Since the days of heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano, the numbers 49 and 0 have made up the most hallowed record in all of boxing. When Floyd Mayweather takes on Andre Berto on Saturday in Las Vegas, Mayweather will be within the graap of that 49-0 mark that few fighters ever have the chance to reach.
The fact that Mayweather chose Berto (30-3) as his opponent for his 49th fight left me disappointed. The historical significance of this fight should have yielded an opponent that actually is a threat to beat Mayweather and if this, as Mayweather claims, will be his final fight -- though not many in the boxing press actually believe him -- this is a sad way to end an all-time great career.
Mayweather likes to claim that he's the best boxer of all time -- even though his top-five list is almost completely wrong -- but his attempt at history doesn't seem to impress one of the best heavyweight fighters in history.
"I look at it quite differently; Marciano was a heavyweight," Evander Holyfield, who won his first 28 fights before losing to Riddick Bowe in 1992, told Forbes on Wednesday when he spoke about a new Boys & Girls Clubs of America Alumni initiative. "It's a great deal for somebody as a heavyweight. You had [Julio Cesar] Chavez who was [87-0], but he's a small guy. You don't compare small guys to big guys. As a little guy, you can't say you're fighting anybody bigger than you. That's what you do as a heavyweight."
Regardless, Berto is the opponent, and since Mayweather is likely to reach Marciano's historical mark, it's worth taking a look at others who had the opportunity to match the man who retired after claiming Archie Moore as his 49th victim on Sept. 21, 1955.
While no heavyweights have matched Marciano, Mayweather certainly isn't the first fighter to go for 49-0.
Here are the others:
Ricardo Lopez: It's true that Lopez was undefeated when he matched Marciano at 49 victories and then surpassed him by stopping Ratanapol Sor Vorapin in 2000, but the minimumweight from Mexico had a draw decision vs. Rosendo Alvarez two years earlier. So, even though Lopez finished his career at 51-0-1, he didn't match Marciano because of that single blemish on his record.
Julio Cesar Chavez: The greatest Mexican fighter of all time began his career with 87-straight victories, but his win to beat Marciano's record wasn't so extraordinary. In fact, when compared to Chavez's 50th opponent, Berto is an all-time great. So, who did Chavez beat to get to 50-0? The unknown Roberto Collins Lindo. The reason he's unknown? Because Lindo was 1-15 when facing Chavez and finished his career with a 2-20 record. Not surprisingly, Chavez knocked out Lindo in the second round. But the reason Chavez doesn't hold Marciano's record? For as great as he was -- and Chavez, who finished his career 107-6-2, was fantastic -- he didn't retire undefeated.
Jimmy Barry: There are no YouTube videos of Barry, because the bantamweight made his debut in the early 1890s and he retired before the beginning of the 20th century. Basically, Barry was the original Marciano. Even though Barry finished his undefeated career with 59 victories, he also produced 10 draws -- including each of his last eight fights -- and rumor has it that the referee in his final matchup declared a tie to preserve Barry's undefeated record. Either way, like Lopez, Barry wasn't unblemished.
Those who got close: Larry Holmes so badly wanted to get to Marciano, but at 48-0 after already making 20 successful defenses of his heavyweight title, Holmes lost to light heavyweight Michael Spinks. Afterward, he blasted Marciano and his family. As the New York Times wrote after his defeat in 1985:
While indicating he won't fight anymore, Larry Holmes talked in the ring about how "people sometimes light candles for your defeat," alluding to the Marciano family. In the interview area later, he talked about how "I'm 35 fighting young men and he was 25 fighting old men -- to be technical, Rocky Marciano couldn't carry my jockstrap." ... In so many words, some of them obscene, he snapped that if he had hurt the feelings of the Marciano family, that was too bad.
By then, apparently even Larry Holmes was stung by the bitterness of his words. He tried to apologize, saying, "Rocky's one of the greatest fighters of all time; for anyone to accomplish 49 victories, even if they were all bums, is some kind of record. I would've loved to have met him. If I didn't think he was a great fighter, his pictures wouldn't be all over the walls of my hotel" in Phillipsburg, N.J., near his Easton, Pa., home. But after the arrogance of his earlier remarks, no apology was possible.
It was an ugly ending to Holmes' attempt at history ... Chris John was a phenomenal featherweight, but after improving his record to 48-0-3, John took a major upset when he quit on his stool after the sixth round against Simpiwe Vetyeka in 2013. When announcing his retirement, John said, "That's boxing. You cannot win all the time." ... Joe Calzaghe finished his career in style, beating two of the best fighters of the past quarter-century in Roy Jones Jr., and Bernard Hopkins. But he never tried to get to Marciano. He retired at 46-0 ... Paul Spadafora, who didn't fight for 28 months in the middle of last decade while serving prison time, was once a solid fighter who held a lightweight world title. But after reaching 48-0-1, Spadafora -- well past the prime of his career at the age of 38 -- was beaten by the relatively unknown Johan Perez in 2013.
But none of the previous fighters' failings means that Marciano's record is unbreakable.
"Each generation is supposed to get better; everybody gets smarter," Holyfield said. "We don't cook with candles anymore. We have better equipment. When records are broken, that means the generations are growing. ... You set a record so somebody else can break it."
