Thoughts on Mayweather struggling with southpaws

Just finished watching Mayweather vs Corley, Judah and Ortiz.

I noticed that vs Corley and Judah, Floyd relied heavily on his speed and reflexes. He relied on beating his opponent to the punch. His feints and amazing ability to not telegraph his punches allowed him to land the lead right hand, followed by either falling in with his arms forward, to somewhat push his opponent back, or ducking the left hand counter followed by a left hook to the body.

In these two fights, you could see Floyd visibly off balance while lunging in to land these type of shots. He looks almost overly aggressive, putting himself in some awkward positions, almost falling down at times.

Now in terms of guarding vs the southpaw, Corley and Judah have very good right hands, jabbing and hooking with it. They used the right hand as a southpaw should, for range, measuring and turning, right hook countering Floyd as he came in. The right hand is why Floyd lunges in with the lead right at such an off rhythm, to land his right before the right hook counter comes, duck the left, and hit the body with the left hook since its open now.

Another big problem Floyd has vs a southpaw is his lack of head movement. Each time he would try to come in behind the jab, or double jab, he was countered easily by a right hook, and also a straight left from Judah(Zabs blazing speed plays a factor ofcourse) but with no head movement from Floyd, that jab gets countered every time, esp how he puts most of his weight on that lead left leg when coming forward.

The reason Floyd had much success vs ortiz southpaw position is because Ortiz doesnt fight like a southpaw should, i.e Corley/Judah. He doesnt jab and hook regularly, controlling the distance and countering with it like he should. His jab was more like how a orthodox fighter jabs, hard quick and authoritiv, but telegraphed and mechanical, instead of rangy and focusing on that important right hook counter. Due to being right handed, he throws it like a power punch, feinting his way inside and launching a devastating hook which he did land but rarely. Youll notice how often Floyd was able to duck Victors left hand. Not only was he able to outjab Ortiz, which he could hardly land vs Corlwy or Judah, he was able to duck the straight left counter without worrying about a right hook smacking him in the face as he led with right hands all night.

All in all, Floyds approach on how to beat a southpaw is very unorthodox. He doesnt outbox them, he uses his superior speed, feints and reflexes to beat his opponent to the punch. However while doing so, he has a tendency to lunge in, leave himself off balance and in an awkward position. He also gets hit with some of the cleanest punches you have seen landed on Floyd, which i believe is do to his aggressiveness and offensive style vs a southpaw. It leaves openings and holes in his defense that are simply not there vs an orthodox fighter. Have at it :bbb

 

I think, and ive heard fighters and trainers say, that you should pressure a southpaw. They have a natural advantage over orthodox fighters simply because there arent many of them out there. The angles are hard to adjust to. So applying pressure is a common way to fight them. Floyd just looks much more vulnerable do to his potshotting style and having to overcome those angles with sheer talent and boxing iq rathrr than fundamental boxing.

 

Got owned huh? Corley was as equally effective with his own jab that rd. Nothing came behind it. If u wanna say that was 'owning' Corley, thwn by all means.

 

Considering they went life and death in rd 4, that was nice of Floyd to actually land maybe 5 jabs to Corleys 3. That was some serious 'ownage.' :rofl

 

**** off ******* :tong