Mayweather, Ali, Leonard, Duran and Robinson all in
Wednesday 12 August 2015 13:04, UK
With Floyd Mayweather's all-time favourite fighters still causing a stir, our own Jamie Moore is next up.
He admits he has often been Money's worst critic, but when it comes to his favourite fighters, you might be surprised...
Jamie says: The general consensus is Sugar Ray Robinson but I have to go with Leonard, as my best of all-time. He is of course a little closer to my age and the footage of him was much better but he is the best for me. His skill-set; the timing, the distance, the punch-power, were second-to-none and he had such charisma. Yes, he was cocky but he never over-stepped the line. He broke my heart when he beat my hero Marvin Hagler, so that's probably why he's my No 1.
Jamie says: I never really started watching him until five or six years ago because of social media and this sort of debate about the best-ever, but I thought I'd get stuck in and boy was that a good decision. He was so good, so sharp and that little half-step was something special. But his left-hook counter was a thing of beauty, it really was. Sit down and watch him and you end up trying to anticipate what he's going to do next, you can't help it. Even on scratchy old footage he was something special.
Jamie says: Floyd can talk about going up through the weights and you can do it much easier when you are a lucid, counter-puncher, like Mayweather, who can move and is hard to hit. Well, Duran was a pressure fighter so for him to move up the weights - a lot of it was down to his own doing, of course - like he did, is even more reason to rank him so highly. For him to beat some of the fighters he beat and punished - especially up in the higher weight divisions - will cement his legacy. And Duran as a lightweight beats any lightweight, ever.
Jamie says: He is one of these people that is appreciated by millions of people all over the world right now. Calling himself the best in the world isn't doing him any favours though! Mind you, Mayweather never seems to be doing himself any favours, until he gets in the ring. People, including me, have criticised him for picking fighters past their best, or easy options, but don't forget he has been a world champion for almost 18 years and I don't care who you are fighting, that is some achievement.
Jamie says: He called himself The Greatest of course and while a lot of his popularity is down to his character and persona, strip it all down to the bare bones, he was a phenomenal fighter. Before he had that time away from the sport he was more athletic, sharper and faster, which for a heavyweight was unreal. But even after that enforced lay-off, he still took on and beat the very best. Yes, he wasn't as good as he was, but he was good enough! He is still genuinely the only man to be the linear world heavyweight champion of the world three times.
I have been one of Floyd Mayweather's harshest critics, if I'm honest. I don't like the way he goes around doing business, I don't like the way he sorts things out, but I watched an interview on him - with Doug E Fresh - not long ago and a lot of it is to create a character. It's a business plan and there's always been a business plan and if those are true words from him, then he is a very, very clever man. You only have to look at his bank balance to see that.
As time goes on he will be much more appreciated, a bit like Lennox Lewis or Joe Calzaghe over here. Mayweather is the sort of fighter who, when people look back, will have them simply saying: 'Wow! What a great fighter he was!'
