I'm very confident that Floyd beats Pacquiao.

I haven't said anything about the fight...figured I'd let the PacTards bask in the glory and overrate his chances against Floyd. Based on what I saw Saturday night, Manny has a punchers chance at beating Floyd...that's it.

While most have derided Shane's performance, I was surprised and not surprised at the same time. Shane was effective early on, then his age and ringwars caught up with him.

Shane picked off a TON of Manny's shots...with the exception of the knockdown he typically had himself in a position to block manny's left. Some got through later on because he pulled straight back but for the most part a guy who wasn't always defensively savvy managed to pick off a bunch of manny's shots and more importantly dictate the range which caused manny to punch short then lunge in.

Manny had issues with Shane's jab when he popped it...threw with authority. He also had no answer for counterjabs when Shane through them. manny doesn't parry shots and doesn't punch when you're punching at him...he only covers. He waits until you stop to punching to punch.

Shane was very effective early on by constantly sliding to his left and working the jab. I thought Shane won the first round and fought well in spots early on. Save for the knockdown you couldn't give Shane many of the early rounds simply due to his not throwing enough shots. But the gameplan was correct....Manny fought a north/south fight early and resorted to rushing in, head high/chin exposed....Shane couldn't pull the trigger. There were tons of openings.

Floyd is so much more everything than Shane at this point...speed, power, reflexes, defense. can't see Manny handling any of that.

With that said...

Manny did do a few things I liked. Roach said something to him about Shane "only moving one way" and Manny responded by cutting off the ring, forcing Shane back to his right which lined him up for straight left hands. Since Shane constantly moved straight back...he got caught with those shots even if most didn't have full effect.

As Manny cutoff the ring he also threw cutoff shots...to newbies who don't know what I mean...as Shane slide over to his left, Manny threw right hooks to the body knowing Shane would lower his left (now he can't get off the jab) forcing Shane to use his elbow to protect his side...when that happened Shane was stationary and lined up for the straight left. Shane became so preoccupied with blocking shots he didn't counter with the right hand. Very smart tactic.

Note: those shots are thrown to the body...not the head...the purpose isn't as much to land the shot as it is to force the opponent to stop moving and force him back to your power hand.

Anyway...that's the best I can say about Manny. I can't see him beating Floyd barring a massive shot Floyd can't recover from. This is a case where Manny's combinations works against him...If Shane makes him miss and punch short how badly does Floyd make him miss? And, Floyd won't have to completely disengage to catch Manny.

In same respects I can see Floyd doing to Manny what Manny did to Hatton. Manny has no choice but to come to Floyd. he can't fight going backward. He can only cover up...that's his only defence.

I see potentioal for one of the greatest big fight mismatches ever.

This pains me to say this...believe me. I hate Floyd more than the average guy. I'm neutral to Manny save for his delusional fans. I'd prefer Floyd in handcuffs doing time than a megafight on this stage.

"However"

I have to lay down my Haterade and look at the fight objectively. Save for a monster punch...Floyd handles Manny fairly easily...especially when the heavy leather comes back at Manny. Manny's always talking about going to war. the problem being...it's always against a guy so much slower than he, he can risk throwing tons of punches without the jeopardy of a counter coming back.

He has no such luxury in a fight with Floyd.

 

SHOCKING!

 

Marquez and Floyd are different fighters but Floyd can do everything marquez can do and then some.

 

At one point he did.

Now he doesn't care much to do so.

 

Exactly.

You can't say that about Floyd now Sly, you just can't.

It's like saying "Roy Jones is one of the best fighters in the world, his career proves this".

Remember I was actually a fan of Floyd before he stopped challenging himself.

 

Very good post.

 

Are you a fan of Manny

 

His inactivity can be criticized, but not his choice of opponents.

Zab Judah and Baldomir were the most relevant Welters when he moved up, like it or not. We can talk about Margarito, Cintron and Cotto all we want, but at the time the aforemented two were the relevant fighters to beat in that division.

Oscar was at 154lbs, too big for Floyd, and had just come off of utterly destroying Mayorga in 6 rounds. That was a challenge.

Hatton was in the top 5 p4p and had stopped Tszyu and Castillo (no mean feat) and was UNDEFEATED. And I don't give a shit about whether or not Hatton looked bad against Collazo, who knows whether or not Collazo just had the wrong style for him. Duran looked bad against Kirkland Laing, Ali against Norton. Doesn't mean that Hatton was suddenly a shit fighter at 147lbs.

Mosley at the time was a good challenge, he was the Welterweight champion and he had destroyed Margarito (cintron pacquiao and Cotto couldn't do it) and Mayorga.

Marquez was a decent warm up, considering he was a top 3 P4P guy at the time, albeit smaller.

So let's not revise history and act as though Floyd has only fought soft touches.

 

The Judah fight was pretty inexcusable at the time.

 

Not really.

Most people thought that Judah's loss to Baldy was a fluke and that he was in fact the more dangerous challenge to Floyd. Stylewise Judah was always going to be perhaps Floyd's most difficult fight, with the combination of handspeed, movement, power and southpawedness. And Judah is the one that Floyd moved up to face anway..as Judah had just been the undisputed Champion after knocking out Spinks (something neither Mayorga or in future Jermaine Taylor) couldn't do.

 

Most people isn't accurate. Most people were upset that Floyd took the fight anyway. There's absolutely no question he should have fought Baldomir in the early part of 2006.

 

No one thought the fight was a fluke. Rahman KOing Lemmon was a fluke. Oliver McCall KOing Lemmon was a fluke. Lamon Brewster KOing Wlad was a fluke.

We are talking about Zab Judah here. Most didn't care that Zab lost. Zab was always iffy after the tszyu loss...after he lost to Spinks he almost lost to Pineda after having a huge lead.

The "onliest" reason he got the Floyd fight was due to one of his belts not on th eline when he lost to Baldomir.

 

The Judah fight was planned long before Judah lost to Baldomir. Judah fighting Baldomir was supposed to be a formality.

 

judah was a worthy foe. he gave mayweather jr one of his hardest fights.

 

for four rounds.

 

how many guys have given mayweather jr a harder fight in his career?

 

Oscar and Castillo

 

Agree on Castillo, but Zab was a much tougher fight for Floyd than Oscar.

 

For four rounds.

 

BS, Chop and Zab both got to him

 

Emanuel Burton

 

Did you really just say that ?

 

PBF's toughest fight by far was against Castillo. He had a tough time with ODH as well. Other than that, it's been pretty much a cake-walk for him, and a boring one at that.

 

Yeah but that's not his fault. As for his "tough" fight with Castillo. I seem to remember PBF switching to southpaw frequently in that fight in order to protect his left hand/arm. Floyd is not a switch-hitter by nature...so obviously he was physically impaired. Nevertheless he won 7 rounds arguably 8.

 

Hes had some entertaining fights

 

How many rounds was Oscar in the fight for once PBF started countering his jab? Oscar is basically a 6 round fighter anyway. Zab actually knocked Floyd down, too.

 

It was basically over after that. I haven't seen the fight for a while but if memory serves correct Oscar won at least one of the later rounds. Also it still appeared De La Hoya was in the fight and could have done something to keep things closer.

Once Floyd had Judah figured out it was as good as over.