what happened to floyds work rate?

[Tails]

As he moved up in weight he started worrying less about doing damage and focused mainly on winning. Nothing wrong with that since his power never really carried up with him as much as other fighters.

Back at lightweight though Floyd was quick as hell and could land almost at will even though he would still get tagged from time to time. When he moved up while still fast he probably decided to focus more on timing his shots and didn't what to risk getting caught with something stupid.

[Tails]

That...and he didn't like taking punches. If you watch his older fights where he exchanged a lot, he used to get hit quite a bit. I can't speak for floyd, but i know your outlook changes a bit when you start getting buzzed with shots. I don't think he could afford to keep fighting that way against top opposition, especially as he moved up in weight. I know lots of people on here like to say floyd has an iron chin...but I'm not one of them.

I agree with this. Not saying he's packing glass or anything like that...but he has been visibly hurt at welterweight by Mosley & Maidana. Had he maintained his more willing to attack style he could have definitely been dropped or stopped as he would have been hit more often. Good thinking on his part.

[b00g13man]

Age + brittle hands.

[KillaCamNZ]

As Floyd got older, he realized he doesn't need a high workrate to make a few hundred million.

Do what's necessary to take 7+ rounds, annoy the crap out of fans, get those annoyed fans to buy the next PPV hoping to see him get KTFO - rinse and repeat.

And he wasn't interested in getting hit anymore (who is?). He's got cash without having the verbal struggles of a James Toney.

[Sam Donald]

good replies....all interesting

[IronDanHamza]

As he aged and moved up, he changed his style to a more cautious style with a low output.

I think his injuries played a part in it also.

[MrRolltide91]

Age and bad hands

[soul_survivor]

The responses on here are hilarious, making out like Mayweather was some high output fighter throughoout his pre-147 career. That was never, EVER the case. He was however, more active than at 147 or 154 due to two main factores: age and competition.

Mayweather has always shelled up against better opponents but before fighting Oscar, how many truly good opponents did he even face? There was Castillo who most agree beat him and then there was the standout Corrales win (weight issues and criminality aside). When ever Mayweather has faced a truly high level of opponent, his work rate has dropped drastically and against guys with above average offensive skills (Pacquiao, Maidana, Oscar et al) his work rate has been abysmal, not to mention he isn't quick enough to switch from attack and defence in the middle of combination, hence the single shots.

It's why I always rate him so highly as a purely defensive fighter but factoring in all the other categories, he just isn't up there with the best of them.

[Lester Tutor]

good replies....all interesting

and ironically he did the same ''boring performance'' against Pac! #48 tshirts exist!

[Johnwoo8686]

The responses on here are hilarious, making out like Mayweather was some high output fighter throughoout his pre-147 career. That was never, EVER the case. He was however, more active than at 147 or 154 due to two main factores: age and competition.

Mayweather has always shelled up against better opponents but before fighting Oscar, how many truly good opponents did he even face? There was Castillo who most agree beat him and then there was the standout Corrales win (weight issues and criminality aside). When ever Mayweather has faced a truly high level of opponent, his work rate has dropped drastically and against guys with above average offensive skills (Pacquiao, Maidana, Oscar et al) his work rate has been abysmal, not to mention he isn't quick enough to switch from attack and defence in the middle of combination, hence the single shots.

It's why I always rate him so highly as a purely defensive fighter but factoring in all the other categories, he just isn't up there with the best of them.

His output was fairly high against Cotto who is an above average offensive fighter. So that throws your theory of shelling up against above average offensive fighters out the window. Corrales was a top fighter, N'Dou was a pretty good fighter with a 31-1 with 30 KOs record. Floyd has opened up against a lot of top guys. The guys on here are spot on. Age and bad hands are why Floyd's output has decreased. Floyd went from throwing 60 to 70 punches a round to 30 to 40 punches a round. No one here is saying Floyd was ever Paul Williams or Antonio Margarito with his output but he was a much more active fighter in his youth. Age and attrition has gotten to Floyd more than anything. If Floyd had been 29 the Maidana fight would not have been as close as it was. But no he was 37 and clearly slowing down.