Floyd has the most important intangible...

Mayweather let Castillo crowd him and work his body all night. Sanchez was a master of controlling distance and finding himself space and time to pick the right punches. Whitaker just had far more in his locker than Mayweather. If Pea found himself losing rounds as Floyd did during the Castillo fight, Pea would adjust and change his approach, he wouldn't continue to let the rounds drift by and make the cards close. Pea was able to do this because he was one of the most versatile and skilled technicians of all-time. He had a fantastic jab, great movement and outboxing skills, but he could also step inside, fight in the pocket, and get his punches off while taking very little in return. Against a JLC standard fighter, Whitaker wouldn't get into a tight spot, but if he did he was more than capable of mixing it up on the night, adapating to his opponent, confusing his opponent, and outfighting his opponent. Floyd failed to do this in that fight, and in the rematch he ran the whole 12 rounds and stunk the place out. A hugely underwhelming performance considering it was the crunch fight against the guy who in the eyes of many had beaten him. He never mastered Jose Luis Castillo.

Castillo was one-dimensional. That can't even be debated. He was a very effective fighter, but he always fought the same way. Other very good fighters struggled with him, but a truly cerebral fighter would not. Whitaker would not have struggled with Castillo at 135, not if they fought each other 100 times.

:huh Have you actually seen Chavez vs Whitaker??? I'm guessing not, as you seem to be under the bizarre impression that the draw verdict was not a hideous miscarriage of justice. I scored it 118-110 Whitaker, he decisively and impressively outboxed Chavez. And Chavez was a far more effective boxer than Castillo, a higher class fighter in every way.

 

I'm pretty glad of that, judging by your posts on this thread.

 

Every so often, amongst all the junk, you find someone who understands boxing and knows how to express it. I salute your fine post sir. :happy

 

I've been spreading this word since I came to this forum. Thank Christ someone else on the General sees this.

 

For a start, I'm pretty dubious about how much this 'injury' affected Floyd that night. When Floyd actually stepped inside, engaged his man, and fought back in the 11th round, he did very well. Had he fought like that the entire fight, he could've beaten Castillo. If he was seriously injured, he wouldn't have been able to fight like that in the penultimate round of a hard-fought contest.

And to be honest, I don't think Castillo's success against Floyd can be attributed to mere physicality. As I said (and listed) earlier, some fights are won with physicality, but I don't think this was one of them. I think Castillo's style and tactics had a big part to play, it wasn't purely his brawn. Castillo always fights the same way - but it is a way that Floyd finds problematic. Hatton fights in a similar style, and it took Floyd 10 rounds to tap that chin, whereas Pacquiao wiped the floor with him in no time. Is Pac that much better than Floyd? No, there is not a huge gap between them, it's just that Pac finds that style easy to beat whereas Floyd has found it tricky. Castillo at 135 was a much better fighter than Hatton at 147, hence why Castillo gave Floyd a harder fight.

Floyd didn't master Castillo. To master someone means to do what Hopkins did to Pavlik or Calzaghe did to Lacy etc, Floyd didn't come anywhere remotely close to mastering Castillo. I had JLC winning the 1st fight by 2 points, I had Floyd winning the 2nd by 4 points, so over 24 rounds Floyd was up by 2. That's a tiny margin over 2 fights.

That is actually one of the main reasons (maybe even the main one) why I don't think Floyd has the elite ATG abilities of a Whitaker or a Leonard.

When Whitaker was robbed against Ramirez, he came back and smoked Ramirez.
When Duran was beaten by DeJesus, he came back and brutalized him twice.
When Roy Jones had his 1st loss to Montell Griffin, he came back and blew Griffin away in a round.
etc etc etc

But when Floyd's greatness was called into question in a similar manner by Castillo, he came back to run down the clock for 12 rounds, stink the place out and take a dull decision.

When Pea, Duran, Jones, and countless other true ATGs had their greatness questioned in a fight, they came back hungrier, angrier, and more brilliant than ever, and emphatically put their opponents to the sword by showing their own particular star qualities. Whitaker dominated Ramirez by being more elusive and skilful than ever, Duran broke DeJesus down by being more ferocious and forceful than ever, Jones blitzed Griffin by being faster and more explosive than ever. And Floyd disappointed everyone (especially the HBO commentary team as I remember) by being more over-cautious and safety-first than usual. It seemed he didn't believe he could beat JLC by engaging him and asserting his superiority, so he fought like Paulie Malignaggi or something, running running running all night long, not Floyd at his best at all.

A score of 115-113 is completely unjustifiable. No way did JCC win 5 rounds of the 12. He got totally outboxed. I would reiterate though that Chavez was a higher level fighter than Castillo anyway, that isn't even up for debate.

 

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