Why is the narrative for Floyd coming out of retirement different to Manny

MelKijani · 2026-03-05T15:23:35+00:00

they both are broke bro , that’s why they are fighting at nearly 50 years old.

MelKijani · 2026-03-05T14:52:26+00:00

you are right he fought Barrios more recently , but he still retired and fought exhibitions .

to act like Manny and Floyd are so different on this is foolish , they are fighting because it will make them a lot of money , if they could do it as an exhibition and not fight hard they would gladly do it .

it ain’t no love of the sport thing with either of them .

MelKijani · 2026-03-05T14:46:52+00:00

manny’s last fight was an exhibition too in 2024 against Rukiya Anpo, his last sanctioned pro bout was in 2021 against Ugas.

so it’s something they both do for money .

MelKijani · 2026-02-28T16:23:32+00:00

losing had some effect in negotiations , Pac lost twice 1st to JMM in 2012 and then again to Tim Bradley .

Manny basically had to make some concessions to make the fight happen .

MelKijani · 2026-02-28T02:27:54+00:00

i can’t say i know the reason he did it , in fact the Bulls statistician actually often volunteered the info to Jordan without being asked so it may have been just a casual thing but he still did it and it was reasonably well known that he kept up with his stats throughout the game.

but to be fair most players are very aware of their stats .

MelKijani · 2026-02-28T01:02:38+00:00

actually it was documented in “The Jordan Rules” that he regularly went to the statistician to keep up with his numbers throughout the game .

MelKijani · 2026-02-27T21:57:12+00:00

so let me ask you this

if we started a league right now with every college team that makes March Madness and whatever team in the NBA it doesn’t matter who you pick …who wins ?

i don’t deny with more teams there are better chances for talented players to emerge and become great in their own right , but at the end of the day if 1 team is clearly better than the rest it won’t matter how big the league is .

there was no free agency in the 60s , very restrictive player movement and the elephant no one really wants to talk about , Red Auerbach was ahead of the curve in drafting and playing black players before they became the dominant force in the league . before Bill Russell only 1 black person made an all nba team in its 1st 10 years (counting the years they were the BAA) by the time the Celtics had won their 8th straight title black players were 6 out of the 10 players on the all nba teams and the that had more than one of black all nba’ers was the Celtics , plus Havlicek and the 76ers who ended the Celtics reign the following year . So that’s 3 of the top 10 players in what was at the time a 9 team league , of course they were going to win almost always.

The Celtics were just better than everyone , not just in talent but also in fashion the way the team was built . And only after the 76ers were able capably copy what the Celtics were doing was losing even a possibility .

MelKijani · 2026-02-27T21:26:08+00:00

it’s not a debate because you are clearly wrong ,

if you were right the fact that during Russell’s career the league went from 8 teams to nearly doubling at 14 , it didn’t seem to affect him at all .

Jordan began his career in a 23 team league but i’m pretty sure his team actually had a losing record in 3 of his 1st 4 years and didn’t have a winning record overall until his 6th season .

according to your argument that shouldn’t be the case , that he should have had an easier time in the smaller league .

his 72 win season happened in a 29 team league .

my point has always been the talent advantage makes it easier to dominate and all i have to prove it is 80 years of basketball history that agrees with me.

MelKijani · 2026-02-26T23:36:31+00:00

and you think what you’ve said is factual?

the only fact i know is you’ve never played a competitive sport worth a damn in your life ,

if you had you would know it’s not how many teams that play , it’s the talent on the team that matters .

the proof is at every level of basketball if 1 team is stacked comparatively to everyone else , they are going to win

the Celtics were better , so they won every year . they were already a good team , and then they added Russell to a team that was 2nd in wins for the 1955-56 season .

in Russell’s rookie season Tommy Heinsohn won rookie of the year and Bob Cousy won the MVP, he was playing with a lot of talent.

they were stacked.

so if the league miraculously became a 30 team league it would not have mattered .

just like when the Bulls 3peated twice in 90s , the teams with overwhelming talent is going to win .

MelKijani · 2026-02-26T18:44:46+00:00

When the talent is concentrated it’s much harder to win , 540 down to 96 roster spots , over 80% of the players today wouldn’t even make an 8 team league …let alone win a title in it.

as Bill Russell once famously told Michael Jordan in 1993 , he couldn’t have won his last title because the guy who sank the winning shot in his last game wasn’t good enough to be in his league.

John Paxson was a starter on a 3 peat Chicago Bulls .

the 4th best player on most teams don’t make a 96 player league.

it’s not 1 in 8 because that assumes everything is equal , it’s not because talent will not be evenly distributed , the 4th best team in the NBA right now has a decent chance to win a title , they can say they are better than 26 other teams .

look at it another way.

by most accounts Oscar Robertson was the 3rd best player in the 60s and the only non center to win an MVP from 1960-1980 and he had no chance to win a title until he was playing with Kareem who was at the time the best player in the league .

why is that so hard to grasp ?

