What does it take to beat Floyd Mayweather.
Floyd Mayweather, as a fighter, has as many detractors as he has fans. But I think every single one of them respects what a talented fighter he actually is. And how difficult a puzzle he is to solve. So I’ve been thinking, what type of fighter would it actually take to beat him? And is there a fighter of his own era would have a good shot at beating him?
Pressure
When your discussing “beating Floyd 101”, the general consensus seems to be “pressure him”. Largely down to his struggles with Castillo, in their first fight. I find this a flawed logic.
Firstly, he fought Castillo, the legitimate number 1 at the weight, at 24 years of age, in his very first fight at 135. Floyd couldn’t make a buck back then, so shock horror, did everything he could to take on the toughest guys about. The guy took a three fight series of Coralles, Chavez and Castillo for god’s sake, over 2 weights. It didn’t get any tougher back then.
Nostalgia aside, Castillo was a very tough fight to take for your first fight at a weight, at that age. A tough, big punching, relentless pressure fighter. And I think Floyd underestimated him. He escaped with his 0 by the skin of his teeth, but wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.
In the re-match, he handled the same fighter easily, and along with his similarly easy win over renowned pressure guy Hatton, I think we can throw the pressure theory out of the window.
Power
I’m not liking this theory already, but The Captain never ducks a debate, so here goes. Firstly, you can count the number of times Mayweather has taken a serious shot on one hand, so until he starts getting hit regularly, you can probably take power out of the equation.
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