Floyd Mayweather Avoided Everyone Who Had A Physical Advantage Over Him ... Genius or Fraudster?

[GhostofDempsey]

Mayweather had fought knockout artists, no? he defeated Chico Corrales, Shane Mosley, Marcos Maidana X2, Miguel Cotto and Canelo Alvarez.

Also, both Mosley and Cotto defeated Margarito and Maravilla Martinez right? or am I missing some context?

Corrales was weight drained at 130 and recovering from bronchitis in that fight. Mosley was 39, Maidana was robbed in their first fight and his style was better suited to Floyd’s. Cotto was Manny and Margarito’s leftovers and Canelo was weight drained at a catch weight and still not at his best.

[Cypocryphy]

So using the triangle theory is out of the equation due to how certain styles have different results with different fighters, example being Mayweather defeated Cotto but doesn't mean he is the one who accomplished defeating the opposition Cotto fought.

But what about the fact that he fought with prime opposition in Corrales, Cotto, Maidana X2 and Canelo? Weren't they knockout artists thus had physical advantages over him?

Yes. Those are all great fights. His win over Diego Corrales was fantastic, but I'm not sure Diego had a meaningful advantage over Floyd. Diego was very tall and was a puncher, but back then, Floyd could hit hard still because he hadn't developed hand issues yet. But Diego, for all his size, had a short reach. It's reach that gives you the advantage, not height. When someone has a reach advantage and knows how to use it, it force the other fighter to have to find a way to close the distance. Floyd was never put in a position where he had to close the gap, having to work his way inside. Plus, Diego didn't fight tall. That wasn't his style, so it was a good matchup.

Cotto was a fantastic fight. One of Floyd's best wins, and arguably the hardest fight in his career. But he still had a physical advantage over Cotto. And the same is true with Maidana. As I had previously said, after Khan beat Maidana, we saw the limits of Maidana's abilities. Maybe we saw it when an old Erik Morales nearly beat him. I think that was the moment when Maidana became a safe bet for Floyd to fight, and despite that, Maidana almost beat Floyd. Many believe that Maidana should have got the victory in the first fight. For me, that Maidana fight was not exactly a cherry pick gone wrong but close to it, seeing as how everyone wanted to see him fight the guy that beat Maidana in Amir Khan.

Beating Canelo is also one of his best wins, a win that has aged very well. But stylistically, anyone with a boxing brain could see that this was a favorable matchup for Floyd. They just recently released this fight on DAZN, so I might watch it again because I kind of forget how that fight went. But Canelo doesn't have a reach advantage over Floyd, believe it or not. He's actually just as tall with a shorter reach. Canelo is just broader, bigger boned. The way Floyd fought Canelo was to keep him on the end of his jab, to pot shot him and move, staying at range. That's how he beat him, by using his reach advantage. It's how he won pretty much all of his fights.

Being able to hit hard has a lot to do with technique and sitting down on your punches. Guys who like to move around and have great defense don't like to throw hard because it leaves you extremely vulnerable if you miss. Plus, Floyd was a fantastic puncher himself. I think it was after the Augustus fight that his hands went to ****. I'm pretty sure he broke both of his hands on Augustus.

[djtmal]

I was thinking about this today from a different post, that Floyd never fought anyone who had a size advantage over him, and I don't mean height because height doesn't mean anything if it doesn't include a reach advantage.

But everyone Floyd fought never had a reach advantage over him. At 5' 8" he had a a 72" reach. You can go down Boxrec and see for yourselves that Floyd never fought anyone with an excess of 72" in reach. And it just so happens that the big names that Floyd is accused of ducking had a longer reach than him. Sergio Martinez, Antonio Margarito and Paul Williams.

The Paul Williams one definitely stands out to me. Here's Paul's own words about Floyd avoiding him:

"I don't think Floyd Mayweather will fight me anytime," Williams said. "Manny Pacquiao, he might do it, he might step up but not Floyd. I guess Floyd won't fight me because I don't have a ******."

That X-rated shot, obviously, is a reference to the Baby Mama drama which briefly sent Mayweather to jail and led to domestic battery charges in Las Vegas.

Williams and Peterson don't think that Al Haymon's status as adviser to them, and to Mayweather, is what keeps the fighters apart.

"I was in the barbershop in (Washington) D.C., the other day and the guys were talking about it. They respect Floyd's skills like I do but they were saying they know he won't ever fight me," Williams said.

"If Floyd went to Al and said, "Hey, I want to fight Paul Williams, what can Al do? But Floyd is not going to ever say that. Pacquiao, he fights bigger guys, he's different than Mayweather so maybe I will get to fight him."

Like many others, Williams thinks Mayweather's obsession is being undefeated.

"Floyd ranks himself with Ray Robinson, with Joe Louis, all these guys..but all those great guys, they all lost sometime. Mayweather won't take a hard fight, he won't take the chance of losing."

And that's really what it comes down to, that Floyd avoided any fighter that could have a good chance of beating him, and those fighters were fighters who had a physical advantage over Floyd. It's not secret that Floyd cherry picked his opponents. That was no more evident than when Floyd put out a poll for his fans to pick his next opponent, with Khan and Maidana as polling options. The fans picked Khan, so of course, Floyd fights Maidana. If anyone still doubts that Floyd ducked and dodged opponents, that right there should tell you otherwise. And Maidana was almost a "cherry pick gone wrong."

I suppose it's not secret that Floyd's career is partly a magic act, but I was suddenly aware that Floyd didn't fight anyone with a physical advantage over him. A boxer with a reach advantage over Floyd would have drastically negated one of his biggest advantages—controlling distance.

