Mayweather: Boxing fans please educate me

**Ke?poFist** · Posted On: 5/12/2007 1:45am

Some of his fights were on ESPN tonight. I don't know....I guess I feel like that boxing critic who vented his letdown after watching the UFC despite all the hype.

I pictured Mayweather having machine-gun like hands, that completely overwhelm and pick apart his opponents. Maybe these cards were earlier in his career, but what I saw was a guy who clinched a lot and tried to punch from there inefficiently. This is the guy who I'm told has the best chance to walk into the UFC and just lace whomever they put in front of him out cold? I don't know....maybe there's something I'm missing.

**Schattenfaust** · Posted On: 5/12/2007 2:14am

No, that's pretty much it. He's good at jabbing and running away, but that's really all there is to it.

**ojgsxr6** · Posted On: 5/12/2007 3:46am

No one is ever as good as their highlight video.

**selfcritical** · Posted On: 5/12/2007 3:51am

The main thing is that mayweather has stupidly good defense. He just does not get hit in the face. He uses range really well, and he can enter the clinch whenever he wants without taking a hit. I think he's boring as ****, but his defensive skill seems pretty evident. If he was in MMA I imagine he's strike into the clinch and then get dominated there.

**NoMan** · Posted On: 5/12/2007 7:11am

100% pure hype. Mayweather has great defense, good range control, but in MMA he'd get creamed using his defensive strategies. His hands are not that good, I would put an early Roy Jones Jr., (he says his hands are too brittle too keep doing it), as the guy that could of overwhelmed with a flurry of punches a la' Vitor Belfort when he wasn't in suck mode. Or, of course, a non-coked early Mike Tyson. Or a younger Butterbean. (He actually has done it a few times, of course, against nobodies.)

**MississippiRed** · Posted On: 5/12/2007 11:37am

Floyd Jr is a very technical boxer he's not a guy that's going to come in the ring and brawl that's not his style or how he was trained.

Floyd has great defense and speed with both his hands and feet. Floyd also knows how to use the ring to his advantage . Hand speed is amazing as well as accuracy and power when fighting a lightweight.

In my opinion he truly is one of the best boxers I've ever seen. A lot of people don't like his style of fighting for the most part because they're not true diehard boxing fans. What Floyd does is truly the sweet science he hits without getting hit. , is always accurate and effective with his punches and makes good fighters look bad.

To compare Floyd or any boxer for that matter to an MMA fighter in my opinion doesn't make any sense because of the differences in ruleset. Under a MMA ruleset fighting a MMA fighter most boxers are going to lose but those same two fighters under boxing rules and the MMA guy is going to end up on the short end of the stick, it's apples to oranges.

Red

**Blue Negation** · Posted On: 5/12/2007 11:47am

Pretending that boxing rules are equivalent in value to MMA rules is laughable. Absolutely everything legal in boxing is legal in MMA.

Comparing athletes directly doesn't make any sense, but not for the reasons that keep coming up by the people saying "well but if it was boxing rules". They shouldn't be compared because boxing is just a piece of how to fight and this is plainly obvious 14 years after 1993.

**MississippiRed** · Posted On: 5/12/2007 12:12pm

Originally Posted by Blue Negation

Pretending that boxing rules are equivalent in value to MMA rules is laughable. Absolutely everything legal in boxing is legal in MMA.

Comparing athletes directly doesn't make any sense, but not for the reasons that keep coming up by the people saying "well but if it was boxing rules". They shouldn't be compared because boxing is just a piece of how to fight and this is plainly obvious 14 years after 1993.

I'm one of the people that says you can't compare the athletes due to the rules they fight under and it makes perfect sense. Now the comparison is not to figure out which sport has the greater value or will help more in a self defence situation or anything . It's comparing two athletes in a way to figure who would come out victorius in a fight. That being said they fight under two different sets of rules.

Everything legal in boxing is legal in MMA but that doesn't go the other way. In MMA you can take the opponent down, you can kick them , you can elbow , those things aren't legal in boxing so boxers don't train for those instances where any of those things may happen. So rules do matter , boxers train their hands and boxing skills based on the rules they fight under which is why some boxers are briliant as an amateur but not as a pro . It's because they can't adapt their game from fighting under the US boxing ruleset to fighting under the pro ruleset.

Same thing in comparing an MMA fighter under MMA rules to a boxer fighting under boxing rules it can't be done except in the things existing in both sports that they would have in common. I can't name a boxer who I feel could just walk into MMA with their pre-existing skillset fighting under MMA rules and win consistently. On the same token though I can't name one MMA fighter who I think could jump into boxing, fighting under boxing rules and win consistently.

Red

**Stick** · Posted On: 5/12/2007 12:58pm

Yeah, see I'm not getting this idea that Mayweather would do great in MMA either; you're all saying his defense is what's so amazing, but how the hell is that defense going to sack up to kicks- especially leg kicks- shots, and clinch work that a ref isn't going to break up.

I'm sorry, but if he doesn't have thunder hands of god that KO any man on earth by merely grazing the face, then he doesn't stand a chance.

**Ecks** · Posted On: 5/12/2007 1:23pm

Erm... who said that Mayweather would do well in MMA, other than Mayweather?

It seems every mention of Mayweather suddenly conjures up images of his claims for boxing superiority. Well, perhaps we should try looking at it this way: Mayweather's an idiot. A damned skilled idiot, but an ignorant idiot nonetheless. And so are all the people who say Mayweather would beat any MMA fighter. Just, let it die.

But also, please do not compare Vitor Belfort, or any other MMA fighter's punching game to Mayweather. He's of an entirely different league. I agree with Red... MMA fighters would suffer greatly under boxing rules, while boxers would suffer under MMA rules. Since MMA rules are closer to true fighting, it should be safe to say that an MMA fighter has the edge in a real fight. So, let's leave it at that... these are just competitions, there are much more important things in life than what some trash talker says. When I first heard him I say that, I brushed it away and just ignored it. It really surprises me the extent at which so many people blew this out of proportion. Suck it up, they're just words.

Why people must continually analyze and interpret any mention of boxing as a concealed attack or ignorant remark of its "superiority", is light years beyond me.