Floyd Mayweather has listed his all-time favorite boxers. However, he omitted Mike Tyson and Muhammad Ali from his list of notable athletes.
Mayweather is recognised as one of boxing’s best boxers. He retired with an undefeated record of 50-0. The American will now face Aaron Chalmers in a lucrative exhibition match at the O2 Arena later this month.
After taking a break from training, Mayweather spoke with FatJoe live on Instagram about his favourite boxers. Mayweather came up with a list of five people, including himself.
However, the two greatest boxers of all time Ali and Tyson were not mentioned by him.
Mayweather said: “We’ve got to go Pernell Whitaker. I’mma go Roberto Duran, man you put me in a tight predicament. As far as with the heavyweights, if we’re going to go heavyweights, I’m going to be honest, I’ve got to go Larry Holmes.”
“Larry Holmes beat everybody in his era. When Larry Holmes got beat by Mike Tyson, he got beat by a young hungry champion and he came out of a year’s retirement and got beat by Tyson.”
“I’ve got to say Larry Holmes, he had the basic fundamentals, he had the jab and even right now he’s still living a great life because he made smart investments. So he was good from the beginning of his career to the end of his career.”
This included legends like Larry Holmes and Pernell Whitaker. Roberto Duran and Aaron Pryor were also on Mayweather’s list.
It’s very peculiar that Mayweather would leave such beloved greats from the list. There might be a personal reason behind the omission.
A while back, Mike Tyson criticized Floyd Mayweather for claiming he was better than Muhammad Ali.
Tyson hit back with a personal attack on Mayweather, branding him a “little, scared man” and questioning his own greatness.
“He’s very delusional,” Tyson told Undisputed Champion Network.
“Listen, if he was anywhere near that realm of greatness with Ali he’d be able to take his kids to school by himself. He can’t take his kids to school by himself, and he’s talking about he’s great?
“Greatness is not guarding yourself from the people, greatness is being accepted by the people. He can’t take his kids alone to school by himself.”
Tyson also emphasized that greatness is being accepted by the people, which Mayweather cannot achieve since he cannot even take his kids to school by himself.
“He’s a little, scared man. He’s a very small, scared man,” Tyson said, delivering the line with a fearsome glare.
Tyson metaphorically twisted the knife when he went on to pick Pacquiao over Mayweather to win their PPV scorcher a couple years back.