Watching Floyd Mayweather work his magic against Robert Guerrero on Saturday night was like watching an instructional video on how to stymie your opponent's best offensive attack.
Simply put, Money May is a defensive guru.
His genius was seen throughout the fight as he set up his offense with a nearly unbreakable shell that Guerrero was unable to penetrate. Once The Ghost got ghosted, Mayweather came strong with vicious countering strikes that often jarred Guerrero's entire upper body.
Mayweather's quick feet were on full display as he danced circles around Guerrero the entire night. I've seen professional dancers that don't hold a candle to Money when it comes to foot speed.
In the end, after 12 grueling rounds for Guerrero, Mayweather looked as fresh as a spring chicken and won a unanimous decision with all three judges scoring the fight 117-111.
That score makes the fight seem closer than it actually was. When you take a look at the actual numbers for each fighter, the judges' scorecards don't do justice to Money's dominating performance.
CompuBox obtained an image of the Showtime Sports stat sheet, which was revelatory:
Guerrero was only able to land 19 percent of his 581 total punches—113 total punches landed.
Not only that, but Mayweather really limited the amount of punches Guerrero threw. In The Ghost's previous fight against Andre Berto, he threw 731 punches and landed 35 percent—258 total punches landed.
Guerrero wasn't even able to land half as many punches against Mayweather as he did against Berto, who is an exceptional fighter in his own right with a career record of 28-2.
Conversely, thanks to his stalwart defensive efforts, Mayweather was able to effectively counter Guerrero's attacks and land a high percentage of his punches—41 percent total and a staggering 60 percent of his power punches.
After the fight, Mayweather credited his father with helping him stay focused on defense first, per the AP (via ESPN.com): "I needed my father tonight. My defense was on point and he told me to stick with my defense and that the less you get hit the longer you last."
Mayweather's dominance in the ring begins and ends with his ability to stymie his opponents' offensive attacks. He doesn't look for the knockout blow so much as he waits for his opponent to make mistakes and then capitalizes on those mistakes.
Some fans may yearn for a champion who strives to lay his opponent out on the mat, but Mayweather is content to let his skill win the battle. He didn't need to knock Guerrero out because his victory was just as obvious as if he had knocked him out.
In many other sports, defense wins championships.
Mayweather seems to have assumed that same mantra, and his defensive genius was on full display for all to see on Saturday night.
Follow me on Twitter @JesseReed78
Read more Boxing news on BleacherReport.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment