Floyd Mayweather — My Greatest
This week I delve into my archives to something I wrote in August 2015 on Floyd Mayweather, my favourite boxer. Mayweather is the boxer who made me really follow the sport. I was hooked after I watched the De La Hoya/Mayweather 24/7 HBO Mini-Series before Floyd’s fight with Oscar De La Hoya in 2007. I hope you enjoy.
The more I watch Floyd Mayweather the more I feel he is the best boxer ever to step into the ring. He has an amazing skillset, a skillset so rare, so elegant, so pure and so effortless that it is easy to undervalue.
People today tend to define Floyd Mayweather and criticise him as being a boring, defensive fighter.
That point of view is incorrect, in my opinion. When Mayweather was in his twenties he was a complete and utter beast. He possessed a level of speed that perhaps had never been seen before, combined with razor-sharp power. His technique at that age was already awe-inspiring. His left hand, for example, was already a thing of beauty.
Undeniably, Mayweather’s ability to shoot off the left, at any angle, with power, is awe-inspiring. The Mayweather left hand can be a hook, a cross or an uppercut and all those options are set up by what, in my mind, is the best jab ever.
Mayweather’s jab is fast, powerful, effective. With the jab, he keeps his opponent away from him. He controls distance. However, despite the brilliance of his jab, Mayweather is not a volume jabber. He mainly uses it to confuse you and deter you psychologically and from coming forwards towards him.
No one has jabbed to the body as well as Mayweather has. He does it consistently and effectively. To me his first fight against Marcos Maidana was a tutorial on jabbing to the body.
And it showed another area in which I think Floyd has differentiated himself — his patience.
I don’t know if it was by design but, in the Marcos Maidana fight, Mayweather relied almost exclusively on the jab to the mid-section when the fighters were in the middle of the ring and short, sharp punches to the body when Maidana was swarming him on the ropes. He was not overly concerned with Maidana’s head.
Things were obviously very close in the opening rounds. Maidana was doing an excellent and very visible job of pressuring Mayweather which was making an impression on those watching the fight.
Any other fighter in Mayweather’s position may have panicked: ‘I could be in trouble here on the scorecards’, and tried to brawl or focus on the head where most points are scored.
But, Mayweather kept to the plan. He did a lot of body work: jabs to the body; uppercuts to the ribs. He slowly sapped Maidana. At round seven Mayweather then changed his approach and started dominating Maidana with crisp combinations and there is no doubt he won the fight in the end.
In the latter rounds he landed the crisper, better shots and was clearly the better boxer.
I respect that — the ability to stay calm and calculated in the battle. And, in that aspect, no boxer has ever been better than Floyd Mayweather.
I will say this on Floyd Mayweather, my theory: Floyd came up as the most exciting prospect of his generation. He was widely regarded as the star of the United States 1996 Olympic boxing team. His first major disappointment came when he lost his featherweight semi-final at those Olympics to Bulgarian boxer Serafim Todorov.
He took that disappointment into his professional career which he started just a few months after his Olympic experience. He made a brilliant start to his career and by 21 he was Ring Magazine’s fighter of the year, the youngest winner of the award alongside legends Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard.
He had brilliant fights and stunning wins. He destroyed Genaro Hernandez in 1999 who, until then, had been undefeated in the previous 10 years and whose only ever defeat at that point had come to Oscar de la Hoya. Mayweather dominated and destroyed Hernandez to take his title.
Still, Mayweather was not receiving public acclaim he felt he deserved. In 2001 he then fought Diego Corrales and produced one of the most complete performances in a world title fight. It increased his standing. After the fight Mayweather was rated in the top three pound-for-pound list for boxers.
At around this time he started calling out the biggest names at the time, such as Shane Mosley, Oscar De la Hoya and Arturo Gatti. But Mayweather still wasn’t getting the big fights and mainstream appreciation.
His first pay-per-view match only came in 2004, eight years after becoming pro and seven after becoming a world champion. He destroyed Arturo Gatti in that fight. His next pay-per-view (PPV) bout was in 2005 against Zab Judah.
My theory is that Floyd finally got the money he wanted and felt he deserved in those two fights. His focus now shifted totally to remaining on the PPV stage. He changed his style and tack. His mind-set became all about collecting the money and notoriety he had craved from the start of his career but hadn’t received.
And this plan would be driven by two things: being brash and being undefeated. He changed, yes. He became a fighter that is concerned more with not losing rather than winning the crowd like gladiators past. Perhaps this is the fairest criticism of Floyd Mayweather.
