There used to be a belief among a large number of fans that Floyd can only come forward against southpaws. Tonight he showed us a new wrinkle for lefties at the age of 36. We saw the potshotting stick and move Floyd. Legs clearly still there. Floyd even showed lateral movement. The southpaw left occasionally got through in the past. I can only remember one left Guerrero landed, and it wasn't very clean.
great jabbing and hooking from Floyd too. It completely owned Guerrero's jab. Floyd casually threw his left hook counter to Guerrero's jab. Guerrero couldn't do anything about it He owned Ortiz jab with his right. so many dimensions
I think against the previous southpaws he went against, barring Ortiz (who is converted), he had to walk them down due to their relative speed and athleticism. Guerrero feet and hands were not fast enough to force Floyd to cut the distance and walk him down, although he did do it before the point where I believe he hurt his hand. And as you could see, he was really hurting Guerrero with that tactic too. It was just a mismatch across the board.
That right hook he was throwing was a beauty He even lead with a right uppercut, he was on form today
I also saw a punch I've never seen from Floyd before. He threw the looping right hook (which he really whips by the way) from a weird angle kind of as he was moving back and from like his midsection. Anyone else notice this variant of his right hook?
I thought he looked better against ortiz. He moved more this time, but only throwing one shot sparingly instead of letting his hands go is not an improvement .
Floyd has no tells as someone on boxingnation pointed out. Robert had no idea when that right was coming down the pipe and that nullifies any advantage a southpaw has.
Agreed. I think another point is the extent to which Guerrero was stationary. There were no southpaw angles to fear. Once Floyd neutralized the right jab, few things came afterward, aside from some sloppy lunging combinations. So with a jab and lead right alone he was able to bounce around as he pleased. Ortiz did better than Guerrero did tonight.
I asked the same question watching it live. Why was Floyd throwing so sparingly? But it is for the best as he ages imo. Bernard Hopkins is very selective about what he throws, and he's lasting forever
Floyd did get comfortable as usual but i think it was because of Guerrero being a southpaw is the main reason by far why Floyd didnt throw one combination the whole fight. i counted 1 maybe 2, one-two shots otherwise all of his offense were single shots only.
I like your analogy but I have to say that Guerrero doesn't fight like a typical southpaw. He doesn't have a straight left really. It's always a hook. Nothing down the middle. He's not like Judah who throws down the middle.
I don't think Floyd will fight nearly as long as BHop, but IMO tonight was the BHop version of Floyd, if you get my meaning. Maximum efficiency.