Watching some of his fights and ive realized ive never seen a fighter as hard to hit as him. Even when hes not running and hes going toe to toe hes so damn hard to make a connection with.
Floyd fights a safety first defensive style. But most of his defense is because he has an insanely long reach. Plus no real desire to give an all action fight (which is his right). Basically.
His defense, his hand speed, and his ability to deliver a straight counter left keep people from landing. He can make you miss. He is going to land first due to his speed if both fire at the same time. If you miss he'll counter. Plus he's a south paw. Combine the above and he's a tough man to hit cleanly
You forgot about the two most important things that gives him success: His insane reach and his willingness to stink out fights. And when did Floyd become a southpaw?
Great vision punch anticipation Cat like reflexes and his ability to seem to be in range to hit but wasn't. Combine that with him mastering the shoulder roll and his countering ability it made him hard to hit.
He's without a doubt one of the best defensive fighters of all time, perhaps even the best, though I think you can make an argument that Whitaker was better. He clearly has great awareness of what is happening in the ring, he doesn't take his eyes off his opponent, even when slipping or ducking shots, he still has his eyes fixed on his opponent so he knows what's coming next. He's great at reading fighters so he can anticipate what they will do so he's usually one step ahead. He's mastered the shoulder roll which is a great defensive technique if you can become adept at it. While he has a great jab he doesn't need to rely on it and often uses his lead hand to take away an opponents jab meaning lesser fighters that have to rely on it to gauge range never find Mayweather's range because they can't establish the jab. Combine all that with a big reach and great movement and you have a fighter that is awfully hard to hit cleanly.
its more easy to avoid being hit and running then trying to get the knockout and putting yourself in the fire
Because unlike most fighters, he focused primarily on defense and making people miss in training more than he did landing punches. If you perfect those two things, then the other comes naturally, by making them pay for their mistake in missing you. Your punches, however light they may be, become more impactful when your opponent is lunging in and missing.
I think this is a big reason for it. Just scanning one of his pictures now and i never realized his arms are that long. Dudes lanky as **** lol.