Comments Thread For: Thurman: Mayweather is Very Vulnerable in First Three

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

If WBA 'regular' welterweight champion Keith Thurman was handing out advice to Manny Pacquiao - on how to beat Floyd Mayweather Jr. - he would tell him to go in there and press forward at all times with a very high workrate.

Mayweather and Pacquiao will unify their WBO/WBA/WBC welterweight titles in a mega-match unification on May 2nd from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Mayweather is a master counter-puncher and Pacquiao has had a lot of trouble with a much slower counter-puncher in Juan Manuel Marquez. Of course, Marquez had 36 rounds of experience before he stepped in the ring with Pacquiao for their fourth meeting in 2013.
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[PRBOXINGCOTTO]

Floyd is not vulnerable he breaks down your game plan and masters it so w.e pac is bringing it won't be nothing new

[HeGotPacProblem]

Thurman is right. Floyd will be harder to win rounds against in the later rounds. He will adjust and outpoint Manny most likely if he wins the early rounds. It's critical for Manny to get the early rounds like Zab did.

[domiven7]

Thurman is an idiot. Floyd hits hard enough to make fighters gun shy. Once they get hit by Floyd, they stop attacking and focus on surviving, not getting knocked out. When Floyd connects, fighters don't see the punch coming which stings. It's always the punch you don't see that hurts.

[Weebler I]

Ironically Thurman is vulernable in the first round too. But he is right, there's a a good chance for opponents to hurt Mayweather in the first 2-3 rounds.

Pac needs to really press him and put those 3 rounds in the bank before Floyd gets going, maybe even score a k/d.

[The Big Dunn]

If you look at the fights that Floyd has not completely shut his opponent out, most of the rounds lost were in the 1st 1/3rd of the fight so Thurman shows he has been studying Floyd's fights.

[TintaBoricua]

Thurman is right. Floyd will be harder to win rounds against in the later rounds. He will adjust and outpoint Manny most likely if he wins the early rounds. It's critical for Manny to get the early rounds like Zab did.

It's not just Judah. I've always been adamant that Floyd tends to be at his worst early on.

Judah, De la Hoya, Mosley (to a certain degree), and Maidana (first) had their best moments by far early on in the fight.

Judah won 3 (maybe 4) of the first half of the fight and then his performance took a nosedive.

De la Hoya was winning on the judges' scorecards in the first third of the fight.

Mosley had only one moment, but that was early on where Floyd tends to be cold.

The Maidana fight isn't that far back. A lot of the rounds to give to Maidana were in the first half of the fight. You can arguably give Maidana anywhere between 3 rounds at worst (to 5) at best to Maidana in the first half of the fight. I distinctly remember thinking that I was witnessing Floyd's first loss when he was getting busted up and cut in that first half. Luckily, Maidana faded and Floyd cranked it up, easily dominating the second half of the fight with Maidana having very little success.

I'm watching both fighters' recent fights to get a better feel for what I think will happen, but at this moment I'm confident that the second half of the fight is easily in Floyd's bag. Pacquiao has to pour it on early. If Pacquiao loses the first half of the fight, I REALLY can't see him coming back...not against Floyd given his track record.

[cupocity303]

That's exactly my gut feeling in what will happen in this fight --- That Manny will simply outwork Floyd, and Floyd will never adjust to the speed to outscore him with the hotshot counters.

Kind of the way Kovalev outworked Hopkins. Unlike Maidana, Manny will not be desperate to trap Floyd and pounce on him while he has him cornered, to the point that Floyd starts looking good with his back-against-the-ropes counters. Manny will simply unload his straight punch flurry and step back, forcing Floyd to reset, instead of staying in there for too long and get smothered or countered.

I think Manny wins this by UD -- and a lot of people will be surprised. Floyd will spend half the night posturing with his pretty boy defense, but will find the timing to counter. He has been getting used to slow punching latino fighters. The last fast guy that he fought was Mosley and that was how many years ago? And Manny presents all sorts of new problems that Mosley didn't, mainly in that his conditioning is top notch, can throw straight punches (as opposed to big looping punches), and they come from southpaw stance. His boxing IQ seems to have increased over the years, so he will hold his own when they're in the middle of the ring, and not get picked apart like some run-of-the-mill, come forward, aggressive brawler type.

[jas]

In before Beer Bro

[HeGotPacProblem]

Thurman is an idiot. Floyd hits hard enough to make fighters gun shy. Once they get hit by Floyd, they stop attacking and focus on surviving, not getting knocked out. When Floyd connects, fighters don't see the punch coming which stings. It's always the punch you don't see that hurts.

Floyd KO? Unless Manny studies the Ortiz fight it's not happening.