On May 5th at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada current WBC Welterweight Champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (42-0 with 26 KO?s) will face off against WBA Super Welterweight Champion Miguel Cotto (37-2 with 30 KO?s). May 5th will mark the five year anniversary to the day of the Mayweather/De La Hoya fight which was won by Floyd via 12 round split decision (which should have been unanimous). In the ensuing five years, Mayweather has fought only four times, but has looked nothing short of spectacular in each outing. As athletes move beyond their athletic prime (typically between ages 25 and 30) they either become a shell of their former self or they reinvent themselves and find creative ways to resume their dominance (i.e. Michael Jordan) while retaining enough of their athleticism along with added wisdom in order to be highly effective. One way to determine where a fighter stands today versus in the past is to imagine them fighting themselves.
How would the 35 year old Floyd of 2012 match up against the 30 year old Floyd from 2007? Let?s analyze the Mayweather that fought Victor Ortiz last September and the Floyd who fought Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton five years ago. The Mayweather who fought Oscar was a lot more mobile. He moved around the ring a lot more and forced his opponent to pressure him. He was also very capable of fighting in the pocket, but against Oscar he chose to move and was mindful of getting caught with Oscar?s big left hook. Against Hatton he had no choice but to fight on the inside for much of the fight because Hatton applied suffocating pressure and had very quick feet that enabled him to close the distance and get to Floyd the way few fighters had in the past.
Mayweather also displayed good movement and fresh legs as recently as 2009 when he came back off a near two year layoff and dominated the great Juan Manuel Marquez. Mayweather?s defense has been incredible throughout his career with only a couple exceptions when he chose to be more aggressive ala the DeMarcus Corley fight where he got hit more cleanly than usual.
I believe that Mayweather?s power has always been a little underrated. His power is overshadowed by his amazing defense, speed, quickness, athleticism, footwork and intelligence. Although he scored a good amount of stoppages earlier in his career, Floyd has never been a one punch knockout artist, but there have not been too many opponents that have been in the ring with him that have left thinking that he hits like a girl.
Having stated that, I believe that Floyd is punching harder than ever these days and he is also physically stronger as well. There is a distinct difference between being physically strong and being a big puncher. Some fighters are physically strong but do not punch hard (i.e. Andre Ward) while others are big punchers but aren?t physically strong (i.e. Tommy Hearns). In the past five years Floyd has gotten much physically stronger and it has been very evident in his last few fights against very physically strong fighters like Shane Mosley and Victor Ortiz. Prior to these fights, most people thought it would be Mayweather and not Mosley and Ortiz that would be retreating for most of the fight, but the antithesis occurred. I believe that Floyd knew that he had to become stronger in order to compete with the elite at welterweight and to be as dominant at 147 as he had been at 130-140 pounds. He has grown nicely into the welterweight division and has displayed the ability to absorb a strong punch from a welterweight against Mosley as well as in his last fight against Ortiz when he did take a couple decent punches before being intentionally head butted in the 4th round.
In this author?s view, Floyd has retained 95% of the speed and reflexes that he possessed five years ago at the age of thirty, 90-95% in the area of footwork/legs, lost nothing and possibly gained in the punch resistance category and absolutely nothing vis-?-vis defensive prowess. All of this while becoming a slightly bigger puncher who sits down on his punches and is physically stronger and even more intelligent. Putting everything into account, I think that the Mayweather of 2012 would beat the Mayweather from 2007 who fought Oscar and Hatton. If I am correct, this could spell serious trouble for Miguel Cotto who most believe is not quite as good as he was 5 years ago when this fight should have taken place. If Mayweather of today would beat Mayweather from five years ago, but Cotto couldn?t beat the Cotto from 2007, how the hell is he going to beat Mayweather in May? Well, styles make fights and Miguel will have to pray that his style will be a nightmare for Floyd. Yes, styles do make fights, but unfortunately for Cotto, Floyd beats everybody in style.
