Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Born from a family famous for the sport, Floyd Mayweather, Jr. has yet to disappoint his uncles and father, Floyd Mayweather Sr. Before turning professional, Floyd Mayweather, Jr was already paving quite a successful amateur career, winning the Golden Gloves Championship for three consecutive times in 1993, 1994 and 1996.It was on October 11, 1996 that Floyd Jr. fought for the first time as a professional boxer. He was matched against another newcomer, Robert Apodaca. Apodaca was knocked out after 2 rounds in the fight. It wasn’t to be the first that Floyd would be knocking out fellow boxing opponents.

Floyd was able to win his first championship title as a professional boxing in the year 1998 after defeating all-time junior lightweight champion, Genaro Hernandez. Floyd Jr. turned out to defend his first title for eight times. After having some difficulty maintaining weight, Floyd Jr. moved up to the lightweight division in boxing. Though he only fought four matches in this weight class, they all happened to be championship bouts. In the end, Floyd Jr. won two different belts, the WBC and The Ring lightweight championship belts. Floyd Jr. then again moved up another weight class, this time as junior welterweight. His most important fight during this division was against Arturo Gatti. At the end of the fight, Floyd Jr had the WBC junior welterweight championship belt around his waist.

During April of 2006, Floyd Jr. fought against Zab Judah for the IBF and IBO championship belt and ended up victorious. He would soon find himself moving up yet another weight class, as junior middleweight. However, he returned to his previous welterweight class and fought with undefeated Ricky Hatton for the welterweight championship.

Floyd Jr. was famous for the defensive techniques he used in every fight. It was the same defensive technique used by his uncles and father during their time. It was also this use of defensive technique that kept Floyd Jr. free from any scars and bruises on his face, prompting the nickname “Pretty Boy”. After garnering a record of 41 wins, 25 knockouts, and 0 losses, Floyd Mayweather Jr. definitely deserves to be called the number one pound-for-pound boxer in the world.

Although Mayweather went into retirement for a short while, he came back on 2009 and subsequently fought Juan Manuel Marquez. It is through this comeback that a sought after fight between Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao was raised. Although there have been drafts for a fight to supposedly ensure, various events have come up that caused the postponement and eventual cancellation of the 2010 mega-bout. Since Pacquiao’s victory against Antonio Margarito, there have been calls for Mayweather to man up and face Pacquiao instead of postponing fights as what has happened recently.