Fighters that beat mayweather....

[slipcatchroll]

Everyone isn’t as lucky as Mayweather to share era with ATG technicians such as Judah, Baldomir and Ortiz…

Seriously though, Starling is for my money better than anyone Floyd has ever faced at welterweight, maybe even throughout his career.



First of all, there is, in my opinion, no “prime” Mayweather at this weight. I’ve never been sold on his ability at 147lbs to be honest. At least not when comparing him with the excellent/borderline greats and ATGs. Both he and Pac' are overestimated fighters above 140lbs IMO.

Secondly, you’re making a far bigger problem about Curry’s stance than really was the case. Sure, nobody would mistake him for Napoles, but he showed enough movement throughout his prime years for me to not classify it as an outright vulnerability. It worked for his particular style - no wasted motion, always remaining controlled and ultra-economical - although he probably could’ve benefitted from being a bit more reckless/aggressive when the moment called for it, somewhat more similar to Saldivar, but that’s more of a mental stubbornness than anything else IMO. His legs and balance was also the first things that went post-Honeyghan, which resulted in him spreading his feet even more to compensate for it. That is when his stance clearly was hampering his movement I would say.

Thirdly, even prime Mayweather was never at his best or most convincing when adopting a more mobile/pure-boxing approach in my opinion. He don’t really integrate his punching and movement to the degree of someone like Kalambay while dictating the mid-range with little steps, pivots and/or turns and piling up points behind the jab. Actually, most of his mid-range work is fairly Curry influenced - flat-footed at ring-centre, using his superior speed and punch-picking to get the best of the action - and has been like this even at his best weight/weights. In Curry he will meet someone who trumps him in those areas, and I don’t think he could utilize the necessary movement for twelve rounds at this weight and at the same time generate enough offensively to win. He simply hasn’t the kind of consistent point-scoring jab that is a must in that kind of scenario.

He needs to be planted to score points, which will hurt him against Curry.



I personally think you've misjudged the cracks in Curry’s armour. It’s actually quite remarkable that you’re inclined to claim Curry lacks an inside-game, especially if it's based on the two Starling fights where their second encounter is one of the finest displays of in-fighting we have on film. I struggle to think of a possibly better testament to Curry's top-notch ability at this particular distance than that fight - and it's about as good benchmark to measure someone’s inside-capability as you're likely to find.

I am not saying he was infallible, but prime Curry - which I presume is the version we are judging by - really got his schtick together for a while. He was always vulnerable against opponents that emphasized unorthodox and unpredictable aggression - preferably with some amount of power - where he's having a hard time decoding their rhythm.

That's the thing though - Mayweather doesn't pose any of those problems. In fact, Floyd is exactly the type of fighter Curry prosper against - technically polite without the power to ruffle him up as well as being physically outmatched at this weight.

It maybe wouldn’t end in a stoppage, but I don’t see the welterweight version of Floyd having the tools to take the Texan out of his element enough to snatch a decision. I think Curry is hell on wheels for the pure-boxing/defensive types, and I can't envision how a fighter above his best weight without any physical advantages is going to expose it as a myth.

Shane Mosley's better than Starling and Curry in every department you just mentioned including his ranking on the ATG list.
I would say that the only ability in which Mosley falls short is his defense but that doesn't take away from the fact that he's very much a complete fighter. And an ATG win for any fighter.

And Lloyd Honeyghan was able to take Curry out of his element so I don't see how Floyd couldn't.

[bender2000]

whitaker would have whipped his ass.

[messenger]

whitaker would have whipped his ass.

Many southpaws would have.