Mayweather 2012 is Leonard 1988.

For me Floyd Mayweather reminds me of of the SRL who met Donny Lalonde in 1988 Las Vegas. It was clear in that fight that the 32 year old Leonard had lost his footwork and decided to trade more going toe to toe. Mayweather in contrast started doing that back when he fought Mosley and nothing changed when he fought Ortiz.

Could this play a major factor against Cotto? who is no stranger to going hell for leather. No doubt Mayweather's skill ad technical mastery are still present but if he has lost the great footwork that enabled him to counter punch so effortlessly in the past then will that play into Cotto's hands?

Many people take Mayweather to take Cotto easily on here (TRUSS) but without that footwork he may have to really slug it out with Cotto to win. Lalonde forced Leonard to come out of his comfort zone and fight but in the end class prevailed......

will this be the case come May 5th?

Your right but slugging it out isnt what they do.

Floyd walks forward countering, fighting in the pocket using quick hooks still utilising the shoulder roll. He doesn't slug it out, you don't see 100 punches a round on total in a floyd fight. He holds the centre of the ring like noone else I the world atm and can control the pace brilliantly. Floyd's defence isn't so mic to do with his footwork like Leonard either, he moves his upper body mostly and has a very very tight guard

ONETWOFOREVER wrote:For me Floyd Mayweather reminds me of of the SRL who met Donny Lalonde in 1988 Las Vegas. It was clear in that fight that the 32 year old Leonard had lost his footwork and decided to trade more going toe to toe. Mayweather in contrast started doing that back when he fought Mosley and nothing changed when he fought Ortiz.

Could this play a major factor against Cotto? who is no stranger to going hell for leather. No doubt Mayweather's skill ad technical mastery are still present but if he has lost the great footwork that enabled him to counter punch so effortlessly in the past then will that play into Cotto's hands?

Many people take Mayweather to take Cotto easily on here (TRUSS) but without that footwork he may have to really slug it out with Cotto to win. Lalonde forced Leonard to come out of his comfort zone and fight but in the end class prevailed......

will this be the case come May 5th?

Good article onetwo but it has an inherent flaw in the analysis. SRL was immobile against Lalonde out of necessity, simply he had lost his legs! Floyds recent fighting style, the genesis of which can actualy be tracked back to his fight against Judah, then more formalised against De la Hoya, and completly embeded by the end of the Hatton fight, is clearly out of choice.
Dont get it twsited, Floyd could dance for 15 rounds if he wanted to. Of this i have no doubt. He is the fittest and most atheletic guy out there along with Manny. What has happened to Floyd, as i have written before, is that he has become acutely aware of the developmental stafge he is at with regard to strength and conditioning. simply put Floyd has gained an extra degree of physical strength in there and he loves it. It means he cannot only stay in the pocket he can drain the other guy physically on the inside and he can walk people down and capitlise on their poor positioning. He is clearly enjoying this phase of his career and quite rightly sees no need to hit and move unless needed. My bet is that like Moslely, Ortiz , Hatton and Marquez, Cotto is going to be shocked by Floyds physicality and physical strength in there!

Great point azumah but Floyd was visually bigger then Hatton, Marquez and Mosley. Ortiz was bigger then he was but immature. If I remember clearly against Hatton he boxed on the move and only stood in front of him when he found the jab working well.

With Cotto he might want to get on his bike.

azumah HOF wrote:

ONETWOFOREVER wrote:For me Floyd Mayweather reminds me of of the SRL who met Donny Lalonde in 1988 Las Vegas. It was clear in that fight that the 32 year old Leonard had lost his footwork and decided to trade more going toe to toe. Mayweather in contrast started doing that back when he fought Mosley and nothing changed when he fought Ortiz.

Could this play a major factor against Cotto? who is no stranger to going hell for leather. No doubt Mayweather's skill ad technical mastery are still present but if he has lost the great footwork that enabled him to counter punch so effortlessly in the past then will that play into Cotto's hands?

Many people take Mayweather to take Cotto easily on here (TRUSS) but without that footwork he may have to really slug it out with Cotto to win. Lalonde forced Leonard to come out of his comfort zone and fight but in the end class prevailed......

will this be the case come May 5th?

Good article onetwo but it has an inherent flaw in the analysis. SRL was immobile against Lalonde out of necessity, simply he had lost his legs! Floyds recent fighting style, the genesis of which can actualy be tracked back to his fight against Judah, then more formalised against De la Hoya, and completly embeded by the end of the Hatton fight, is clearly out of choice.
Dont get it twsited, Floyd could dance for 15 rounds if he wanted to. Of this i have no doubt. He is the fittest and most atheletic guy out there along with Manny. What has happened to Floyd, as i have written before, is that he has become acutely aware of the developmental stafge he is at with regard to strength and conditioning. simply put Floyd has gained an extra degree of physical strength in there and he loves it. It means he cannot only stay in the pocket he can drain the other guy physically on the inside and he can walk people down and capitlise on their poor positioning. He is clearly enjoying this phase of his career and quite rightly sees no need to hit and move unless needed. My bet is that like Moslely, Ortiz , Hatton and Marquez, Cotto is going to be shocked by Floyds physicality and physical strength in there!

Have to agree there, Floyd does what he wants and its usually misinterpreted as age catching up with him. Mayweather has probably the most stringent training regime there is and come fight night he could make it go all the way if he needed to. Mayweather defeats every opponent on positioning and then everything else about him puts the exclamation mark on it.

To be honest, I can't even remember the last time I saw Maywetaher breathing hard.

When Zab Judah crushed his nuts with a deliberate low blow he was grinning about it too.

You know, I've always found it odd that whenever Floyd gets tagged, even with a big shot (Judah, Corley, Mosley) he always grins, MArquez catches him with a fantastic right hand on the cheek about 20 seconds before Floyd lands the left hook to put MArquez on his pants and he simply smiled at him, as though he was enjoying getting hit. Just always found that a tad weird.

Think it's a reaction to his defensive prowess, as if he's saying to his opponent 'you know you only one or two chances to hit me clean and even then you can't hurt me', his toughness usually gets forgotten because he's hardly ever needed to use it.

As ghostly says, his defence is so good that when he gets hit, it has to count. He isn't chinny and if you have been bossed for 4/5 rounds and you finally catch him clean yet he take sit and smiles at you, it much be so draining emotionally. He talks to his opponent also from the first bell, taunting him. He wins most of his fights psychologically as well as physically

even if mayweather wanted to trade, i cant see cotto accepting the invitation. hes fought pretty negatively in his last 3 fights