I recently watched a few of Floyd's past fights and Floyd's biggest challenges have come against Castillo, ODLH, Judah, Mosely and Maidana. After ****yzing what these fighters did to trouble Floyd, i'm more convinced Pacquiao has a really good shot. Castillo applied constant pressure all fight and never let up. Watching this fight, he reminded me of Maidana; i wonder if Maidana watched this fight cause he employed same tactic. Everyone at HBO were shocked at the final decision and had Castillo winning, it was a controversial decision. HBO has 0 reason to be against Mayweather given Floyd was one of their prize fighters. In any event, it was castillo's constant pressure that worked well. Maidana, same thing - constant pressure all fight long. The first fight was a little challenging for floyd. When you apply constant pressure and have the stamina to do it all fight long, Floyd gets more defensive than usual and doesn't look as good. Judah connected with a right hook that made Floyd stumble, to the point his right hand hit the canvas (could've been ruled a knock down). He later hammered Floyd with a left straight hand that buzzed floyd. For the first 4 or 5 rounds Floyd looked ordinary and vulnerable; Judah's speed was troubling him tremendously. What i also noticed is that Judah was similar to Pacquiao - fast with his hands and feet, although less aggressive. Mosley, landed two huge punches which Floyd never saw coming, one made Floyd's knees buckle. Like Judah, his speed troubled Floyd initially. The problem with these two was that unlike Maidana and Castillo, they got tired and were walked down by Floyd for a lot of the fight; Floyd slowly picked them apart. ODLH was different, he used his jab, length effectively, worked the body and is an accomplished technical fighter. He was aggressive but not quite as relentless as Maidana and Castillo. So, in summary, Castillo and Maidana troubled floyd by running him down for 12 rounds, pushing him to the ropes and applying constant pressure; they never slowed down to allow floyd to dominate. Who's better at applying pressure for 12 rounds without getting exhausted? Manny Pacquiao. Manny can definitely do what Castillo and Maidana did for 12 rounds. Judah and Mosely's speed gave MAYWEATHER all he could handle for first 4-5 rounds. Well, PAcquiao is faster... So, thinking about this, Floyd will be facing a guy who has the ability to employ everything that these 4 fighters used effectively. He'll be able to apply pressure without getting tired, as Castillo and Maidana did, but he'll possess the speed that Judah and Mosely used effectively. Neither of these 4 could combine it all, Manny can. It's probably the worst possible opponent floyd can face...
There is one very important piece of the puzzle missing with your ****ysis..... Mayweather was the smaller man in 4 of those fights, and he could of been smaller than Judah also. I'll have to check, but he did give up weight to the other fighters.
Judah and Floyd sparred on occasion before they fought. So that kinda has a lot to do with the success Judah "had" the first few rounds.
that's a good point actually but Pacquiao hasn't had trouble with size - ODLH, Cotto, Margerito, Rios were all bigger than Floyd and Manny destroyed them. it's a good point nonetheless, mainly because of the reach.
lots of weight at that. one thing the OP is missing which is crucial was the fact that Floyd struggled at all with jlc and chino, 2 fighters not near his skill level but on the nights in question were literally a couple divisions heavier than Floyd. jlc wasn't anything drastic, was either 9 lbs or 11 lbs which isn't crazy for most champ, nothing for Floyd as he is routinely outweigh on fight night by 10/15/20 and sometime up to 25 (twenty five pounds0 the misconception, especially with the first jlc fight was Floyd was up 5/0 going into the 6th so very hard fight for him to lose after that first half of domination per rounds. the first chino fight was much closer. much tighter to me that fight was. what we really have here is from round 6 through 12 it was a highly competitive fight. if we could somehow rewrite History (boxing clown and Zimornsky are great at rewriting History exactly how they wished it was viewed).. chino had some going his way too, he started fast and took some rounds which means without a doubt IF Floyd loses 2, especially up to 3 rounds that's a wrap.. NO WAY is Floyd capable of winning a dec when up to 3 rounds are won by a Floyd opponent. with the jlc first fight, the middle and end of the match was competitive so that's what the casuals remember most, the lasting impression of Floyd in a competitive fight. that stays in the dummies (joe= general public)
For Zab, Mosley, the speed bothered Floyd. For Castillo, Maidana, they smothered him and that bothered him. Pacquiao fights at a distance. He can apply pressure by throwing tons of punches, but he won't smother Floyd with his body like Maidana and Castillo did.
They were just aggressive and relentless and roughed him up. Some fighters have speed and power but lack stamina. Stamina is something you can work with but some are born with more stamina (bigger heart, more lung capacity) and Judah and Mosely noticeably got tired whilst Maidana and Castillo seems to be able to go for 24 rounds non-stop. They were bigger than Manny but size aside, if they would've slowed down, Mayweather would've walked them down in the same manner he did against Judah and Mosely. Size probably played a part but look at how Floyd beat Canelo and Cotto, they were also bigger. I think what Castillo and Maidana did was brawl, be relentless and they had the stamina to keep it up, not everyone can do this bit Pacquiao can.
on the first jlc fight, what do you mean people mostly remember the last rounds? don't you know scorers keep points by round to remind themselves of who won early rounds? HBO compubox had Castillo throwing more AND landing at a higher %. The power punch stats were 160+ to 60 something on favor for Castillo. I realize boxing is a round by round point system but you will be hard pressed to find a boxer that has won when getting outworked, , especially landing 100 less power punches. Harold Lederman, Larry merchant and Jim Lampley though Castillo had won the fight and were noticeably surprised by the judges scores. That was a very strange result. It was especially puzzling as Castillo was defending his title and usually the challenger has to really take it from him. That result smelled or perhaps the judges for whatever reason, had something against CASTILLO's brawling style... not sure but if you watch it, you must admit the final result was puzzling. Floyd looked like he knew he had lost so was maki ng excuses about fighting with only 1 arm... hmm. in any event, Castillo have him hell and i don't think it was just size, big men get tired too. Stamina and a relentless offensive mind set were key. Perhaps for Mayweather size matters more but for Pacquiao it doesn't, i mean look at how he destroyed Margarito, arguably bigger than CASTILLO.
