He comes in at fight time weighing more than Floyd and only hit the scales two pounds lighter due to "wanting to keep his speed", according to him and Billy Gram. Check this. When Hatton faced Castillo at jr. Welter Weight he entered the ring at 151. When Mayweather fought DLH at jr. middle weight, he stepped in at 148! These are both of their last fights and Mayweather came in smaller because he's naturally small. Mayweather started his career at 130 and had most of his fights at 130/135. Prior he'd only fought 3 times at Welter weight out of 37 fights. Hatton fought 42 fights at 140. Judah is also, along with Floyd, the smallest "Welter Weight" in the division. They are both the same size, if not naturally smaller than Cotto AND Hatton. Pigeon holding Mayweather as truly belonging to a particular weight class is a ruse.
Quality over quantity. Mayweather beat two fighters ranked in Ring Magazine's top pound for pound list, both were champs, one was a legend (in a higher weight class), one was undefeated, and he KOed him. Miranda is a club fighter, Zertuche is a nobody, but Taylor was a good win. He was a ranked, undisputed champ. With that said, Floyd obviously has the edge both on paper and performance/adversity.
If Cotto would have KOed Mosley that would be his only real good win. Zab wasn't that good imo, and I reiterate (coming off 2 losses/year lay-off). Besides, Mosley hasn't been a champ since he lost to Winky and hasn't been a champ at Welter Weight since he lost to Forrest. Not to mention he's even older than Oscar at 36.
Fighter of the year has never been based on who you beat in your division and Mayweather we all know to be a p4p fighter. This is apples and oranges. He compares more to Sugar Ray Leonard than Marvin Hagler in that Hagler dominated his division while people moved up or down to fight him, Leonard did the opposite and moved up and down beating Champions on his own initiative. Floyd walks around at the weight he fights at.
Miranda is again, just an exciting club fighter who had just lost to Arthur Abraham and Zertuche is a bum, definitely not a top middle weight. Jermain Taylor is fighter of the year worthy in its self, but mentioning those two guys is disingenuous. A win over Miranda isn't anything to work with on its own (unlike over Taylor), so why should he be added for filler?
Zertuche not being KOed says little on its on right, like saying Jermain never got KOed in the absence of who he is. A quality win is based on the opposition, not the excitement factor. Hopkins won it in 2001 with a UD over Keith Holmes and a KO over Trinidad (who was moving up in weight but was 40-0). It is the names that you beat and under what circumstances.
Pavlik cannot be compared to Mayweather if you're questioning motives. The dedication isn't comparable. Every hungry fighter fights for lineal titles when they are hungry. Mayweather did this for years at 130 and 135. Of course he wants the pay day, but is still fighting for titles in the process. Going against the 154 and then the 140 champs (who he was supposed to fight in 2005). He beat them both. Hatton was ranked #8 by Ring Magazine at the time and DLH was ranked 14 or 15 I believe. What did Floyd accomplish in one year?
He owned 3 weight classes, one of which he should have properly owned in 2005. He owned the recognized champ at 140 and WBC belt holder at 154. Spinks was the other major title holder there but got ran out of WW, which is owned by Mayweather, so Spinks is automatically owned along with him and Oscar's division. As noted, Mayweather already owned Welter Weight by beating the lineal champs in Judah and his destroyer. He already owned 130 and 135 so in 2007 he literally solidified his legacy and virtual ownage of every weight class from super feather weight to jr. Middle weight. Pavlik beat the lineal champ in his weight class, something that Mayweather has already done 3 times directly.
