Bye, Felicia: Retrospective Glance @ "Pretty Boy" Floyd Mayweather Jr.

In all, I do agree with the ratings assessments. Floyd's ring IQ at 9.5 is most reasonable also, given that when it came to stylistic threats, he didn't seem to learn from his previous lessons.
Case in point, Maidana was able to bamboozle Floyd in the second fight in the same ways...the reason why Maidana did worse the second time around is because Maidana and Robert Garcia made the big mistake of trying to emphasise boxing with Floyd, when they should have taken a 'point-scoring' approach. Heavy in aggression (which Floyd had no answer for, and whereby Maidana threw seven but landed 2 but those two shots were still decent and Maidana was the effective aggressor), for the sake of point-scoring, Maidana should have preserved his stamina and stayed away from risky exchanges until the end of the round, attacking only when he was ready). The second Maidana fight was not about Floyd's intelligence, abilities etc. it was more about what Maidana didn't do.

Floyd becomes static and shuts down when you throw him around the way Castillo, Cotto and Maidana did...even Baldomir to a smaller extent.


The 9.5 assessment also makes sense when you consider that Floyd's defensive strategies involved more 'running' shall we say, rather than staying in range like a Rigondeaux. Floyd doesn't know what to do, Rigondeaux knows how to weather such a storm and dictate it.

 

Floyd I is the easiest one to rate. Early Floyd is easier to rate because his competition was tougher.

Pretty much from after 2002 on his competition was a total joke. How can you evaluate a fighter who doesn't fight the best guys or waits them out till they get old?

Plenty of fighters have looked incredible, until they step it up.

 

Not sure that bit about Maidana is true.

Mayweather fought much of the first fight in the pocket - trying to make it a more exciting fight, I think. The second fight, he used the entirety of the ring, moving and hitting. Maidana looked worse because he couldn't stay within range to throw those swarming 10 punch combinations.