By Edward Chaykovsky
Trainer John David Jackson, the man who constructed the strategy for Sergey Kovalev to dominate 49-year-old legend Bernard Hopkins in their IBF/WBO/WBA light heavyweight unification earlier this month, explained what a fighter needs to do in order to defeat WBC/WBA junior middleweight and welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Just like he instructed Kovalev to do with Hopkins, Jackson would tell a fighter to forget about Mayweather's head and focus on hitting every other part of his body - including his arms.
"You have to hit him everywhere, don’t aim for the head, hit him in his chest, hit him in his shoulders. He’s older now, he’s been around for a long time in the game, you have to make him pay and you gotta hurt him and make his arms get tired. It’s easier said than done because Floyd is a very intelligent fighter but if you have to fight him, you gotta get in his chest," Jackson told On The Ropes Boxing Radio.
"You have to fight him intelligently but you have to be aggressive, you have to be the one who dictates the pace of the fight and make him move more than he wants to because Floyd’s legs are shaky. You gotta watch the fights and look at the legs, you can see the cracks with his legs.
"You gotta hit him everywhere but the head, you gotta hit him with kidney shots, you gotta hit him with shots that are illegal but you gotta hit him in certain places when you can get away with it. This is boxing, we’re not here for a dance to walk around each other, so you gotta be dirty."
