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Manny to be fair almost did it, twice. The problem is that Manny couldn't put two rounds together. Every time he won a round Floyd would punish him in the beginning of the next round and then go defense mode the rest of the round. If Manny could have sustained round 4 and/or round 6 momentum for three rounds then we could have had a fight, but Floyd just completely cancelled that momentum in the following rounds. By round 8 Floyd had adjusted enough to cancel the momentum within the same round instead of waiting for the next. Coz Manny started off well in that round and it looked like we were gonna get another round 4/6 performance but Floyd just started nailing him with counters the rest of the round.
The reality is that Manny became more of a cautious boxer after the Marquez KO. He became a better boxer but less entertaining coz he takes less risks. He was totally scared of taking risks against Floyd, although I also think that Floyd took away a lot of his strengths in that fight.
Trading at mid range is one of Manny's special talents, his combination speed is insane so Floyd took that away, made it a battle of one and one-two speed, coz Floyd knows he is faster in landing the initial blows.
He also took away Manny's in out movement with his own foot movement (circling and backpedalling) combined with check hook counter punching.
Finally, if Floyd made a mistake and got cornered, he used a variation of the shoulder roll I've only seen him use a few times before, and saw him use for the first time against a southpaw, it's where he ducks to the right (under Manny's straight left), and then swings his body leftwards into Manny (to snuff out the follow up combo) and then reverse swing out of the way again, and of course, he also used clinches ever once in a while (although haters will make you think he was clinching every second of the fight whereas there were whole rounds that didn't have clinches and the total number of clinches for the fight was 18, which is an average of 1.5 clinches per ROUND).
A lot of people hated the fight but I loved it. From a technical stand point it was an amazing fight, the skills on display and the tehnical battle was world class chess level. From a casual fan standpoint I get the disappointment. Manny showed he had a high level of technique too, but it was a mistake to try to outwitt Floyd on pure skill alone. By round 11 and 12 Floyd was nailing Manny at will with left hooks, check left hooks, and right crosses. Watch all of his fights and you'll see that Floyd always has something up his sleeve reserved for rounds eleven and twelve.
Manny fought well (technique wise) but he fought the wrong fight and he was too cautious (Marquez KO). I get why people think the fight would have been better before 2011, still think Manny loses but the fight would have been more exciting no doubt.
The reality is that Manny became more of a cautious boxer after the Marquez KO. He became a better boxer but less entertaining coz he takes less risks. He was totally scared of taking risks against Floyd, although I also think that Floyd took away a lot of his strengths in that fight.
Trading at mid range is one of Manny's special talents, his combination speed is insane so Floyd took that away, made it a battle of one and one-two speed, coz Floyd knows he is faster in landing the initial blows.
He also took away Manny's in out movement with his own foot movement (circling and backpedalling) combined with check hook counter punching.
Finally, if Floyd made a mistake and got cornered, he used a variation of the shoulder roll I've only seen him use a few times before, and saw him use for the first time against a southpaw, it's where he ducks to the right (under Manny's straight left), and then swings his body leftwards into Manny (to snuff out the follow up combo) and then reverse swing out of the way again, and of course, he also used clinches ever once in a while (although haters will make you think he was clinching every second of the fight whereas there were whole rounds that didn't have clinches and the total number of clinches for the fight was 18, which is an average of 1.5 clinches per ROUND).
A lot of people hated the fight but I loved it. From a technical stand point it was an amazing fight, the skills on display and the tehnical battle was world class chess level. From a casual fan standpoint I get the disappointment. Manny showed he had a high level of technique too, but it was a mistake to try to outwitt Floyd on pure skill alone. By round 11 and 12 Floyd was nailing Manny at will with left hooks, check left hooks, and right crosses. Watch all of his fights and you'll see that Floyd always has something up his sleeve reserved for rounds eleven and twelve.
Manny fought well (technique wise) but he fought the wrong fight and he was too cautious (Marquez KO). I get why people think the fight would have been better before 2011, still think Manny loses but the fight would have been more exciting no doubt.
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