Is Floyd Mayweather Willing to Do What It Takes to Secure His Legacy?

It's all too easy to fall into the trap of judging a man by what he says. If you take that route, you'd believe that Floyd Mayweather (47-0), who dispatched Marcos Maidana for a second time Saturday night in Las Vegas, cares deeply about his legacy. That a passion to be ranked among the very best burns in his veins. That he might even believe it to be true.

"I’m the best fighter ever," he told boxing historian Thomas Hauser in his book Winks and Daggers. "Muhammad Ali? He lost to Leon Spinks, a guy who had seven pro fights. Sugar Ray Robinson? He didn’t win a championship after just one year like I did."

Those are the words of a man looking to establish his place in history, to earn a spot next to the immortals. You don't, after all, bring up names like Ali and Robinson lightly. That's like a basketball player dropping "Jordan" like it was nothing or a football star referencing the hallowed Montana. That's big talk.

His actions, of course, say the opposite. They show a man who doesn't care how he's perceived. A man who puts the bottom line before boxing. A man who's done everything within his power to walk the easy path. A man with the gifts to be among the greats, but possibly not the gumption.

Sports fans will be debating Mayweather's place in history long after everyone reading this piece is buried and gone. It's the kind of discussion that fuels sports with a keen grasp of their history, the kind of discussion that drives baseball fans to create increasingly arcane statistical formulas and boxing fans to reminisce about the good old days.

These are not, I hope, the good old days.

Opponent	Date	Location	Result
Diego Corrales	1/20/01	Las Vegas	TKO (10)
Arturo Gatti	6/25/05	Atlantic City	TKO (6)
Oscar De La Hoya	5/5/07	Las Vegas	SD
Juan Manuel Marquez	9/19/09	Las Vegas	UD
Shane Mosley	5/1/10	Las Vegas	UD
Miguel Cotto	5/5/12	Las Vegas	UD
Saul Alvarez	9/14/13	Las Vegas	MD

First things first, this is in no way a screed meant to dismiss Mayweather as an athlete or a fighter. He's great, a true artist in the ring. When he's firing on all cylinders, Mayweather is a wonder to behold, his ability to avoid punches and make opponents pay the price for each miss a seemingly effortless display of ruthless efficiency.

If Mayweather weren't self-evidently great, there would be no reason to discuss him in comparison to boxing legends of yore. So take it as a given, as Sports Illustrated's Chris Mannix explains, that Mayweather is special:

"

No question, Mayweather is a Hall of Famer. He’s not Sven Ottke, an undefeated, longtime former unified super middleweight titleholder who has not come close to earning a spot in the Hall. In his prime-- and even before that -- Mayweather was scary good. He dominated Diego Corrales. He destroyed Arturo Gatti. He climbed up to 154 pounds and outclassed Oscar De La Hoya. He’s the best defensive fighter since Pernell Whitaker. Better, even.

"

But Mayweather's career, as impressive as it's been, will be defined by what he didn't do almost as much as what he did. There's a shadow lingering that cannot be easily dismissed: Manny Pacquiao.

Sure, there were whispers when Mayweather didn't climb into the ring against Kosta Tszyu or Antonio Margarito or when he waited until Shane Mosley had lost two steps and was near the end of a Hall of Fame career. But those critiques could be dismissed, a product of the increasingly complicated boxing landscape divided on two fronts both in promotions and on television.

Pacquiao, however? That is a fight that simply has to be made for boxing, and Mayweather by proxy, to maintain a shred of athletic credibility. And it's left boxing fans vaguely unsatisfied with anything else promoters have offered in the years since it fell apart, unwilling to fully embrace, perhaps subconsciously, anything but the best.

Boxing greatness is forged in the fires of adversity. Muhammad Ali didn't become somehow less special when Joe Frazier deposited him on his backside in their first fight. He became more so when he got up to win a second and then a third fight.

Ray Leonard wasn't written out of boxing history when he lost a decision to Roberto Duran on a brilliant night in Montreal. It made his subsequent destruction of the great Panamanian all the sweeter. Leonard, all told, fell short three times during his career. But it was his willingness to jump in the ring and test the best, from welterweight all the way up to middleweight, that defines his legacy.

What's worse is that Mayweather has created a generation of fighters built with his mold. Taking a page from his playbook, young boxers with even a semblance of fame and fortune are avoiding tough fights at all costs, mistakenly thinking an undefeated record and not a distinguished one is the sign of stardom.

It's only when put to the test that we see true greatness emerge in the ring. And it's what kept Mayweather off boxing writer Doug Fischer's list of the 20 best modern fighters in a recent issue of The Ring Magazine. Mayweather was just an honorable mention on Fischer's list, and Fischer preemptively took to the Internet to defend himself against Floyd's legions of fans:

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I can hear the Mayweather cheerleaders now, “Golly Gee Wilikers, Dougie, it’s not Floyd’s fault that he came of age in during an era when elite boxers only fight once or twice a year and sometimes avoid each other. You can’t compare him with those guys from the ‘40s and ‘50s who fought everybody they could just to put food on the table.”

Um, sure I can. And don’t act like I’m picking on Mayweather by measuring him against fighters like Angott and Bivins (forget about Robinson, Armstrong, Pep, Louis and Ali). I didn’t put that “TBE” hat on his head. He did that. He’s the one who claims to be “The Best Ever.” If you want to be recognized as the greatest of all time, you’re going to be compared with the standouts of every era. Deal with it.

"

It speaks to Mayweather's excellence that he's been able to coast through his career with only a handful of scary moments. The saddest part of this discussion is that he likely would have been just as dominant against Pacquiao had the two men decided to get together and test themselves. 

That bus has departed the terminal. Mayweather teased it after beating Maidana a second time, but he's cried wolf one too many times. It would still be an epic fight. It would still set box-office records. It wouldn't, however, answer important questions about where Mayweather stands historically.

To truly make his case, Mayweather will need to do something truly daring. In addition to fighting, and beating, Pacquiao next year, his final fight should be one for the ages. It's time for "Money" to put it all on the line against a monster. 

Roberto Duran did it, moving up in class to shock Leonard. Leonard did it in turn, dispatching the seemingly unbeatable middleweight Marvin Hagler in an unforgettable fight at Caesars Palace. Even Roy Jones, a fighter who blazed a trail for Mayweather by avoiding almost every tough challenge, came in and beat John Ruiz for the heavyweight crown.

Mayweather can match them. Why not a trip to middleweight of his own? Why not Gennady Golovkin? 

Closing his career against his greatest rival and the most feared fighter in the sport probably won't vault Mayweather to the top of any serious list of the best boxers of all time. And even if things go his way, he might even lose.

That has to be a scary thought for a man who has all but eliminated the specter of losing from his professional life. But it's that shadow of lingering doubt that allows greatness to shine through. It's that doubt that would elevate Mayweather to his rightful place among the elites.