Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Lorenzo Aragón, July 31st 1996

The only thing we agree on is that Floyd was attempting to counter the right hand with his left hook. It didn't work. Aragón clipped him before the hook was even halfway to its target (Floyd never got a chance to land it). The fall and his body language preceding it are clearly the result of the shot landing, and where on earth do you see Floyd's legs tangled?

I find it telling how 3 of the biggest PBF ride or die fans of all time posted in the first couple of pages (Michigan Warrior, Pimp C, and bballchump11) and not one questioned the legitimacy of the knockdown. In fact, you're the first person to ever do so in the history of the world, AFAIK. Not even any troll has attempted to spin it as being a "slip". Just admit that Mayweather got dropped fair and square, and then if you must give it a positive spin mention how in the subsequent 21 years of his career (including his entire pro campaign) it never happened again.

 

Here, I've distilled the moment in question into a GIF for ease of expedient ocular digestion.

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Does a single other person on the planet, besides MVC!, find this knockdown in the least ambiguous?

 

Well, I do think Aragón's connect was cleaner (and made up a greater share of the ratio contributing to Mayweather going down, in conjunction with his compromised balance on both occasions) than Judah's glancing right hook, which also probably ought to have been ruled a KD but was more of what I'd call an incidental/flash KD. Mayweather did get the "assist" by putting himself in position with his guard down while backing away from the ropes (and queuing up a hook, brazenly underestimating the hand speed, timing, and trigger instincts of Aragón) but no more so than Hatton in turn gave him the assist by putting himself in a bad position to make possible the famous Turn-buckling incident. Floyd wasn't seeing cartoons birdies & stars but he was caught with a short hard quick shot from a known strong guy, and did convulse before and during his descent, so I'd say it stung. I can probably count how many punches he took in the pros that were that jarring and have at least one hand with a couple of digits left over.

 

It really isn't.

 

Well...nobody follows me on Twitter, so there was low turnout for my poll, but it was unanimous.

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100% of respondents (er, both of them) voted "knockdown".

 

Today is the fight's 24-year anniversary (and the thread's seventh).

 

Happy tin anniversary, my thread.