Floyd Mayweather Jr.: I’m better than Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Robinson

It’s hard not to be overwhelmingly confident when your last defeat in the ring came at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, so it makes sense that Floyd Mayweather Jr. sees himself as possibly the greatest boxer of all time.

In an interview with ESPN, Mayweather said he’s better than boxing legends Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Robinson.

“[Ali] only fought in one weight class...No one can ever brainwash me to make me believe that Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali was better than me.

“But one thing I will [say]: I’m going to take my hat off to those guys and respect those guys because those are the guys that paved the way for me.”

Mayweather continued to make his case for greatest-of-all-time status by citing Ali’s loss to Leon Spinks and the “rope-a-dope” tactic he used against Joe Frazier and George Foreman.

“Spinks beat him when he had seven fights,” Mayweather said. “They’d never put a fighter in there with Floyd Mayweather with seven fights. So are you going to tell me that it’s cool to lay on the ropes and take punishment and let a man tire himself out from beating you and then he basically fatigued?

“You hit him with a few punches and he go down and quit, and you want to be glorified for that?”

Although Mayweather makes some valid arguments, he might want to wait until after his May 2 fight against Manny Pacquiao before making further declarations about his place among boxing’s hierarchy.

Pacquiao poses one of the biggest challenge’s of Mayweather’s nearly two-decade-long professional career. A victory next week would go a long way in strengthening Mayweather’s legacy as one of the greatest boxers in history.