"Technique"

I feel that a more disciplined guard wouldn't have hindered a fighter with the coordination and natural talent of Ali. Look at Ricardo Lopez for example. One of the best long range fighters in boxing history. His guard was hardly a problem for him. Holy had a quite good guard while also having good movement (when he could hold himself from brawling) and top combos.

But I don't fault Dundee. Ali/Clay was already an Olympic gold medalist when he came to Dundee. You don't typically try and make a fighter change too much at that stage. And Ali was an extremely strong willed young man who didn't want anybody to come and change him. That's probable why he fell out with Moore.

Steward made some important adjustments to established fighters like Wlad and Lewis, and to McClellan at the very beginning of his pro career. But they felt they needed improvement and came to him for help. Ali, on the other hand, felt that he'd found a style that worked very well for him because of his speed and that he'd get out of the game before that speed left him. He wasn't going to let anyone tell him otherwise. That's why Dundee was the perfect trainer for him. He didn't try to push anything on Ali, just helped him where he could.

 

McGregor was an Irish amateur champion.
Floyd fought to a plan ,forcing the fight being careful not to take anything significant, the plan was to draw the steam from McGregor who is not used to fighting for more than25 minutes, force him to expend energy and put your foot on the gas when he starts to wilt.

Perfect strategy for a 40 years old boxer who never has possessed concussive power.

 

Mayweather was probably 20-25 pounds lighter than McGregor at fight time, (if it had been a same day weigh in Mayweather could have been a welterweight and McGregor would have been a light heavyweight), Mayweather was noticeably shorter (3-4"), 40 years old, coming off of a two year layoff and with all of that he was unmarked at the end and wasn't even breathing hard. Plus, as McVey mentioned, McGregor had amateur boxing experience.

 

Technique is a refinement of anything that helps you win a fight. Over the years certain techniques have come to be seen as universal to all fighters, and therefore as textbook, but technique's primary function is to help you win a fight, and if certain unorthodox movements help you to do that then it's all to the good. If all fighters were textbook then there'd be no variation.

 

Bottom line.

 

MacGregor genuinely impressed me with his counterpunching and head movement early on. He avoided PBF's straight right like a pro.

 

The technique that best complements the particular fighter's natural proclivities and physical gifts is best, I suppose.

 

We should leave farcical circus exhibitions out of the discussion, shouldn't we?

 

It was obvious he was the bigger man and by some distance.

 

Because he landed slaps and few proper punches. His punching technique was horrid and that's why he couldn't get much of an effective offense going.

And I don't think this version of Floyd was an All Time Elite. If Conor really wanted to test himself against the best, he should have chosen an active fighter his own size. Like Canelo or Golovkin. I don't think he would have gotten out of the first round against Golovkin.

 

While Conor was busy building good punch stats number with a poking jab that did little damage, Floyd hit him with hurtful right hand leads.

 

Yep. His timing was actually top notch. He just had preciously little in terms of effective offense because of poor technique (was there even one recognizable combo ons his part?).