Floyd Mayweather, Jr.

Floyd Mayweather was taught to box by his father and uncle, and came to the 1996 Atlanta Olympics after winning the National Golden Gloves title in 1993 and 1994. At Atlanta he won a bronze medal, losing a controversial semi-final decision to Bulgarian Serafim Todorov, but it was only a prelude to one of the great professional boxing careers ever.

Mayweather competed professionally from 1996-2007 and 2009-15, with a one-fight comeback in 2017. During his career he held the titular crown of greatest pound-for-pound boxer in the world. He won world titles in five weight classes, and was the lineal champion in four weight classes. He retired from boxing with a record of 50 wins and no defeats, the second longest undefeated streak in professional boxing history.

Mayweather twice won the The Ring magazine’s Fighter of the Year Award, in 1998 and 2007. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association Fighter of the Year in 2007, 2013, and 2015. Boxrec.com has ranked him the greatest fighter of all-time, pound-for-pound, and the greatest welterweight of all-time.

Known as “Money” Mayweather, he earned huge purses during his career and for several years led the Forbes magazine list of world’s highest paid athletes. He earned over $1 billion in purses and pay-per-view royalties while fighting.

Mayweather’s fights were always heavily promoted, including spectacles such as a bout with Oscar De La Hoya in May 2007, which Mayweather won by split decision. Other big fights were against Ricky Hatton, Sugar Shane Mosley, and Miguel Cotto.

For years, boxing afficianados clamored for a fight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, consider the other contender for world’s greatest pound-for-pound fighter. The fight finally came off in May 2015, with Mayweather winning a unanimous decision. After the fight Pacquiao claimed he was hampered by a shoulder injury that required surgery, and Mayweather offered a re-match after Pacquiao had recovered, but it never came to be.

In 2017 Mayweather came out of retirement to fight Conor McGregor, a champion in MMA, who had never had a professional boxing match before. In August 2017 Mayweather defeated McGregor by TKO in the 10th round. It was Mayweather’s 50th consecutive victory, surpassing the mark of 49-0 by Rocky Marciano, heavyweight champion in the 1950s.

Despite his boxing feats, Mayweather was always a controversial figure. Several times he was charged with domestic violence against women, and misdemeanor battery charges. He settled most of these charges, serving several sentences of house arrest, suspended jail sentences, and community service.

All of Mayweather’s titles are difficult to enumerate, given the alphabet soup nature of professional boxing. Among the world titles he garnered were WBC super featherweight champion, WBC lightweight champion (135 lbs), WBC super-lightweight champion, IBF welterweight champion, WBC welterweight champion (twice), WBC light-middleweight champion (twice), WBA (Super) light-middleweight champion, WBA (Super) welterweight champion, and WBO welterweight champion.

Mayweather was known as a mostly defensive fighter. Among his 50 wins he had 27 knockouts, but most of those came early in his career against journeyman boxers. Mayweather is almost universally considered the greatest defensive fighter of all-time, in any class.