I've been a Mayweather fan for a long time, he's one of the all-time greats in the sport of boxing. He is the greatest defensive fighter ever in the history of the sport. When it comes to having a successful career without sustaining long term damage, he is also the best in boxing history.
BUT.
I believe that Mayweather is greatly contributing to the downfall of the sport of boxing because he has ushered in a new era of fighters who are not willing to fight each other, and who instead spend vast amounts of time negotiating when they could be fighting.
Canelo Alvarez vacated his middle weight belt recently in order to NOT fight GGG. These two fighters are so high in the p4p list, it's only natural for them to fight each other. It is the fight that the fans wanted to see and both fighters express interest in doing it, but the negotiating fell apart and now the fans are deprived of what would have been an all-time great fight between two of the best fighters in the world today.
GGG had to take a fight against a much smaller opponent, his name is Kell Brook, because the negotiations with Eubank Jr. quickly fell through. A top fighter like GGG wants to fight more often but other opponents being stubborn in negotiations is causing him to fight less over the span of his career.
Luckily there are some fighters who are willing to fight the best, without having to put in months or years of tedious negotiating, such as Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev who are finally getting into the ring in a few months to fight each other. Roman Gonzalez is another example of a guy who will fight anyone, as he is moving up in weight in his next fight to challenge for a title in the 4th weight class that he has fought in. Mayweather has set a bad precedent but hopefully there will be more fighters who are willing to fight without overly negotiating.
Image Source: pixabay