Sweet Pea's contemporaries vs. Floyd Jr.'s

It's boring to you. But there's plenty of people like me who'll enjoy watching a fighter put on a master-class and dominating a fight in such great style with a flawless technical performance.

It's his style. It's what he's best at. The aim of the game is to hit and not be hit. Why should he compromise his best abilities in the ring and take unnecessary risks in the ring? It's like me hating on Pacquiao because he doesn't try and box off the back-foot that often.

Nobody likes getting punched in the face, and nobody likes losing. Floyd uses his style to limit the chances of both of those things happening and give himself an easy nights work while putting on a master-class, rather than adopting an Arturo Gatti approach and going life-and-death with club-fighters.

 

I don't find floyds fights boring. It's amazing to watch someone that gud with his skills. It's not his fault if an opponent can't hit him or if he is far too good for them.

 

I see what you mean but i sill think he could take more risks and still win with ease just like he did at 130,now he doesnt even throw combinations .

there are fighters like Whitaker who put one flawless technical performance after another and he did this by throwing 80 and 90 punches a round and taking risks and he did this against the best fighters of his time and nobody calls him boring and he like Floyd barelly got hit.

the problem with floyd is that he takes caution to the limit and never commits to anything cause he doesnt want to risk getting hit even against a smaller fighter like JMM or an overmatched guy like Baldo.

 

Taking risks...

The idea of a boxer not taking risk is flawed from the moment he steps into the ring. In other words there's no such thing as not taking risks in a boxing ring. If you don't believe me just get in the ring against a trained boxer and see for yourself if your strategy to mitigate all risk will get you passed the first round.

Speaking of Floyd, he seems like one who doesn't take risk because he always manages to get away with it. But he does take risks. The left hook lead he often throws from distance would be risky to boxers who don't have the reaction time he has. Same could be said about his straight right hand lead.

Haters love to say he runs whereas, in fact, he doesn't. What he does most of the time is he offers his face as a target to create an opening and counterpunch. That strategy involves risk, one he could afford taking because he's got the reaction time, focus and alertness to duck and cover.

Boxers with lesser reaction time, focus and alertness who pull that strategy often get clobbered.

 

Thats a great post, I agree.

PBF often leaves himself open when in the center of the ring inviting opponents to swing so that he can react and counter. Plus as you said the right hand lead and the sweeping left hooks are dangerous punches to throw as a good counter shot while he is doing any of those punches and he could get stunned. He probably takes more risk then we give him credit for but since his atheltic ability is so good he makes it look so easy.

 

Yeah, it's a good point, he easily could've done to Baldomir what he did to let's say Arturo Gatti. Baldomir posed no kind of threat for him from Round 1. At 140 and below, it was not so much about Floyd taking more chances, he was just physically not intimidated by guys in those weight classes. At 147 and above, you'll continue to see this type of fighting. Mose people hate it - I think it's brilliant. I think true fight fans like different kinds of fights and appreciate different styles. If every fight were a Hopkins or Mayweather or Winky style fight, I admit, it would suck. The sport needs it's Morales-Barrera and it's Pacquiao-Marquez type of fights. But every generation has their great defensive fighter, and I've had the pleasure of watching Whitaker and Mayweather, and I'm still enjoying Floyd.

 

Right on. Mayweather is known for putting his chin out to be hit, fighting with his hands down, and luring people in by letting himseld be backed up into the ropes. It just doesn't look like 'taking risks' because he has the antidote for every kind of attack.

 

Actually, it is his fault, considering how carefully he cherry-picks his opposition. Even if you disagree with that, it's still his fault for not initiating the exchanges the way guys like Whitaker and Jones Jr. did. Floyd fights safety first against fighters who pose little danger in the first place. Whitaker often fought head on with the most dangerous opponents, he just had a more effective and reliable bag of tricks than Floyd which allowed him to, and a much bigger heart.

 

:thumbsup

 

I would agree if there was any risk involved in the fights he's been taking. Unfortunately that hasn't been the case. Floyd fights completely outclassed opponents in the same way he fights his more difficult challenges (though there haven't been many of those), he just doesn't look nearly as good in the latter circumstance.

 

I won't argue that his opposition at 140 & 147 has been relatively poor, and hopefully he can go someway to improving his post-135 resumé with fights against the likes of Mosley & Pacquiao/Cotto, but people act like he's been doing this all his career. He fought the best at 130 and did so with speed and aggression at times, and fought guy likes Castillo at 135.

 

I've long reached the conclusion that, whomever he beats, be it Margo, Mosley or Cotto, he will always be accused of cherry-picking.

He beats decisively the smaller man Marquez who btw went toe to toe twice against the current #1 P4P and gets criticized for fighting a smaller man.

He ignores Margarito and gets criticized yet nobody criticizes Margarito, who btw is 3 inches taller and generally outweighs his opponents by 10 to 15 pounds come fight night, for wanting to fight the smaller Floyd.

Now that Margarito was brutally exposed by Mosley chances are that a Mayweather/Margarito fight would go down as another episode of cherry-picking.

The question is who's left to fight that would not be considered cherry-picking considering that Floyd is unlikely to go back to 140 lbs?

Pac? Given Mayweather/Marquez chances are he'll be accused of fighting a smaller man.

Cotto? Margo and Clottey exposed him so he's not that good. The guy runs out of gas after 6 rounds. More cherry-picking.

Mosley? He's old. Cherry-picking.

Who else? We're running out of boxers. At some point can't it just be said that mayweather is too good for the league and live with it?

 

Every fighter needs that fight where he have to go all out and put everything he got on the table. Floyd has not met the guy who can do that to him, but it's not his fault. The other guys have to step there game up and take him from out of his comfort zone. His style has been effective so far, so why should he change it now? Calzaghe took B hop out of his comfort zone when they fought, because he had the right style to do so, and that's what has to be done to Mayweather. The question is who's up for the task and is capable of doing so?

 

If he cleans out the welterweight division no one can accuse him of cherry picking at welterweight. They can of course, complain that there are no real elite welterweights around at the moment, and that as far as I'm concerned, is a valid response. Not Floyd's fault of course, but still the case. Guys like Cotto, Clottey, Margarito, a 40 year old Shane would be lucky to get past the Oba Carrs and Wilfredo Riveras in the previous decade, and that's the truth.

 

Well at the time they thought Hatton could do it and when I say ''they'' I don't mean some college students sitting idle behing a keyboard. As we know, Hatton failed miserably. After that, ''they'' said Mayweather cherry-picked Hatton. Typical.