Floyd Mayweather’s unbeaten professional record is one of the most impressive the sport of boxing has ever seen.
There were few men who were truly able to give Mayweather trouble when inside the ring.
Record-breaking Oscar De La Hoya won his fight with Mayweather on one of the judge’s scorecards but lost the fight via split decision in what was one of the closest fights of the unbeaten champion’s career. No other fighter has even been able to take Mayweather to a split-decision victory, showing his dominance.
As well as not being tested on the scorecards, fighters have struggled to inflict serious damage to Mayweather, as the fighter has only been knocked down once in his professional career.
However, the knockdown did not come as a result of a threatening punch.
Floyd Mayweather took a knee in his 2001 title fight
In May of 2001, Mayweather would take on Carlos Hernandez (33-2-1) in an attempt to defend his WBC World Super Featherweight title.
‘Money’ would be aiming to make his eighth defense of the title, however, he would have an odd moment in the bout.
Despite leading the fight, Mayweather would receive an eight-count in the sixth round of the fight. However, Hernandez did not put the fighter down.
Mayweather took a knee in the sixth round of the bout, despite not having suffered any significant damage from his opponent.
However, Mayweather was seemingly hurting. After taking the knee, Mayweather began to jester to his corner as if something was wrong with his left hand. Despite the supposed injury, Mayweather was able to continue and win the bout.
Despite the knockdown being scored in favor of Hernandez, Mayweather would still win convincingly on the judges’ scorecards.
Floyd Mayweather has only been taken to a split or majority decision by three boxers
Dominance was clear whenever Mayweather stepped into the ring. Among his 50 fights, only three fighters were able to not get stopped, or not lose unanimously to Mayweather.
Even Manny Pacquaio, who was described by Mayweather as the best boxer he’s faced, was not able to cause disruption to the scorecards in their fight.
The first fighter to do this was De La Hoya, who won 115-113 on Tom Kaczmarek’s scorecard in their 2007 bout. However, the other two judges favored Mayweather in their scoring.
Mayweather was then taken to back-to-back majority decisions in 2013-2014.
Canelo Alvarez would be the loser of his bout with Mayweather via majority decision, while Marcos Maidana would also suffer the same fate.
Maidana would earn a rematch with Mayweather. However, he would lose unanimously in their welterweight clash.