Floyd Mayweather HOF & active World Champion

To my knowledge there has never been a boxer inducted into the Hall of Fame, who has come out of retirement and re captured a world title. A lot of people thought Lennox might be the first to do this given the state of the heavyweights but his comeback never materialised and he stayed retired. A fighter needs to be retired for 5 years before they can be inducted, 5 years is an eternity in boxing and this is why no one has done it so far.

My question is could Floyd Mayweather have been the first to do so had he stayed retired after his victory over Hatton in 2007?

He'd have been a nailed on Hall of Famer for his career up to that point and the fights he had that wouldn't have happened are Marquez, Mosley, Ortiz and Cotto.

Could he have realistically stayed retired for 5 years then returned to dethrone an Alvarez or Cotto at Light Middleweight and make history? Also if he did how would it effect his legacy?

Interesting question Belly...But one that's impossible to answer...

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:Interesting question Belly...But one that's impossible to answer...

You must be right judging by the flood of responses. Personally I think he would have been able to take 5 years out and come back and beat a weaker champion but Cotto or Alvarez might have been too much. I definitely believe the win would mean more than it does now had he had a break and so would probably add to his legacy as Mosley, Marquez and Ortiz don't add a great deal.

Maybe Cotto, purely because Cotto's offensive accuracy post 2010 hasn't been the greatest. If a one eyed Margarito could make him miss, you've got to fancy Floyd's chances a bit. Alvarez is more of an unknown, Floyd beat Alvarez cleaner than Cotto, but that had the feel of a man at the peak of his powers, I don't think he'd produce that type performance five years out.

Anyway, I thought Ortiz is a decent win to have under his belt, clowning finish aside.

kingraf wrote:Maybe Cotto, purely because Cotto's offensive accuracy post 2010 hasn't been the greatest. If a one eyed Margarito could make him miss, you've got to fancy Floyd's chances a bit. Alvarez is more of an unknown, Floyd beat Alvarez cleaner than Cotto, but that had the feel of a man at the peak of his powers, I don't think he'd produce that type performance five years out.

Anyway, I thought Ortiz is a decent win to have under his belt, clowning finish aside.

Ortiz is one of Floyd's lesser wins. No better than Guerrero, Maidana or Baldomir.

The way the fights went I'd say how he fought Alvarez would be more suited to the time out the ring. The Cotto fight was higher paced than most Floyd fights and I think he might struggle to do that with the break.

I really depends on what he was hypothetically doing in the intervening time. If he still did loads of boxing training and stayed in shape over the 5 years, then I think he could have picked off 'alphabet pretender x'. Otherwise I think he'd probably get knocked out.