I've noticed that lateral movement is a young man's game. Guys who rely on a lot on that seem to abruptly decline or must adapt their style around age 31 or 32 to compensate. Its probably the first thing to go in a fighter besides reflexes. Two recent fighters who used their legs were Pacquiao and Mayweather. Manny Pac around age 31 changed from a beserk volume puncher with in and out rythm to a boxer puncher. And Mayweather around the same age transformed from a pocket fighter who used his legs to move around the ring at will, to a negative fighter who potshotted and clinched his way to UD. What other fighters have transformed their styles like that? Also I think Loma will have to do the same thing or become washed up in about 3-4 years or so. Because he's all about angles and lateral quickness. Which is going to leave him.
Mayweather has always been a notably negative fighter, even at 130. The problem arises when people watch his old highlights and assume 'oh, he was actually pretty aggressive' when that couldn't be further from the truth (athough he was a little more aggressive, obviously, as he has a running potshotting style now). Fighters who were able to get by on their faster reflexes, explosiveness and speed must change their style to adapt. Both Pac and Mayweather have managed to carve out great 'second' careers as a result but are also lucky they haven't been checkmated by a young blood of relatively similar talent. I agree with regards to Loma. Once Loma is washed up, he'll turn far more towards a defensive style, the likes of a bigger Shakur Stevenson (by then) could end up taking him.
Ali is the only one that springs to mind. When his reflexes were gone he would just stand in front of people with his guard up in a shell. Called it his rope-a-dope style. God, it was ugly.
Mayweather has always been a negative fighter I agree. But the difference between old Floyd and young Floyd in their willingness to dish out punishment is noticeable in my opinion. He would under the right circumstances try and beat up his opponents back in the day. Typically that was when they were fatigued, frustrated and their offense completely neutralized. Once he had Corrales and Gatti in this predicament he went for some offense. Notice though he had Canelo in that same circumstance, but the older Floyd was content to just being negative the whole night. Now against Castillo he never went offensive because he couldn't completely shut down Castillo. As it pertains to Loma I don't know how he will look in 3-4 years when the legs go. He looks awesome now because the legs are. But at 29 given his style he's at the tail end of his prime. So he's got to get as many legacy fights as he can now. Its funny, because a guys like Marquez, GGG or Hopkins who don't rely on lateral movement and reflexes are just getting started at 29. And for a guy like Loma 29 means the clock is ticking.
A guy like Maravilla his whole defense seemed to be hung up at his movement, with his arms down low. He couldn't adjust it seems, and even RJJ did a lot better on that regard. Of course he had the knee injuries that limited his mobility to almost non-existent. Ali is the obvious choice here, but it was horrid and he could get away with it because of his name.
Amir Khan has changed from being a total mover to moving far less now since he went with Hunter. Andre Dirrell isn't using his legs as much either and trying to set down on his punches more. Andre Ward is much more flat footed at LHW than he was at SMW.
