Floyd Mayweather Jr. — who has won six professional world boxing championships in five different weight classes — has taken home the ESPY for “Best Fighter” in 2008, toppling UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre and others for the honor, according to ESPN.com.
Boxers Joe Calzaghe, Holly Holm and Kelly Pavlik were also up for nomination.
Mayweather (39-0) recently retired at age 30 after defeating several of the top competitors alive in the sport today, including Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton, Zab Judah, Jose Luis Castillo (twice) and others. He has teased with a possible move to mixed martial arts several times within the past 12 months.
However, it’s highly unlikely that he makes the jump anytime soon.
The ESPY, which stands for “Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly,” is ESPN’s annual awards show that recognizes the best in sports. As one person recently put it, the ESPYs are to sports just like the Grammy Awards are for music or the Academy Awards are for movies.
St. Pierre has won nine of his last 10 fights against several of the best in the business such as Matt Hughes (twice), Matt Serra, Sean Sherk, Josh Koscheck, BJ Penn and others. He is just the third mixed martial artist to earn a nomination — Randy Couture and Rampage Jackson were considered last year, however, both fell short.
42 Comments »
I hate Mayweather!!!!!
May didn’t even fight this year and he’s retired so he’s not a boxer anymore, how does that earn him as “best fighter of 2008″?
Yeah! Mayweather the “crybaby”! He complains to HBO that they’re givin’ props to my man PAcman and Hatton but not him. He’s so good, he doesn’t even need to be mentioned because it’s understood! He’s a whiner!
GSP should’ve won it because he’s an ambassador of the sport…
Mayewather is sh1t! my man Pacquiao would beat him to a pulp!
why would a boxer get best fighter?
Exactly heat. IMO, no one practicing strictly one discipline should get this award. Could Mayweather beat most guys on the planet (in his weightclass) in a boxing match? Most likely, yes. Could he beat most guys on the planet (in his weightclass, again) in an overall fight. No. He would have to hope that his first 1-2 punches would knock an MMA fighter out (not likely) before they took him down and twisted him up like a pretzel. Or maybe the MMA fighter would toy around with him via legkicks. As Mayweather would not be conditioned to that type of punishment, I could see him throwing in the towel due to kicks. Just like Cro Cop did to that fighter in Pride. In (I think) the second round, his opponent could barely stand and had to verbally tap out.
ye id have to say semmy schilt did very well anyway recently in k-1 he deserves it more than money mayweather! exluding the fact its one dimensional! boxing is an ma! if it was best martial artist i could understand but semmy schilt has been on a role just like silva has in mma! money mayweather has been just grabbing money
That’s excatly what I was thinking. Best boxer yes. Best fighter give me a break!
Its a joke, but I still think that it will be a while before top mma fighters start getting this award over mainstream boxers and its just BS.
Mainstream media needs to wake up, mma is where its at, and no top boxer can ever beat a top mma fighter in a fight, and last I checked the category was fighter of the year!
john, check my response to you on the Big Daddy/Buentello thread.
Oh, and what’s going on around here now john? It seems that between rp and bill, you and kevin have a couple of f’in stalkers. It amazes me how if someone doesn’t like certain peoples posts, they have to comment (multiple times) on it rather than skipping over them. And then they bitch about skipping over them! If some of you panty waists out there aren’t strong enough to use your mouse to move the screen a few inches, I seriously suggest you get a gym membership.
k
LOL, yeah chefdaddy, its getting petty and annoying around here with all these high school kids on summer break. There is nothing more pathetic than computer warriors!
Makes me appreciate all the guys on here who you can actually have an intelligent and respectful debate with. Props to u and all the other decent people on this site.
How the heck does GSP even make it to this list???
GSP hasn’t done ANYTHING. I’d put in Anderson Silva.
Hasn’t done anything? Avenged a loss with both Hughes and Serra. Put a beatdown on Kosheck. Yeah I would call that nothing. I agree Anderson Silva would have been a better top fighter for that list. GSP is more appealing to American fans because he speaks ENGLISH, Anderson gets awards and it is all Portuguese madness with a translator. I know I don’t care to watch that!
Spawn please don’t post here anymore.
I second that
Third.
4th
Rampage was nominated last year with Couture … Do some research.
Have some tact. And then go fuck your dog. Oh … and thanks.
BURN!!!!!!
LMFAO!! Who moderates the moderators!!?? Go mania!!
i’m buying a tshirt just for that! lol.
GSP WOULD DESTROY MAYWEATHER PERIOD
i second dana’s cheap comment, spawn please get educated before you post here, apparently you just jumped on the “UFC” train and thinks you know so much
I thinks you know a lot about grammer. lol just kidding.
I have Comcast Digital Cable. I can scroll down to 9 o clock. But afflication is not listed. what channel is afflication’s cable card goin to b on?
I would have loved to see Pavlik or Calzaghe beat Mayweather. Aside from being retired he would never go up and fight against them. He’d never step up that big like Anderson is doing.
yeah thats ridiculous they gave it to a boxer over someone with a skill-set like georges. doesnt matter though i guess, he said he wouldnt attend the award show anyways
Obnoxious outcome. GSP is better pound for pound. If only they could put him with Floyd in the cage…
i 4th that concerning spawn!!!!!!! mayweather will never jump over 2 MMA since he knows he wouldnt be able 2 duck & dodge dodge opponents like he has with boxing! he seems 2 avoid fights that may give him that first loss! not saying hes not a good boxer but i believe his place in history is not where he thinks it is!!!
i called this one.
duhhh… mayweather dropped Big Show in WWE! why wouldn’t he be the best fighter? lol
hehehe That’s a good one and a very valid point as well!
You think GSP pounded on Sherk?? Imagine what he’d do to Mayweather! For my “money”, I can’t imagine anything better than seeing that overpaid, loudmouth, arrogant piece of trash get double-legged through the octagon wall and pounded to a bloody pulp.
they should base it off of the actual year.. i do see how he won really though but i hate him..
How is he the best fighter if GSP would take him 1 on 1? God I hate ESPN.
yea ESPN is the only network which lacks mma knowledge.
You can think of Mayweather whatever you want, but its a fact that this guys ruled multiple weightclasses and ended his career with the big fat zero in the loss column. You can’t take that away.
As for the write-up:
“St. Pierre has won nine of his last 10 fights against several of the best in the business such as […] Matt Serra […]”
Really, Matt Serra is one of the best in the business? One lucky punch and a good comedy stand-up routine on TUF make you a big shot in MMA now? A bit far-fetched if you ask me.
Well when you duck the big names, then yes you can rule the rest. Floyd ducked Antonio Margarito for a few years. Floyd was offered 8mil for the fight and he chose to fight Baldomir for pennies. Then he retired before he could fight Miguel Cotto or Shane Mosely. Mayweather will go down as the biggest fight ducker in history. Floyd Mayweather, what a joke.
GSP should have won bottom line…he beat the best of the best in his sport and dominated all of them. He is by far the best pound for pound fighter in the world today…today that is…Jon Fitch is going to change that though very soon!