Against Cotto he sort of had his hands full. He got busted up a bit. It was still a top performance. Is he actually declining though? I know he's nowhere near his prime anymore, but is he overall on the decline? Jail probably took its toll. Mayweather may be unsure how he performs coming back from that.
I think he got bettered between the Ortiz and Cotto fight from being more active, but the opponent was tougher. I think he is slipping though
He's too flat-footed and lays on the ropes for very extended period of time now. I think he's brilliant when it comes to fight off the ropes against orthodox boxers, but he need to stay in the center of the ring against southpaws. If he try to use the rope-a-dope on Manny, Manny has enough speed to tee off on him.
Since Shane Mosley he has been seen to have slowed. At least that's been my impression over the past several years. He is no longer consistantly mobile. His legs seem tired. Fortunately his skill is still above most of his competetion, but it's getting close to retirement time imo.
His legs and reflexes have slowed. He depends on the jab to get off first. He's still the best in the world, but he has holes that can be exploited.
Yes. He has visibly slowed since his fights with Marquez and Mosley. And in those fights, he was visibly slowed from his younger days. It wouldn't surprise me if he looked worse than ever from a physical standpoint in his next fight. In fact, I'd expect it.
His legs are gone and it's only gonna get worse with each fight. He was a better fighter against Cotto than Ortiz but he was always facing a better fighter than Ortiz.
Declining? Of course, its been about that time for it to happen for a while now. But I ain't to concerned about it. It will make the fights more interesting. I still don't get people's obsession with the Cotto fight. For everything Cotto did, not once did it seem like Floyd was bothered in the slightest. Dude was sitting in his corner leaking blood from his nose and he had a huge grin on his face. He wasn't complaining about pain, he wasn't gasping for air, etc. I bet all fighters wish they could decline like that. Cotto definitely got to Floyd's body on occasion and I was surprised that during the last few rounds Floyd was still very much as energized as he was at the beginning of the fight. Nazeem was right. Floyd's true gift is his conditioning.
