Lampley asked analyst Larry Merchant who he liked to win the AFC championship game being played the next day between Pittsburgh and New England. Mayweather, while he was fighting, looked down at Lampley during the action and picked New England.

5. Good chin – Despite fighting some of the game's best punchers, Mayweather only went down once in his career, and that was a giveaway. The only knockdown came when, while wincing from pain caused by a broken bone in his hand, he touched his glove to the canvas. Other than that, he was on his feet the entire time of every fight he was in as a pro.

Mayweather's biggest misses 1. Ducking Cotto – Mayweather should have fought Miguel Cotto, the WBA welterweight champion, while he was still active. His excuse that Cotto wasn't a big enough draw was ridiculous. Failing to fight this fight is inexcusable and the biggest black mark on a glittering career. He ends his career looking as if he were afraid, when the bout easily could have been made. And if Mayweather were as big of a draw as his handlers tried to make him out to be, he didn't need Cotto to sell tickets; he only needed him to fight.

2. Safety first – In too many of his big fights late in his career, Mayweather was content to toy with his opponents and didn't go for the knockout that fans lust to see. He had Zab Judah on the verge of going out but didn't put his foot on the accelerator. And he boxed extremely cautiously against De La Hoya, as well.

3. Family feud – His personal relationship with his father is his own business, but feuding so publicly with his father hurt his image and the sport.

4. Slave wages – Mayweather turned down a $12.5 million contract extension in 2000, terming it slave wages. It changed his image from a happy-go-lucky kid with marvelous talent who loved what he was doing into a greedy, NBA-style self-absorbed pampered athlete.

5. Nothing to say – Mayweather owed it to a public that made him rich beyond measure to face the media and answer questions upon his retirement. Instead, he issued a six-paragraph news release and stayed out of public view.

Those are some of my thoughts on Mayweather's career. Let's get to yours. My responses are in italics.

WHY NOT THE GREATEST

Why didn't you call him the greatest. He won every fight he was in, didn't he?

Farid Bakili
Hamilton, Ontario

True, but I don't think you've seen Sugar Ray Robinson fight, Farid. Or, you haven't read about him. If you had, you wouldn't be asking this question. Mayweather was very good; Robinson was great to the nth degree.

THE SHOWMAN

I don't think Mayweather will be missed because of the quality of his matches, because many of them were snoozers. It will be because of his personality outside the ring. Let's be serious, what real boxing fan wanted to see De La Hoya-Mayweather II?

Juan Carlos
Austin, Texas

Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer said at the Hopkins-Calzaghe prefight news conference that he thought the rematch would outsell the first one, which did a record 2.5 million buys. That might have been a stretch, but the rematch would have been huge and he walks away from at least $25 million.

A COMEBACK

If Miguel Cotto were to win in very convincing fashion over Antonio Margarito in their July 26 welterweight title bout, do you think it would force Mayweather out of retirement? My feeling is yes, but I am a big Cotto fan.

Angel Reyes
USS Ronald Reagan

Thanks for your service, Angel. It's deeply appreciated. I have to disagree with you, though. If he were thinking that way, why announce his retirement at all? He could have waited six weeks to see what had happened. I am torn by whether or not he'll come back. Right now, I have staying retired slightly ahead, at something like 50.1 versus 49.9. I just don't think a Cotto-Margarito fight is going to make him alter his plans for now. And not fighting Cotto will remain one of the black marks of an otherwise glorious career.

DUCKING OSCAR

I think Mayweather is ducking De La Hoya, because this time, the "Big O" would have knocked him out.

Ken King

Sorry, Ken. We agree to disagree. I think if they had fought again, Mayweather would have stopped Oscar. Did you watch De La Hoya struggle against Steve Forbes?

HIGHLY SKILLED

I loved to watch Mayweather fight because he was just so technical and smooth. I think it's a shame that I won't get to see him beat Cotto, but now that's going to be left up to someone else. I hope he gets into the color commentating because he is good for the sport and naturally good and exciting to watch. If he does come out of retirement I hope it's not because of the fact that he gambled his money away. I also hope he isn't 34 or 35 and past his prime so he ends up looking like Roy Jones Jr. when he lost to those tomato cans, Antonio Tarver and Glen Johnson.

Rashad Hawkins
Washington, D.C.

Mayweather's boxing skills were as good as anyone in a long time. To me, the one thing he lacked when you compare him to someone like Ray Leonard or Tommy Hearns was offense. At the very highest levels, Mayweather's offense paled by comparison to folks like that.

BEST EVER

You're wrong. Mayweather achieved his goal as the best ever. He will go down in boxing history with the rest of the undefeated fighters. He dominated the sport and he is the best. I think you're saying that because he did not bend to everyone's desire of fighting Cotto and Margarito. Mayweather is his own man and if he did not like what was being offered, then he doesn't have to take the fight. Mayweather is the best and there is nothing anybody else can do about it.

Mark E. Flowers
North Carolina

Mark, he certainly is allowed to choose who he fights. It's his life and his career. But when you look at the quality fighters that Robinson, Henry Armstrong, Marvin Hagler, Leonard, Hearns, Roberto Duran, Julio Cesar Chavez, Muhammad Ali, among others fought, it's clear he hasn't come close to beating that type of opposition. And that has to be held against him when you're comparing him to the greats of all-time.

FLOYD'S A CHUMP

Come on, Kevin. This dude is a chump. He's retiring at the top of his game because he's afraid. Let's see if how smart he is with his money. The way he was spending it on "24/7," he'll be broke just like Evander Holyfield in the not-too-distant future. You may sell tickets to a WWE PPV while you're the so called pound-for-pound champ, but let's see how well he does when he's not a champ anymore and people remember him as a chump who retired because he was afraid to take on the real lions of the division. You know who they are: Cotto, Margarito, Andre Berto and Paul Williams. As a former boxer, I never really cared for Mayweather. He's fast and has incredible God-given talent, but homeboy needs a heart transplant.

David
Harlem, N.Y.

I don't think he was afraid, David. But I think he got arrogant in that he thought he could call the shots and fight whomever he wanted with no repercussions. He made good money for doing it, but it definitely hurts his legacy. But to say he was afraid of Berto? Not even Berto's promoter, Lou DiBella, could possibly believe Mayweather was ducking Berto. It would have been such a one-sided fight, it wouldn't have been even funny.