Why its so hard to stay undefeated.

[THE REED]

which is why floyd is floyd. he will be the one to stand out over the rest who thought and said it, his training rgiment is crazy and he trains damn near all year around. trust you me, floyd won't get beat.

he wont be beaten anytime soon... im talkin about father time... 35, 36, 37... please dont guarantee someone will never be beaten... its a guarantee that you can personally not back.

[Silencers]

which is why floyd is floyd. he will be the one to stand out over the rest who thought and said it, his training rgiment is crazy and he trains damn near all year around. trust you me, floyd won't get beat.

I don't think Mayweather will be in the gym 24/7 from now on. He doesn't seem to have the same amount of hunger to be in there for so long. He also believes his body is breaking down so I think that'll be in his mind as well when he trains from now on.

Mayweather is the type of fighter who needs to fight regularly to keep himself sharp, if he fights once a year, the rust will show and will make him a little easier to get beat.

[NachoMan]

Fighters who remain undefeated for so long remain so because they have avoided the best competition; plain and simple. Being undefeated has less than zero to do with being great, so anointing someone as great simply because they haven't lost is pretty absurd to me. All great fighters lose; because they are the ones who most consistently fight the best competition. See guys like MAB, EM, SRL, Duran, Evander,... Forget about guys like Roy Jones.

[The Surgeon]

I think the reason its so hard to stay undefeated once you hit the 40-0+ mark, is because people are smart, fighters are smart, they adapt... they will study you, they will break down your every move... until they realize ok this is what this guy is doing, and this is how I neutralize it... Most guys fight a certain way, it works for them, they win.. they keep doing it.. what they dont realize is, it will eventually work against them.

The longer you stay undefeated, the longer you remain at the top... the more you are wanted to be beaten, the more fighters will try to formulate the solution to neutralize your every execution. And they will do it.

Not to sound like a broken record but it goes with roy as well... the guy was unbeatable for so long, Tarver spent his whole career training and studying to beat roy... even though i think Roy is still the better fighter... tarver did come in with a good gameplan and stuck to his guns, and did his best to neutralize Jones...

Fighters will eventually break down a fighter... until they solve the puzzle... there doing it right now on Floyd... no ones cracked the puzzle yet, but there trying... look at oscar when he went to see hatton training... telling him about when floyd does this... hes open right here.. when he does that... try doing this... Did it work? no, not this time... but there talking about it, there studying tapes, there formulating ideas, plans... there trying to break him down.. and it hasnt happened yet... but if history has shown us one thing... its that it will...

As they start breaking down how you fight... your getting older and slower every day... This isnt based around Floyd, I love floyd as a fighter... but he is a solid example... he wont retire... he loves the spot light too much... he will fight past his prime, to much attention, to much money... he WILL slow down, and fighters will know exactly what he will do, and what to expect... and father-time WILL make it easier for them to execute it. Ive seen to many fighters who were deemed unbeatable... only to be beaten...

History has shown us this.. and it WILL continue to repeat itself.

With that said, God Bless Rocky Marciano.

Thats a good point sir

[THE REED]

Fighters who remain undefeated for so long remain so because they have avoided the best competition; plain and simple. Being undefeated has less than zero to do with being great, so anointing someone as great simply because they haven't lost is pretty absurd to me. All great fighters lose; because they are the ones who most consistently fight the best competition. See guys like MAB, EM, SRL, Duran, Evander,... Forget about guys like Roy Jones.

you cant possibly knock roy jones... he DID step up his competition.. im not about to get into a 4 page debate with you about it... but he stepped up to SMW to face #2 p4p james toney who was 44-0... if thats not a step up i dont know what is.... then to go up to LHW and dominate the best at that weight... then to go up to heavyweight... and i dont care what you say about john ruiz... its the 35 pound weight difference that is the equalizer in that fight... then to come back down LHW and barely win that... roy DID take chances.. Roy didnt have a his heanrs or hagler... thats why he kept jumping up in weight to make up for it.

