Legendary boxing greats generally seem untouchable in their primes, but they all lose to a common opponent, their true worst enemy — time. One can only wonder how long Floyd “Money” Mayweather can continue to take long breaks off and still perform at the elite level we have been accustomed to seeing from him.
Is Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero the one to finally put that first blemish on Floyd’s glorified record? Here are the top 3 reasons why you may just want to side with the underdog on May 4th.
Floyd Mayweather Sr. Back in Camp
Floyd Mayweather Jr. and his father, Floyd Sr., have had a very publicly rocky, roller coaster type of relationship. Now though, Floyd Sr. has once again taken the reins in training camp, for the first time since the early beginnings of Floyd Jr.’s professional career. Is Roger Mayweather’s illness finally catching up with him, forcing Mayweather to bring his father back into the fold?
The way that Roger would train Floyd was more along the lines of stepping back and letting the kid work, helping him where and when he needs, a much more relaxed and secondary approach. Floyd Jr.’s routine is practically the same every fight he has, and as he said, “If it’s not broken, why fix it?” He trains hard every day and is always ready by fight night.
However, while Roger has been helping out in the camp, it seems as if Floyd Sr. will be doing the “heavy lifting” of being the number 1 trainer.
Floyd Sr. is the more orthodox trainer and definitely more vocal with his opinion. Will he be able to adjust to Floyd Jr.’s way and just keep going with it? Or will he attempt to enforce the way he trains and works with other fighters?
Two huge egos in the same camp usually just does not work, how long till another argument happens again?
Mayweather’s Inactivity, and Jail Time
Mayweather will have been out of the ring one day short of a year since his decision win over Miguel Cotto last May 5. That period of course also included a three month stint in jail, not exactly a way to keep your health at a pristine level.
Considering the time he spent in prison, there’s two ways to look at it. First, that it affected him negatively and was a traumatic experience for him, or second, it truly made him a better person and he was able to grow from the experience. We will only truly know when we see how Floyd reacts in the ring on fight night.
Mayweather’s Age & Physical Form
In Floyd’s last outing against Miguel Cotto, we saw something that we have almost never seen from him — he got tired. The accumulating body shots that Cotto was throwing visually got to Floyd. There were times in the fight when Cotto got him against the ropes and forced him to fight that way, and Floyd took some punishment.
His legs and movement were just not there as much as they usually are. Maybe it was the weight, as fighting at 154 pounds has always been a dangerous ground for Floyd, who’s undersized for the division.
Not to mention that Floyd Mayweather turned 36 this year, too.
The opponents who potentially can trouble Mayweather the most are the ones who put on a lot of pressure, cut off the ring well and can fight for every minute of every round. I think Guerrero fought that same way against Andre Berto because he was preparing that way to fight Floyd if he got the chance to land the fight.
What Guerrero did show in his fight was that he has good power, the heart and chin to not back down, and the ability to keep fighting toe to toe every round. Berto was landing thunderous uppercuts on Guerrero and he showed he can take them and keep fighting harder than before. Cotto set somewhat of a blueprint on how to win rounds on the current version of Mayweather, and it is up to Guerrero and his team to try to perfect it.
Even though Floyd Jr. talks about longevity in the sport and that he’s never taken any beatings or much punishment, we saw in the Cotto fight clear signs of him on the decline. Will he be able to tear that page out of his storybook career and be renewed, showing he is better than ever? Or has it all finally caught up to him? We’ll see on fight night.