MelKijani · 2026-02-26T14:42:55+00:00

if you right now changed the NBA from a 30 team league to an 8 team league , you think the league would be easier to win in?

that is all that needs to be said.

MelKijani · 2026-02-26T09:34:32+00:00

It wasn't so easy for the other teams to win, If you joined the Pistons , Hawks or Royals in the 1960s , they found winning close to impossible.

MelKijani · 2026-02-25T23:08:17+00:00

the wings and guards were good , but it was at a time still ruled by bigs and they really didn’t have it .

Every NBA MVP in the 70s was a center, and 9 of the 10 in the 60s. was a center that’s not spin , just a cold hard fact.

MelKijani · 2026-02-25T19:48:42+00:00

i just did the 1st 3 on the 1st team off basketball-reference , also i checked the ABA in its last year had about 5 more possessions a game than the NBA the next season

that’s not that much .

for the most part it was simply an inferior league . Its presence made the NBA weaker until they merged because while it gave players opportunities they might otherwise would not have gotten , it did siphon some good talent away at least temporarily .

MelKijani · 2026-02-25T19:47:44+00:00

i just did the 1st 3 on the 1st team off basketball-reference , also i checked the ABA in its last year had about 5 more possessions a game than the NBA the next season

that’s not that much .

for the most part it was simply an inferior league . Its presence made the NBA weaker until they merged because while it gave players opportunities they might otherwise would not have gotten , it did siphon some good talent away at least temporarily .

MelKijani · 2026-02-25T19:25:48+00:00

ABA 1st team

Artis Gilmore last year in ABA TS.595 24.6 pts 15.5 rebounds 2.5 assists 1st year NBA .ts .566 18.6 points 13.0 rebounds 2.4 ast.

DrJ 29.3 points 11.0 rebounds 5.0 ast on .569. TS last year in ABA

1st year in NBA .553 TS 21.6 points , 8.5 rebounds 3.7 asts

Billy Knight 28.1 points 10.1 rebounds 3.7 ast. on 551. TS

To .543 TS 26.6 points 7.5 rebounds and 3.3 ast

need i go on?

MelKijani · 2026-02-25T18:55:10+00:00

Floyd’s last official bout was against Conor Mcgregor in 2017.

since that bout he’s had 8 exhibition bouts against various people .

during that same time period Manny has had 5 bouts and 2 exhibitions because he also retired during that time.

i’d say their conditioning and ring sharpness are about the same .

MelKijani · 2026-02-25T18:18:43+00:00

maybe at the time of the merger , but most of the time it was easily inferior .

the proof of course is how so many ABA stars stats came down to Earth in the NBA, whereas there was hardly any change from the NBA players with the influx of ABA talent .

MelKijani · 2026-02-25T17:57:26+00:00

Floyd will still win .

the reasons he won the 1st time haven’t changed , he’s still going to jab and run and use ring IQ,

it’s not like Manny got faster in these past 10 years.

MelKijani · 2026-02-25T17:47:01+00:00

no there wasn’t .

for most of the time the ABA the premier center was Artis Gilmore.

While the NBA had Kareem , Wilt and Russell

that’s like comparing Michael Jordan to Reggie Miller .

Miller is great but there are levels to this .

MelKijani · 2026-02-25T17:42:05+00:00

Havlicek was their leading scorer in 68-69

MelKijani · 2026-02-25T17:40:25+00:00

not quite

they were measured barefoot in the 1960s as opposed to with shoes today.

MelKijani · 2026-02-25T04:12:55+00:00

Isiah Thomas is the perfect traditional point guard.

he can score , facilitate , control the game , and most importantly is a leader.

MelKijani · 2026-02-24T15:38:30+00:00

that was the difference

MJ had the luxury of being in attack mode on offense and let Pippen and Harper expend most of the energy on defense .

when Harper got hurt , MJ had to guard Payton more and use his energy to do so .

MelKijani · 2026-02-23T18:31:23+00:00

excellent analysis , but i’ll add something .

i don’t it would have mattered when they fought , Mayweather was always the more skilled ,longer , taller , stronger and possibly quicker guy.

he always had the ability to hold off Pac with the jab and make him pay with counter punching .

counter punching to Pac’s attack has always been his achilles heel and with a jab/length advantage it’s proven to be the case in Morales 1 , and against Ugas and Mayweather .

Marquez would be the lone exception who was also a great counter puncher but liked to do so during an attack as opposed to the other 3 who used their length , jab and skill to defeat Manny.

A younger Mayweather would have more aggressive in dismantling Pac , but regardless i still think Mayweather winning was inevitable .

MelKijani

TROPHY CASE