Strategically Better for Mayweather to Walk Down Many Opponents?

Well, the ability to fight off the back foot, counter and time people is the highest level of skill one can display in boxing IMO. I think if Floyd's legs were still there, he would fight a more safety based fight but he's 35 and he's doing what he has to do. But his skill level is so high, he's still an amazing fighter fighting more flat footed.

 

He can only walk down over hyped kids, old fighters, and blown up lightweights.

If Floyd try walk down Cotto..he will be beaten up but judges will give it to him.

He gets knocked out early if he try to walk down Pacman

 

I seem to recall Cotto fighting quite well off the back foot in his bout vs Sugar Man. Marquez, while superemely skilled in the art of counter punching faced a fighter that is even rated above him in this category, thus the reason why Floyd dominated the entire bout.

 

Floyd walks em down while Pacquiao loses to them

 

JMM beat Mayweather 135.

JMM was bloated. Floyd can't handle fighters at good weight so he make them come up.

 

He's good at playing to opponents weaknesses. He made marquez be the aggressor because he knows he's not as good as the agressor.

Against Ortiz and Mosley he walked them down because he knows they fight worse off the back foot.

I believe he will attempt to walk down cotto.

 

Your missing the point here, he would never initiate the walk down vs Pac unless the opportunity is right. Floyd will capitalize off of Pac's mistakes, yes Pac is a dynamic offensive fighter but I Floyd is an enhanced version of Marquez though less aggressive.

 

I see him easily walking down Pac,Pac can not fight going beackwards,he needs space then jumps in and out.. If Floyd walks down Pac I could see him getting flustered and getting hit with crisp punches...

Unless Pac can land a hay maker he is not hurting Floyd,Jmm was not even going forward and simply countering and neutralized all that flashiness we are used to seeing.

 

Pac loves fighters that try to force him backwards.

See Hatton and Cotto

Manny Is a very aggressive counter puncher.

 

Agreed with this. And he walked down Mosley starting in the middle rounds of their fights too, and Mosley is a strong guy.

 

The result might have been even worse at 135 if the two where to fight at that weight (Floyd actually moved then lol!)

 

Why ignore that, when it's the exact reason Mayweather is now standing in the pocket/coming forward more these days? :? There is no need to read any deeper into it for any alternative reasons. That is it right there.

Yes, but that's been true all along. Mayweather didn't only just become aware of this. He's generally chosen to let others lead and elected to himself box effectively off the back foot for most of his career, when he had the legs to do so.

Ortiz pressed Mayweather and didn't come even remotely close to knocking him down at any point.

Mayweather is at his most comfortable when luring enemies along to walk onto right hand leads. Especially suckers for the right, like Vic.

When Mosley hurt Mayweather and buckled his knees in the 2nd round, it was with a counter right hand as Floyd was coming toward him and getting overly aggressive with a wide left hook.

When Mayweather hurt Mosley in the 3rd, 4th, and pretty much the rest of the night - it was with pull counters and hook-twos over Mosley's jab, while Shane was chasing him.

Because of what, Margarito I? You might be confusing "not great going in reverse" with "unable to deal with a combination of size, strength, volume, heavy-handedness and relentless pressure". And that was just on that night. Against an admittedly more shopworn Margarito in the rematch, Cotto still had to deal with all those same adversities and didn't struggle for an instant. He won every second of every minute of every round.

Cotto has fairly exhaustively proven himself as a fine boxer going both ways.

Mayweather does, too. They both specialize in that, but they've always has slightly different means of employing it. Floyd likes to eat up more floor, using his legs to make the opponent spend energy covering ground to get to him and lunge to create openings for his counters. Marquez prefers to stay a bit more pat, anchored in a spot and fortifying his position with sorties of accurate combination punching while letting the opponent become over-eager and expend their energy trying to out-throw him since he's right there for them. The result is that Marquez has always taken more hits than Mayweather, but he also lands a greater number of counter punches (obviously, throwing more) and harder ones. (obviously, with his feet planted to get extra torque rather than going backwards) That's just JMM, though. He's never minded getting hit. He isn't the type of counter puncher like Floyd with his luring act or James Toney with his inside pocket-rolling who wants to show off how unhittable he is. He'll take your best shots; he just wants to carve you up by catching you on the way in more and with better, more technically correct and accurate, and more deftly turned-over shots.

 

I can also see this happening but I doubt that would be plan A, it would create to many opportunities for Pac and that's what Floyd would want to avoid. He's such an intellegent fighter and I'm sure he can implement most any game plan and still come out victorious.

 

Nothing wrong with Floyds legs ye lunatics!Mayweather fights each opponent based on their strengths and weaknesses.Floyd fought Oscar flat footed but over 2 years later stayed on his toes against Marquez.I think he will fight Cotto a bit more flat footed but beat him with feints and handspeed like he did against Mosley,but have no doubt against Manny or Sergio he will use his feet more.