How far up in weight could Mayweather and Pacquiao have gone?

[halfamill]

I'm using these two guys because these are two of the most recent guys who have won titles in at least 5 divisions. What if Mayweather decided to cherry pick his way up through more weight divisions? Mayweather was only 30 when he defeated De La Hoya at 154. What if he decided to choose one of the weaker title holders like Castillejo, Barker, Soliman, or Lemieux? 168 also had its fair share of weak light hitting title holders. So how far do these 2 go ?

[ironbeard]

As far as they went.

[jas80s]

Agree. Length seemed to be the greatest threat to Mayweather, at least as far as one can tell. He never lost of course, but many would chalk that up, at least in small part, to his avoidance of certain situations or fighters who just happened to often be taller and rangier.

As for Pacquiao, he was an incredibly gifted fighter, but he fought a high contact style (meaning he wasn't exceptionally hard to hit). If a guy could take his punches and fire back, he was there to be hit. The idea of fighting "too much man" was particularly dangerous for him.

They both reached their limit, and I think they knew it best of all.

[Ruthless-RKO]

TBF, neither fought an actual LMW..

Mayweather best ODLH, Cotto, a very young Canelo and maybe another, without Checking.

Pacquiao beat a WW for the LMW belt.

Had they fought career LMW’s, they may have struggled.

[jamamb]

floyd couldve shutout lemieux

[Mexi-Box]

TBF, neither fought an actual LMW..

Mayweather best ODLH, Cotto, a very young Canelo and maybe another, without Checking.

Pacquiao beat a WW for the LMW belt.

Had they fought career LMW’s, they may have struggled.

Well, the 154 division was atrocious around that time. I mean it's still nothing special outside of Hurd, Charlo, Castano, and Munguia. The latter two of which are still growing as fighters.

Hurd and Munguia are both so enormous and do use their size it would be something to watch Mayweather fight either. Canelo never used his size and was a mediocre pressure fighter at the time when he fought Mayweather. I mean Canelo barely beat Trout going into the fight (eff the scorecards).

No way would Mayweather or Pacquiao have done anything during this era of 160. It's way too damn strong.

[Lackeos]

Agree. Length seemed to be the greatest threat to Mayweather, at least as far as one can tell. He never lost of course, but many would chalk that up, at least in small part, to his avoidance of certain situations or fighters who just happened to often be taller and rangier.

That seems valid. He struggled with past-it DLH. He fought numerous short-armed opponents like Cotto, Pacquiao, JMM, Hatton, etc. He did not fight a lot of long-armed opponents like Margarito, Paul Williams, Erislandy Lara, Sergio Martinez (at 154), etc.

I think he could do fine against long-armed brawlers, as he could probably get in his shell and outpoint them at close range. But against long-armed boxers like Lara, he may be under severe threat of getting outpointed at long range.

I don't think long arms are Mayweather's kryptonite. But I do think in a fight between fighters who love to jab, the one with longer arms is favored. If JMM and Mayweather traded sizes, I think JMM would've won at least 9 rounds. If Klitschko and Fury traded sizes, I think Klitschko would've won at least 10 rounds.

[Enlightened-One]

Pacquiao and Mayweather couldn’t have competed in heavier weight divisions that they didn’t already compete in throughout the course of their careers, without compromising their in-ring ability.

These dead-cert Hall-of-Famers could have indeed cherry-picked their way to more titles (with the weight ceiling being 160lbs) if they took risks against some of the weaker B-level type champions, but there was no real motivation for them to do this, since the money wasn’t there.

I don’t see Pacquiao and Mayweather sharing the ring with super-middleweights who enter the ring weighing 185lbs or some on fight night, whilst also typically being four inches taller. The size difference is simply too great.