[Darkstar]

Fighters who remain undefeated for so long remain so because they have avoided the best competition; plain and simple. Being undefeated has less than zero to do with being great, so anointing someone as great simply because they haven't lost is pretty absurd to me. All great fighters lose; because they are the ones who most consistently fight the best competition. See guys like MAB, EM, SRL, Duran, Evander,... Forget about guys like Roy Jones.

Now thats a good post.

[THE REED]

Thats a good point sir

thank you very much!

[Crazylegs77]

I think the reason its so hard to stay undefeated once you hit the 40-0+ mark, is because people are smart, fighters are smart, they adapt... they will study you, they will break down your every move... until they realize ok this is what this guy is doing, and this is how I neutralize it... Most guys fight a certain way, it works for them, they win.. they keep doing it.. what they dont realize is, it will eventually work against them.

The longer you stay undefeated, the longer you remain at the top... the more you are wanted to be beaten, the more fighters will try to formulate the solution to neutralize your every execution. And they will do it.

Not to sound like a broken record but it goes with roy as well... the guy was unbeatable for so long, Tarver spent his whole career training and studying to beat roy... even though i think Roy is still the better fighter... tarver did come in with a good gameplan and stuck to his guns, and did his best to neutralize Jones...

Fighters will eventually break down a fighter... until they solve the puzzle... there doing it right now on Floyd... no ones cracked the puzzle yet, but there trying... look at oscar when he went to see hatton training... telling him about when floyd does this... hes open right here.. when he does that... try doing this... Did it work? no, not this time... but there talking about it, there studying tapes, there formulating ideas, plans... there trying to break him down.. and it hasnt happened yet... but if history has shown us one thing... its that it will...

As they start breaking down how you fight... your getting older and slower every day... This isnt based around Floyd, I love floyd as a fighter... but he is a solid example... he wont retire... he loves the spot light too much... he will fight past his prime, to much attention, to much money... he WILL slow down, and fighters will know exactly what he will do, and what to expect... and father-time WILL make it easier for them to execute it. Ive seen to many fighters who were deemed unbeatable... only to be beaten...

History has shown us this.. and it WILL continue to repeat itself.

With that said, God Bless Rocky Marciano.

Yeah and also the more you go undefeated the higher the odds you will eventaully lose.

[tredh]

Overall its a very good post but I disagree with some of it. In some cases that is true that a fighter gets studied so much by so many that they get figured out and to that the decline in ability because of age and you have some ingredients to give a person a loss. But its different when you have versatile fighter. You can study a versatile fighter all you want but for most fighters it will be basically impossible to train for everything that fighter does and be better than him at it. Most undefeated fighters go that way for so long because they are so good to great at what they do people can't beat them at it or impose their will on that style.

To be honest SRL could have retired undefeated. His first loss came because he fought Duran's style of fight. We all saw what happened in the second fight. SRL fought well past when he should have been fighting should have never fought Terry Norris. We all know prime SRL beats the brakes off of Terrry Norris.

There are many different reasons as to why a fighter can remain undefeated just like there are many reasons why that same fighter can be defeated.

[NachoMan]

you cant possibly knock roy jones...

I knew I'd get your response with my Roy comment. I know Roy is your fighter and you do a good job supporting him, but I just see this guy in a different light. He is/was without question an excellent fighter, but we have different definitions of what 'great' means. I would probably leave Roy alone if he would have showed some humility throughout his career and respected some of the truly great fighters (the fearless ones) who fought the best competition whenever they could. The Roy I will always remember is the goofball who paraded around talking **** about how he deserves to be considered the top guy P4P because other so-called contenders like JC Chavez, ODLH, MAB, and Shane Mosely all came and went, while he remained undefeated. He doesn't have the first clue, and that's exactly why he now feels that his win over Tito was so important.