Poor Joshua Clottey was roundly condemned for his performance against Manny Pacquiao. His crime? He didn’t throw enough punches.
Many were frustrated with Shane Mosley’s performance against Floyd on Saturday night because he… didn’t throw enough punches.
Some said that Clottey was paid off or a mental case. Some say Shane Mosley had suddenly gotten old.
Isn’t it funny how those sorts of things tend to happen most often when facing the best fighers in the world?
I’m not much of a Punch Stat guy, but in this case I think it’s illuminating. Against Manny Pacquiao, Joshua Clottey threw 399 punches. Not good. Against Cotto, for example, Clottey threw 622 punches.
Against Floyd Mayweather, Shane Mosley threw 452 punches. Not that good and not that different. Against Antonio Margarito in his last fight, Shane Mosley threw 507 punches in just a bit over 8 rounds.
There are different methods for controlling the pace of a fight. For Pacquiao, he swarms an opponent into being defensive. Against Cotto he threw 781 punches and an amazing 1231 against Clottey. He simply overwhelms the opposition with pace.
With Floyd, it’s different. For the early part of Floyd’s career he controlled pace by controlling space, by moving. He would determine the moment of engagement and then punch on his terms.
Mayweather rarely threw more than fifty punches a round and often did so while moving.
Since his comeback from a brief retirement Mayweather has employed a different strategy to control pace. He doesn’t move as much and doesn’t let his hands go all that often, (477 times against Mosley, 493 against Marquez) but he seems to be throwing with more power and focusing more on countering.
Floyd has been making it a point to counter the jab with his clean right hand, and any lunging combination with powerful answers of his own. While he isn’t leading often, he is discouraging his opponents, forcing them to work at distance. Floyd says, “I’m standing right here. Throw if you want, but you’ll get a share of pain in response.”
So what happens when the two meet?
I think the numbers will tell us an awful lot. Floyd will always be more accurate and more difficult to hit and Manny will always throw more shots. The question will be Manny’s ability to keep his work rate at an extremely high level no matter Floyd’s ability to counter.
Manny loves the fight and is very difficult to discourage. He has great passion and self-belief, but he’ll have to eat a lot of leather in order to dish out his fair share. We know Pacquiao is capable of pushing, just look at the last round of his first fight with Erik Morales, when a much less technically sound Pacquiao nearly managed a late stoppage.
But we also know that Mayweather is a master at controlling space and moment of engagement.
