Floyds Decline

Floyd shows us how versatile he is by walking down a speedy skilled slugger like Mosley and completely neutralizing his offense, then people say Floyd has declined.

He also showed us that he can take a punch in that fight and knows what to do when hurt.

 

Well the most notable one to me is head footwork, but I think that he can still use them and they are still fast, but he just uses his legs more efficiently and only moves just enough to keep his distance.

Then the next thing that sticks out is his work rate, but that could just be from moving up in weight and also emphasizing defense more and not wasting punches

His hand speed has noticeably dropped off since he was at 130, but that is expected since that was 10 years and 17 pounds ago.

It's really hard to figure what changes he made to his game for tactical reasons, or what came from just moving up in weight or what is just from age

 

Floyd believed in selling himself by trying to be an exciting KO creating fighter back when he was at 130, this was shared by Merchant during a commentary.

He then saw the results of the ODLH fight and realized having a personality outside of the ring is a better way to sell instead of being a risky trigger happy fighter.

 

Other than not moving around as much - to be expected as you get into your mid thirties - I've not seen any hint of decline in Floyd. His reflexes, handspeed, stamina, general awareness, etc, are all there. Him taking the past 16 months won't be bothering him, either. It's not like he was forced to sit out all of this time. He chose to do it. It works for him. It allows him to rest his body and not exhaust it like he could do 10 years ago.

Expect him to look as good as he was in the Mosley fight, against Ortiz.

 

yeah I remember him saying that. I think his style also comes from his size now.

He was average and maybe a little bigger than the competition at 130. He then outgrew the division and fought at 135. The reason he went to 140 and 147 was for bigger fights, not because he outgrew the division.

It's kinda sad, because he was hungry earlier in his career, but ran out of challenges and kept moving up in weight trying to find a big fight and got desperate enough to call out a damn middleweight when he was still a light welterweight.

 

That's another thing. He wasn't moving around as much against Mosley, simply because he chose not to. He stood his ground and Mosley was confused as ****. The few times when he needed to step away from Mosley, he did it successfully. His legs haven't gone at all, in my opinion. It was only 6/7 months prior when he was dancing around the ring against JMM like an 18 year old fresh from winning the gold in the Olympics.

 

The only that has declined is his all round speed.

 

I like your avatar. Did you make it yourself? I think you could make an ATG ESB troll.:yep

 

Yup. Just made it now :good

 

I'm not saying he's declining really. All fighter's hand speed goes down as they get older and go up in weight, so that's the only thing I'll say that has declined and he is still really fast. But at 130, he would throw shots and you wouldn't see his hand move in the air.

I agree with everything you're saying though, I'm just pointing out a few things that you can say have declined, but really it's just Floyd choosing not to do it rather than he can't

 

Personally, I think the end of Mayweather's prime was against Hatton. I don't think he's been as sharp as he was in that fight. Then again, that could be due to the layoff. That's why I think this is a really good fight he has coming up. His last two fights were against older guys who didn't have the energy to push him hard every round. Ortiz will do that. Now Ortiz is no match for a peak Mayweather. However, we just don't know how close Mayweather is to his peak. I think we'll find out September 17th.

 

Legs tend to go before handspeed, and I think what we're seeing is a fighter who understands his body well enough to disguise whatever slippage there has been.

Floyd is a lot like Hopkins that way. Bernard is cagey enough that he didn't appear to have lost as much as he actually did between Trinidad and De La Hoya, and it wasn't until he faced another top-shelf athlete in Jermain Taylor that it became painfully obvious.

I don't see decline in Mayweather's legs yet, but apparently he does because he changed his fighting style despite not needing to. I do see decline in Pacquiao's legs because he can't fight without using them.

 

Move back down to 140 when they're gone and go back to trading with smaller men. Show us the puncher that we all really know he is.:deal