Floyd Mayweather Hopes to rule three weight divisions at one time, with next step Nov. 4 at Mandalay Bay
Las Vegan Floyd Mayweather Jr. said Sunday he has a goal of ruling three weight divisions simultaneously and plans to take the next step on that path by fighting welterweight champion Carlos Baldomir on Nov. 4 at Mandalay Bay.
The unbeaten Mayweather (36-0, 24 knockouts), regarded as the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world, said he wants to emulate the feats of legendary Hall of Fame boxers such as Sugar Ray Robinson and Henry Armstrong.
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Armstrong is the only man to have held titles in three divisions simultaneously, holding the featherweight, lightweight and welterweight crowns in 1938 and 1939.
"There are so many legendary fighters, like Sugar Ray Leonard, Sugar Ray Robinson, Muhammad Ali, Larry Holmes, so many," Mayweather said. "I want to be regarded like them when I'm done, like guys like Pernell Whitaker, Aaron Pryor, Roger Mayweather, the greatest guys who ever stepped into the ring. If you want to be great, you have to try to accomplish outrageous things, and doing something that only the great Henry Armstrong did would be one of them."
Mayweather, 29, won the IBF welterweight title in April by defeating Zab Judah, but subsequently surrendered it.
"You can't hold a belt when you're fighting in three weight classes," he said.
Baldomir, 35, became recognized as the linear welterweight champion when he scored an upset win over Judah on Jan. 7 in New York. Judah held the WBC, IBF and WBA belts at the time, but Baldomir only paid the sanctioning fee to the WBC.
The IBF returned its belt to Judah, and he subsequently lost it to Mayweather. Ricky Hatton won the WBA belt by defeating Luis Collazo.
Baldomir (43-9-6, 13 KOs), who is on a 19-0-2 streak and hasn't lost since 1998, followed up his win over Judah with a ninth-round stoppage of Arturo Gatti on July 22. Mayweather stopped Gatti in six rounds on June 24, 2005.
Mayweather said he isn't ducking WBO welterweight champion Antonio Margarito, who has doggedly pursued him.
He said Baldomir is the biggest available fight for him at this point.
"He's a solid welterweight, and he beat Zab and he beat Gatti," Mayweather said. "I beat Zab and I beat Gatti. You could call the four of us the Fab Four, so me and Baldomir are like the Top Two."
