A look back at Oscar-Floyd and a breakdown of Cotto-Mayweather

Interesting...my favorite parts:

"Regardless, the first three punches Oscar threw in that second round were jabs and Mayweather, suddenly, was banished from the center of the ring."

He darts back with head and body and momentarily gives up the support of his leading foot. When Juan Manuel Marquez fought Mayweather what meager success he had was born of feinting, feinting Mayweather out of position then chasing him with a long right hand. This is a punch that a less experienced fighter wouldn’t chuck at Money if he boxed him for forty rounds, but Marquez knew that once he had feinted Mayweather out of position and into a lean or a slip for a nonexistent punch he became, momentarily, just like any other fighter. For Oscar, it is worth more than it would be worth to Marquez because it is a second layer in his controlling offence. It is not something that scores De La Hoya any points, but it leads Mayweather a little further down the garden path, it’s a secondary way to take control of distance and timing, Mayweather territory.

Cotto showed a good marriage of elements of the pre- and post- Steward stances against Margarito, fighting early in attacking spurts using what Steward had taught him to stay on balance and mobile before widening his stance and sitting down on more punches as he tired later in the fight. This interested me because I remembered Genaro Hernandez talking about how he would fight a rematch with Mayweather after their 1998 super featherweight WBC title confrontation. Genaro felt he had fought the wrong fight that night, that if he were to fight him again, “I’d be the counterpuncher. I’d make him come to me.”

This raised an eyebrow for me:

"Undoubtedly tough, I do not think that Cotto has, for want of a better phrase, elite heart."

I think Cotto's heart, in his prime of the Torres fight as an example, was more than elite, it was extraordinary. Whether he has recaptured that fire remains to be seen.

I think that the parts that mention Cotto's failure to adjust his jab to his laterally-minded dimension disregard the fact that his power punches can now be delivered on the move and off of angles. The DLH plan will not carry him through, the same way it did not carry Oscar through; by the 6th, he can't be planless, he needs to be mobile and confident in exploring other avenues for success. I think the article was great, but left a bit to be desired as to what Cotto could do differently outside of the parameters of a jab-heavy pressure fight. It briefly touches upon Hernandez regretting he didn't force Floyd to take the lead, but stops there and doesn't expand on what else Cotto can offer besides a copied blueprint of a much taller man.

Thanks for posting! Very much enjoyed reading it.

 

I get the article, makes sense, in theory we could have something here, but...in all honesty I'd take that version of DLH over this version of Cotto. I just don't see what Cotto has or can bring that will trouble floyd.

 

bogo isn't no Floyd cheerleader. If anything, he has underrated and overlooked some of Mayweather's skills in the past.

Hell no Cotto(e) doesn't have an elite heart. Someone like Joe Frazier had an elite heart.

 

I think Mayweather being a 35 yr old part time fighter has to catch up to him sooner or later, & Cotto could be in the right place at the right time here.

 

I suppose I can't help but agree that Cotto really isn't willing to die in there like Ali or Frazier might have been.

In terms of the shift in tactics not working, I suppose that means you value Floyd's pressure over Cotto's effective mobility. That dynamic is what decides it, I believe.

As far as being a cheerleader, I'm a huge fan, and I like the challenge of taking a fighter's mold and stylistically matching it up with an opponent, especially one like Floyd who has the mystique of his aura. Believe me, I appreciate what Floyd does and can do in the ring to a great extent, but so many posters focus on his success without really stopping to think about the actual elements of his style that constitute his identity, so I'm encouraged to remind people he's human and beatable and that boxing is conducted through habituated movements, not vague terms like "speed" and "Ring IQ."

Don't ever hesitate to post more of your work in the future!

 

don't worry this bothers me too, especially when people talk about power like it's the end all to boxing.

 

Word!

 

is floyd still capable of feinting and then throwing the leaping left hook?

 

Really enjoyed reading this thread.
Keep the posts coming

 

From what I've seen, yes.