{"id":809642,"date":"2026-10-21T21:20:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T21:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/809642\/"},"modified":"2026-10-21T21:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T21:20:08","slug":"floyd-mayweather-says-one-man-stands-alone-as-the-hardest-puncher-he-ever-faced-he-could-hit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/809642\/","title":{"rendered":"Floyd Mayweather says one man stands alone as the hardest puncher he ever faced: &#8220;He could hit&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Floyd Mayweather\u2019s resume is littered with boxing greats and fearsome knockout artists, and now he has named which of his opponents hit him the hardest.<\/p>\n<p>Mayweather claimed world titles in five different weight divisions during his career, winning belts as low as super-featherweight and as high as <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/features\/on-this-day-floyd-mayweather-and-miguel-cotto-go-toe-to-toe-in-slugfest\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">super-welterweight, where he defeated the likes of Oscar De La Hoya, Miguel Cotto and Canelo Alvarez<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Despite those three 154lb opponents having over 100 collective knockouts to their names, Mayweather was drawn to his earlier bouts when considering the man he deemed to be the biggest puncher.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on the <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/3UgyPEqnOBE?si=JfkLMLhC3XwS_ZJb\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">PBD Podcast<\/a>, Mayweather highlighted Dominican lightweight Victoriano Sosa \u2013 who he outpointed in 2003 to defend his WBC 135lb title \u2013 as the hardest hitting opponent that he was ever tasked with.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cVictoriano Sosa, a Dominican guy. He is not [a top fighter] but he can hit!<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMarcos Maidana hit hard, but not like Sosa, Sosa can hit! He hit like the baseball player, out of the park!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sosa failed in his other career world title challenge three years prior, losing a decision to Paul Spadafora when competing for the IBF lightweight crown. \u2018El Santico\u2019 retired with a record of 42-4-2, with 31 stoppages to his name, with his final career defeat coming at the hands of Cotto.<\/p>\n<p>Mayweather\u2019s opinion may change in the coming months, amid talk of a professional comeback in 2027, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/boxing\/articles\/c9v0degnx04o\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">where he is being linked to rematches with Manny Pacquiao and Conor McGregor<\/a>, as well as an audacious bid for Ryan Garcia\u2019s WBC welterweight world title.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Floyd Mayweather\u2019s resume is littered with boxing greats and fearsome knockout artists, and now he has named which&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":809643,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-809642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=809642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/809643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=809642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=809642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=809642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}