Fighting in the ring, 90% mental/10% physical?

[Samboxrec]

Same for Joe Fraizer. He said something like : "I won over the bigger guys because of heart"

Yeah Man mind over matter

[BennyST]

I think what Rockin' is referring to is an aspect that can differ greatly at the top level. Not so much at the lower levels. He was using an example of Shannon Briggs, I think, saying boxing was 10% physical and 90% mental.

My take was that at those top, elite levels, all the guys do similar training camps, day after day, month after month, year after year. Usually the same type, amount, style, reps etc etc etc of exercises with small variations depending on trainer obviously, but all the basics are the same. They do the same physical stuff throughout their career, and lots of it.

What makes the difference to them, at the highest level, is the mental state they come into training camp with, keep throughout training camp and then end with. They could have had a great camp, especially physically, but if they end it with low confidence, for whatever reason, all that physical stuff matters little.

For instance, Pacquiao would have done exactly the same training drills for this Marquez fight that he did with the last one. Exactly the same physical stuff. What is supposedly different is the mental aspect of his game. Supposedly he's much more focused, feels renewed, without any distractions etc and is thus better trained than ever and better prepared than ever, despite the fact that the physical side of his program is exactly the same as last time.

So, at the top level, the physical stuff is all the same, but what really matters is the mental aspect they go into everything with. Hence, 90% mental, 10% physical.

I don't think it applies nearly as much unless you're really at the very top level, because they've all trained to the utmost, have spent entire lives refining etc and so what sets them apart, camp by camp, is the mental aspect they have.