Guys in history who would beat Mayweather at WELTER: Serious input necessary...

We all realize that Mayweather is great, bla bla bla...

Now this is a thread about the people that can beat him at WELTER...

I'll start with Henry Armstrong.

Henry Armstrong is considered for good reason as one of the top ATG fighters of all time. He spent a great deal of his career at welter and pretty much dominated all of his competition.

He was the type of fighter who had once in a life time stamina and the skills necessary to utilize it in a way where he could produce punishment.

His game was on the inside, but unlike today's maulers, and easy to hit fighters, Armstrong managed to be an elusive target on the inside because of his stance, and the way he consistantly blocked shots.

Now if Hatton who fits the proflie of a mauler who is easy to hit and is basically clueless on what to do on the inside against any opposition of notable skill, in the sense that all he knows how to do is hit and hold, could manage to close the distance repeatedly against Mayweather, there is no doubt in my mind Armstrong wouldn't be able to do the same.

Yet Armstrong would actualy manage to put some effective work on the inside and make Mayweather have to make some serious adjustments in his gameplan, using his legs of course when he can, but also attempt to use his strength to create room and punching power to hold Armstrong back.

And while I think Mayweather's strenght is alright and his punching power is at least okay, it's just not enough to keep Armstrong, a true 15 round fighter with a solid chin and out of control workrate off of him.

Mayweather has never had to fight this type of opposition in his career, and considering his lack of power and strength, he will be in for the fight of his lifetime and probably lose by decision.

This would be a fight where we would see Mayweather's heart get tested, but he could only escape this fight by suriving because either way you slice it, styles make fights.

And Armstrong's style, and physical stature, IE being short, and the way he utilized his height, would make him hell on Mayweather on the inside.

NEXT...

 

Well, I mentioned an aggressive inside fighter that would beat Mayweather, but now it's time for another guy, who many believe is an obvious choice who had a much different style, in Tommy Hearns.

Now, will Mayweather sign the contract...

For real though, Tommy is a nightmare for Mayweather.

For as good as Mayweather is, he is not an effective aggressive fighter, and it's the only time I ever see him out of his element. To me, this is why he's not on the same level as a guy like Sugar Ray Robinson who not only had much stearner opposition to prove his prowess against, but had the type of multi dimensional tallent where he could be ridiculous on defense or going foward.

Tommy is a very conservative puncher, and has even been sighted as having stamina problems when he was too aggressive.

It goes with the territory though, when you throw hard, it requires more effort to get off.

But Tommy made up for it by being very precise, and having gifted handspeed that made it extremelly difficult for his opponent to get away.

And when he had his opponent hurt, well....they were ****ed.

Mayweather wouldn't be able to do much against Tommy. He could stay defensive and manage to survive possibly for the majority of the fight, but if Tommy decides to turn it on, which he inevitably will, he'll eventually catch up to Mayweather, penetrate his defense, (likely with right hand left uppercut combinations as his finisher), and put Mayweather down for the count.

It's just that Tommy is too long and too hard hitting for Floyd to win on his defense alone.. Floyd would have to use his legs more than ever before, and I'm not sure he's proved that he can utilize them against the type of opponent who can reach him and hurt him.

And if Floyd goes aggressive, man....I'm not sure if it's in Floyd, but can we say GAME OVER?

To me this is just a nightmare match up.