December 21st, 2009 | by Pleas Kavanaugh
The hotly anticipated battle between undefeated American phenom Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Filipino legend Manny Pacquiao is a fight of unparalleled stature, featuring two stylistically opposed combatants who have incited an unprecedented cascade of commentary and criticism, from frenzied fans and experts alike, regarding every aspect of the fight; from potentially major stumbling blocks, such as who is most deserving of the lion’s share of the purse, to trivialities like which name should be read first on the marquee.
Among these many rather curious opinions floats the suggestion that while Floyd may technically defeat his Asian counterpart if he chooses to “run” for the duration of the fight, the only way he can achieve a “moral” victory is to concede to the proverbial backyard brawl and go, quite uncharacteristically, toe to toe or blow for blow. Rest assured, neither Floyd nor any other fighter on Earth, for that matter, care nearly as much for moral victories as they do literal ones. But personal preference aside, the suggestion that one style trumps another by the mere whim of the crowd leaves too much to be desired from a purest standpoint to go unaddressed and, furthermore, suggests a gaping miseducation of the nature of the world’s oldest and greatest game.
For the record, whether or not Mayweather will attempt to employ his elite ring generalship and potshot his way to an easy decision or elect to remain inside and counterpunch off that patented Michigan shoulder roll will likely remain a mystery until fight night. But the reality is that Team Mayweather’s fight strategy is its own prerogative. What might be addressed here is the recent characterization of Floyd Mayweather Jr. as a runner. While interpretation should always remain a most subjective thing, cold hard statistics have an uncanny propensity to speak for themselves.
In a welterweight title bout versus Carlos Baldomir, a fight often touted by critics as an example of Floyd Mayweather’s propensity to “run,” the Grand Rapids native landed some 43% of his total punches, allowing his opponent a dismal 12%. He landed 120 more punches than Baldomir, while throwing 212 less. Needless to say, Mayweather pitched a one-sided shutout that was more clinic than contest, even as both commentators and crowd alike offered stern criticism of his unwillingness to “mix it up.”
Versus Zab Judah, perhaps Mayweather’s first opponent of near equal athleticism, Floyd was able to outland his opponent more than 2 to 1 on his way to an easy decision victory.
In his welterweight match with Juan Manuel Marquez, another fighter celebrated for his defensive prowess and economical punching, Mayweather landed some 59% of total punches while permitting Marquez to land only 12%.
These statistics are not indicative of a man more inclined to evade than engage, but describe a pugilist who has incorporated the most fundamental understanding of the sweet science into his form inside the ring. In doing so, he is perhaps doomed to suffer the same fate as other greats to have demonstrated such a profound knowledge of ring generalship and defense.
To the bloodthirsty fans chagrin, masters of elusion often mute the drama of a good brawl. When one expects brutality, precision bewilders. And the technician’s unwillingness to conform to expectation gets mistaken for fear when it is actually good old fashioned intelligence which has ruled the day. When the fight is done and the lust for blood remains unquenched, the disgruntled fan slumps out of the arena perhaps feeling a bit tricked.
Amongst a fan base of knockout junkies where a fundamentally bankrupt Mike Tyson was able to flourish nearly a decade past his prime in the desperate hope of bloody carnage on fight night, masters like Pernell Whitaker and Roy Jones Jr. were often chided by causal fans for their ability to go about their work in the ring in an almost casual fashion; an ability facilitated expressly by defensive prowess. Floyd Mayweather Jr. is the most elusive and economical fighter in the world and thus, a reinterpretation of the evidence offers perhaps the slightest of adjustments when the contemporary casual boxing fan just might have lost his way.
While there are infinite ways in which a pugilist’s objective can and might be accomplished, there has been a general progression in the understanding of the fundamental nature and applications of the sweet science if not since the days of Apollonius and Ulysses, then undoubtedly since the Marquess of Queensberry. In all that time, from those days until this, the singular uncontested resolution of the game is:
Boxing is the art of hitting and not getting hit.
Whether that objective is accomplished through the use of clean punching, effective aggression, ring generalship or defense or any combination therein is to be determined entirely by a fighter’s own estimation of his mental, emotional and physical capacity as a human being.
There is nothing else.
Source: la.fighthype.com
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