When Floyd Mayweather was asked to name his top five boxers of all time, he did not hesitate to include himself among the greats.<\/p>\n
The host \u2014 rapper and podcaster Fat Joe \u2014 nodded along approvingly before Mayweather had even finished his list, though few would argue against the decision. Mayweather remains one of the defining fighters of the 21st century and one of the rare modern champions to retire on top, closing his career at 50-0 with landmark victories over Manny Pacquiao, Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton.<\/p>\n
The remaining four names on Mayweather\u2019s list span boxing\u2019s golden eras of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, a period when the sport flourished from heavyweight down to the lighter divisions. In the clip, shared by The Sweet Science Lab<\/a>, Mayweather began his selections with one of the finest defensive fighters the sport has ever known.<\/p>\n \u201cWe gotta go Pernell Whitaker.\u201d<\/p>\n Known as \u2018Sweet Pea\u2019, Whitaker was a defensive virtuoso and a 1984 Olympic gold medallist whose mastery of distance, timing and footwork set a benchmark for generations that followed. After suffering a controversial loss to Jos\u00e9 Luis Ram\u00edrez in Paris in 1988, Whitaker went on a decade-long unbeaten run, capturing world titles at lightweight, super-lightweight and welterweight. His 1993 draw with Julio C\u00e9sar Ch\u00e1vez \u2014 widely viewed as a robbery \u2014 remains one of boxing\u2019s most debated decisions and a defining moment of the era.<\/p>\n Mayweather\u2019s next selections stretched from the lighter weights to heavyweight royalty.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m gonna go Roberto Duran. If we gonna go heavyweights I gotta go Larry Holmes, because Larry Holmes beat everybody in his era. When Larry Holmes got beat by Mike Tyson, he got beat by a young, hungry champion \u2014 and he came out of retirement and got beat by Tyson.\u201d<\/p>\n Dur\u00e1n, the ferocious Panamanian nicknamed \u2018Hands of Stone\u2019, is regarded as one of the greatest lightweights in history and one of boxing\u2019s most complete fighters, winning world titles from lightweight to middleweight and famously dethroning Sugar Ray Leonard in Montreal in 1980. Holmes, meanwhile, ruled the heavyweight division for seven years<\/a>, making 20 successful title defences and defeating the likes of Ken Norton, Earnie Shavers and Gerry Cooney during one of the most competitive eras in heavyweight history.<\/p>\n Mayweather\u2019s final pick was perhaps the most intriguing \u2014 and the least commonly mentioned in all-time debates.<\/p>\n \u201cAaron Pryor.\u201d<\/p>\n