It’s often said, ‘Like father, like son.‘ But does the phrase apply to a mentor-mentee relationship as well? In an interview, Curmel Moton revealed his ‘top five’ greatest boxers of all time. Needless to say, it was all but bereft of one particular name: Mike Tyson. Now, given the frosty rapport between his mentor, Floyd Mayweather, and the former heavyweight champion, would that be surprising?

Moton, who will turn 19 in another five days, will make his second ring appearance this year when he takes on Renny Viamonte Mastrapa at the Michelob Ultra Arena tomorrow. The fight, his third eight-round duel, takes place on the Caleb Plant-Jose Armando Resendiz headlined PBC-Amazon Prime card. Earlier, the young prodigy had demolished Frank Zaldivar on the Benavidez-Morrell card of February 1.

Mike Tyson remains on the sidelines

A few days ago, a ProBoxingFans reporter caught up with Moton while he was training at his gym. Over a range of topics, the duo finally converged on the much-debated GOAT list. Reflecting on his picks, the Salt Lake City-born fighter blurted out the first name: Floyd Mayweather. The second name followed: Sugar Ray Leonard. “Lennox Lewis, Aaron Pryor, and then Sugar Ray Robinson,” Moton concluded. The response drew a string of reactions when ProBoxingFans shared the footage through an Instagram post.

If one user stated, “Muhammad Ali, Rocky Marciano, Roberto Durán, Mike Tyson 👀,” then another minced no words: “Bros acting like Mike Tyson never existed 🤡🤡🤡.” What’s interesting here is Curmel Moton had chimed in for a similar exercise some two years ago.

While it resembled the current list by excluding Mike Tyson, it nonetheless differed vis-à-vis the inclusions as well.

Not unlike the words the Guru spoke long ago

This activity took place soon after Curmel Moton knocked out Hunter Turbyfill on the David Benavidez-Demetrious Andrade card. So one of the followers asked, “@curmelmoton1, who are some of your favorite fighters?” In response, the young fighter, who made his professional debut barely 2 months before, replied, “1. Floyd Mayweather 2. Evander Holyfield 3. Sugar Ray Leonard 4. Aaron Pryor 5. James Toney.” Like how it happened the last time, a barrage of questions followed, asking him why Mike Tyson was not included.

Given that Curmel Moton is a young fighter still trying to find his footing in the larger boxing landscape, it’s understandable that his inspirations might continue to shift. If it was Evander Holyfield yesterday, then it’s Lennox Lewis today. His responses should be taken in the same vein as something highly subjective.

Close inspection reveals, in many ways, Curmel Moton’s choices tally with the list his mentor and living legend, Floyd Mayweather, revealed some time ago. So during an interview on Instagram Live, Fat Joe asked Mayweather, “Who’s the five greatest boxers of all time?”

As the undefeated former world champion pondered, the rapper filled in the first blank space, “We gonna have to go, Money Mayweather. Hey, let’s go four more.” So Mayweather added, “We gotta go, Pernell Whitaker… I’m going Roberto Duran.” Switching over to the heavyweight division, he picked Larry Holmes. Like Moton, the Olympian also had Aaron Pryor on his top 5 all-time list.

Perhaps the thoughts and ideas of the guru do percolate down below to the disciple as well.

Who are your top 5 all-time great boxers in history?