Could Mayweather have hung with Chavez in the pocket?

If you look at the fight you will see that at a certain point Floyd complains about his shoulder, around round 5 I believe. And I believe he was told to keep doing what he is doing and suck it up. And he fought him with the injury for the remainder. There is NO coincidence that when this occurred the fight became tougher, whereas before it was not as much of a struggle.

And he won a clear decision in the rematch. Are we looking at this objectively, with all the info we know imputed into the fight?

 

Yah.

 

Nah.

 

I actually favour Chavez over Mayweather period, never mind FMJ trying to fight in the pocket.

Chavez aint just a tough, reckless brawler, he was great defensively & never wasted a punch + the accumalative effect of his shots was devastating.

If Floyd tried to fight in the pocket with JCC, he more or less hands Chavez the victory & puts himself in danger of not being able to finish the fight.

 

Easier to out muscle than Castillo? I completely disagree. Nonetheless, to me it's hard to pick a winner for this one.

 

Whitaker's fight was not the chavez that would have fought Mayweather (not natural prime weigth class) and Mayweather is definitely not Whitaker.

As for Randall, yeah JCC was only 32 but had over 85 fights under his belt, what fighter can attes to fighting that much and not losing. He was definitely past his prime

Taylor... we don't know how great Taylor could have been, possibly better than Whitaker and Mayweather. And lets forget about the controversial stoppage. One think that is for sure is that Taylor after the first chavez fight would never be the same fighter again.

De la Hoya... no doubt that Chavez was on his way out.

 

The Chavez of the Rosario fight was a machine, I dont see any version of Mayweather beating that guy.

Even the 140 lb Chavez in his best form would likely bring the sort of constant pressure that Mayweather would not like one bit, it would be a great fight but I give Floyd a better chance vs Pryor than Chavez as JCC had the better defence & wasted fewer punches.

 

I dont base my opinion that Chavez would beat Mayweather on the first Castillo fight, the 2nd is just as definitive. Even a fully fit Mayweather still had a tough time in there and just straight up shut up shop for long periods of that fight.

In 24 rounds against Castillo he was hit more than I had ever seen him get hit before and probably since.

He had a hard time against Castillo's intelligent pressure which is about 50 IQ points lower than Chavez's in his prime.

 

Chavez was a great fighter, but limited athletically. JC Chavez was not quick with his hands or feet, and really did not have fight changing one punch power. I think Mayweather would take the decision here.

 

1. Chavez was near prime and got completely schooled and beat up by Whitaker, Chavez could fight Sweet Pea 100 times in 5 different weight classes and lose every time. Whitaker had had more fights than JCC FYI (500 amateur bouts, JCC had zero). Like I say FMJ is on a similar level to Whitaker (FMJ has worse radar/footwork/workrate), (FMJ has better speed, orthodox defense, power, strength)

2. Randal had more fights than JCC, FMJ has JCC didn't fight amateurs so had. I suppose you could counter JCC had a few more amateur fights. The manner of the cheating quit job and no rubber match from JCC was disgusting

3. Taylor was an athlete, a speester without a boxing brain or good enough defense. He would never have been on the level as a Whitaker/FMJ and would be taken out in 4 rounds by Norris a few years later. Its interesting JCC didnt go near Taylor until he had 2 more stoppages defeats

4. Agreed although he wasnt shot and they were humiliating losses

 

Why do you think Floyd had more power than Whitaker? Ditto strength. When did we ever see Whitaker get pushed around pre-Trinidad?

I also fail to see why better "orthodox defense" has anything to do with this matchup. Whitaker was good because he DIDN'T have orthodox defense. A lot of fighters had better "orthodox defense" than Whitaker, but that doesn't mean that they were on his level.

I also think Whitaker was about as fast as they come. If anything his footwork was "slower" than Floyd's, but still much better.

 

Mayweather is one of the greatest defensive fighters of all time and perhaps the best of the past 20 years. He has the ability to stand right in front of his opponents an not get hit, slipping and deflecting his opponents blows.

He would do the same to chavez, fustrating him and giving him a boxing lesson while doing it.

 

PBF would have beat Chavez-embarrassingly easy

 

Not prime v prime he wouldnt.

Its not unreasonable that Floyd could win over Chavez but I think Chavez beats him prime v prime.

Neither man would find it easy as both are 2 of the best fighters of all time.

Floyd has had hard fights before & no fighter ever had an easy time vs a prime JCC so you do the math.

:thumbsup

 

Gotta agree with this.