Floyd Mayweather weakness

Glass hands and thats about it

 

If someone knows how to crack the Philly shell it's good night for him.

 

Whatever weaknesses he has he sure knew how to hide them.

I was always a big Mayweather fan, so I'm trying to rack my brain as objectively as possible.

I guess you could knock him for his low punch output, and lack of combination punching, but I don't really know if you could call that a weakness, as he controlled fights that way, and I believe his low punch output is a big reason why you seldom seen him tire late in fights

 

But the question is: who could do this?

 

Thank you, but don't confuse low punch output with low work rate...
Mayweather was always working, he just knew how to conserve his stamina...
But you could see the mental warfare going on round after round and could cut the tension with a knife....that's another untold Mayweather attribute, he would break guys down mentally and basically get them to quit on themselves...
Sadly, this was best on display against one of my all time favorite fighters, Shane Mosely...
Also to a lesser extent Chico Corrales, and he also made Zab Judah meltdown, despite Judah arguably winning the first half of the fight

 

That was just an excuse to get the pain killing Xylopane shots He was ok up to 135 when he went up he found his power was practically not existant. He couldn't stand & fight so he started his running & dancing displays to get undeserved wins.He never had the stones to be a real champion in my book

 

Antonio Margarito would have done the same to Floyd as he did to Cotto. Walk him down & beat him to a pulp till he takes a knee & quits. Difference is Cotto could punch Floyd pitty patted. Margarito would laugh at him.

 

Floyd is very much the modern day version of Sugar Ray Robinson when it comes to weaknesses, which is to say there pretty much are none. Whatever ones he has, he always makes adjustments mid-round to get rid of them or atleast minimize them enough that the other guy can no longer take advantage of them. He went 50-0 for a reason.

The only opponent I've seen who really took it to Floyd where he had trouble adjusting was when he went up against Maidana. So I would say someone who has an unpredictable brawler style might be able to exploit Floyd, but he still pretty much beat Maidana even then.

 

Maidana was hitting him on the tips of his elbows, on the top of his head, behind the ears, on the forearms, on the shoulders on the belt guard, on the thighs, in the cup, and on his gloves.

It was a glorious day for brawlers. That capped off with the relic that some say Marcos' warrior spirit went so far as to knocking Floyd's tooth out and that he encapsulated it on a necklace of sorts. That or else he bit him haha.

After the fight Floyd was butht hurt from all the damage inflicted. Poor floyd, boxing wise solid, but when it comes to Maidana he had to bite the bullet and take his lumps, twice!!!

 

I think Floyd had plenty of weaknesses but it is about finding the rights fighter to exploit them. I think Mayweather is brilliant but I am always dubious when someone is labelled unbeatable. One could argue that Floyd had no significant weaknesses as he never lost. So I think we have to think if we are discussing weaknesses as far as his career and place in history and weaknesses that former greats may have exploited, which current fights did not manage, for whatever reason. All fighters, however good, can have good or bad days or fight someone who simply has the wrong style for them. There have been many posts discussing fighters through history we think could beat Floyd, on the right night. On certain nights SSR, Ali, Chavez, Whitaker, Jones etc were as close to unbeatable and technically flawless as anyone could wish. Floyd had a handful of awesome nights were he displayed no weaknesses but others where his opponents where capable of finding chinks in his armor, but not enough to win.

Others know far more than me as to the specific techniques used but as a general fan it seems his hardest fights were against volume punchers who outworked him. One weakness could be Floyd's lack of work rate, he aimed for the technically perfect shots and I am sure to a lot of fans these mean less than the number of blows thrown by Castillo and Maidana in their fights. Of course it is hardly a weakness if the judges score the fights as a win for him but I posted a thread a while back about how I found it pretty amazing how he had never lost a controversial points decision, as this has happened so often in the past to technically brilliant boxers, the most obvious example being Whitaker. I feel he was so brilliant as a promoter and made everyone so much money he avoided some losses that in other eras he would have lost (fairly or otherwise).

Given that he seems to have issues with high volume punchers who don't give him any breathing room and out work him (and keep in mind that after the first 5 rounds he turned it around vs Maidana and totally dominated the remaining rounds IMO and also the Castillo I fight was still extremely close, even though I felt Castillo edged it) I feel fights like Pryor, Duran, Armstrong and Chavez could out muscle him, cut off his angles and simply throw too many punches. Each of those fighters seemed to have inexhaustible engines and could maintain the pressure which Castillo and Maidana could not. Of coruse all these match up depend on the weight and many other factors. I also mentioned in my Mayweather vs Zivic thread about how Mayweather would do against a dirty fighter , although this would have to be a hypothetical match up in the 40s or 50s as these days a Zivic would be thrown out of there in 2 rounds!

Not a weakness as such but I always wondered how he would do against someone as fast as him, but also with a higher punch rate. Fighters like Meldrick Taylor, Willie Pep, Pernell Whitaker, Hector Camacho, SSL come to mind who were extremely quick but also threw combinations while Mayweather (at his laziest) would often rely on 4 or 5 killer punches thrown singly.

Finally an obvious weakness would be his smaller statue. Against a big WW like Hearns he would simply be physically outgunned. Although of course he did fight Alvarez and win (admittedly a very different fighter to Tommy). Any big framed physically imposing WW going on LMW on fight night may give him problems.

I will admit that many of these scenarios are based on me thinking of Floyd on his weakest nights, at his best all these fights are IMO pick em'!

 

Always suspected his safety first style was designed to protect a shaky chin (like bad hands, a Mayweather family trait).

 

Interesting! No-one really discusses how Floyd would do against a really heavy handed fighter. I don't think he faced anyone with single shot KO power did he? While he probably out boxes many of the big punchers it only takes one shot to turn a fight around, just look at Herol Graham vs Julian Jackson.

 

A great jab and length.