Don't worry Floyd boys have a legit excuse for every fighter he managed to avoid.

Even for guys like Winky Wright and Margarito, who Floyd actually backed out of fights with. They have excuses for those guys too.

[Malvado]

Corrales was weight drained at 130 and recovering from bronchitis in that fight. Mosley was 39, Maidana was robbed in their first fight and his style was better suited to Floyd’s. Cotto was Manny and Margarito’s leftovers and Canelo was weight drained at a catch weight and still not at his best.

According to the info provided in wikipedia:

-Both Mayweather and Corrales were the same age at 23 years old, with Corrales being the champion at super featherweight who continued to fight at the same division for the next six fights within the next 3 years. He also rehydrated at 146 pounds in their bout.

bronchitis is not a dangerous disease, it is an inflammation on the lungs, and the recovery time is inside 3 weeks.

-Mosley was 39 years old was not the same fight but like Pacquiao defeated top opposition, he was recently coming from big wins over Margarito and Mayorga being placed #3 pound for pound list.

-Maidana well, well yes watching the fight he got robbed in their first bout and still indecisive if their second fight was also in favor to Mayweather.

-After Manny Pacquiao defeated Cotto, he came back in a winning streak, one of them is an Antonio Margarito rematch before the Mayweather fight.

-Canelo was competing at the weight class that he was fighting for the last ten fights while Mayweather was moving up after fighting Robert Guerrero. Not sure that at this point Canelo could make weight anymore, but he was already a world champion at the division beating elite opposition such as Lopez, Cintron, Trout, Mosley, and etc.

[Malvado]

Yes. Those are all great fights. His win over Diego Corrales was fantastic, but I'm not sure Diego had a meaningful advantage over Floyd. Diego was very tall and was a puncher, but back then, Floyd could hit hard still because he hadn't developed hand issues yet. But Diego, for all his size, had a short reach. It's reach that gives you the advantage, not height. When someone has a reach advantage and knows how to use it, it force the other fighter to have to find a way to close the distance. Floyd was never put in a position where he had to close the gap, having to work his way inside. Plus, Diego didn't fight tall. That wasn't his style, so it was a good matchup.

Cotto was a fantastic fight. One of Floyd's best wins, and arguably the hardest fight in his career. But he still had a physical advantage over Cotto. And the same is true with Maidana. As I had previously said, after Khan beat Maidana, we saw the limits of Maidana's abilities. Maybe we saw it when an old Erik Morales nearly beat him. I think that was the moment when Maidana became a safe bet for Floyd to fight, and despite that, Maidana almost beat Floyd. Many believe that Maidana should have got the victory in the first fight. For me, that Maidana fight was not exactly a cherry pick gone wrong but close to it, seeing as how everyone wanted to see him fight the guy that beat Maidana in Amir Khan.

Beating Canelo is also one of his best wins, a win that has aged very well. But stylistically, anyone with a boxing brain could see that this was a favorable matchup for Floyd. They just recently released this fight on DAZN, so I might watch it again because I kind of forget how that fight went. But Canelo doesn't have a reach advantage over Floyd, believe it or not. He's actually just as tall with a shorter reach. Canelo is just broader, bigger boned. The way Floyd fought Canelo was to keep him on the end of his jab, to pot shot him and move, staying at range. That's how he beat him, by using his reach advantage. It's how he won pretty much all of his fights.

Being able to hit hard has a lot to do with technique and sitting down on your punches. Guys who like to move around and have great defense don't like to throw hard because it leaves you extremely vulnerable if you miss. Plus, Floyd was a fantastic puncher himself. I think it was after the Augustus fight that his hands went to ****. I'm pretty sure he broke both of his hands on Augustus.

I have to rewatch the fights involved with Corrales and Canelo to be fair so I can't really say I am making the right assessment, the latter currently defeated elite fighters with stylistically similar styles to Mayweather at 168 compared to seven years ago.

Got to see if there is any major difference between both versions, as for Maidana I forgot that he took a beating from a faded Erik Morales who's a featherweight and got overwhelmed by Amir Khan.

[The Big Dunn]

Yeah. We can look back now and say that, but the only reason Williams is not a bigger name is due to his accident. Had Paul never been injured, I'm sure we'd be talking about him almost as much as Floyd. It's a shame that he was in a motorcycle accident. I know Martinez KO'd him, but still, he beat Martinez the first time.

But the point I'm making is that at that time, Williams was big, and it would have been a huge fight if Floyd fought him.

Dude thats a stretch wed be talking about him as much but it wouldve been a huge fight, but that was because of Floyd.

[KillaCamNZ]

Anyone who navigates through a combat sport, combining a 0 and the amount of money he has made over the years, is a genius.

Just don't ask him to read.

[djtmal]

Dude thats a stretch wed be talking about him as much but it wouldve been a huge fight, but that was because of Floyd.

It would have been because of Floyd taking a risky fight, but we know he took a 2 year sabbatical to avoid Williams

[El_Maldito_Rey]

Gayweather was a fraud. He carefully picked all his fights, his "big names" were all faded, past their primes or had unfair advantages and the only "young" guys he fought were the likes of Ortiz, Guerrero and Berto.

[Roadblock]

I hate to upset another Floyd hate thread but you guys really need to do your homework you would be so much better Haters, as it stands you lot always end up a contradictive klan shooting yourself in both feet left right and centre, I cannot for the life of me figure the working mind of haters, everything levelled at Floyd could be thrown at any fighter in history its just total BS from a bunch of girls talking sht in a boxing forum.

From Pauls own mouth saying Floyd never ducked him the fight just wasn't ready to happen.