a question to chris n???

[TheSilverBoy]

hiya m8
remember i did a post on mayweather and his training, i was wondering u didnt rate mayweather that highly why is this, i mean u said hes spars ok, heavybags hs ok pads hes ok

what you mean by this just curious ?

[Chris Nagel]

I didn't mean downgrade him, that's just I got from his training footage. Which part do you want me to make clear? He has excellent attributes and a good base style. His training isn't as impressive as some fighters, say comparing his training to that of Ray Robinson.

His shadowboxing isn't impressive, but I liked the fact that his style is kept polished. You can see what I'm talking about when his Uncle Roger is throwing right hands and Floyd is blocking them with his left shoulder. He pretty fine tuned when it comes to expecting certain counters that people throw despite the fact that it is in line with what Floyd is expecting.

As I said about attributes, he has good hand speed, endurance, and fast eyes which comes from his boxing style, and sparring/mitt-work.

One of the things that the footage didn't show was creativity, or tactiful awareness as seen in the Zab Judah matchup. I mean Floyd is pretty straight forward, you don't really see himself change a whole lot in his fights. If you look at other fighters, say Ray Robinson, Charley Burley, Joe Walcott, Ezzard Charles, Archie Moore and even some later fighter including Muhammed Ali you can see that they are a lot more adaptable. To them it got to the point that they can absorb tactics from other fighters, improvise, experiment with different techniques, and are always trying new ideas, especially in training.

As for work ethic I guess Floyd is okay, but as for what I can see from the bagwork, and shadowboxing he doesn't rank so highly in my book. I believe with many fighters you can judge them based on how they shadowbox, because is a look into the mind of a fighter.

[TheSilverBoy]

ahhh ryt i see, i like your point on the shadowboxing where you can see into a fighters mind thats kool

[Chris Nagel]

Once you get good at shadowboxing then you can also show off a little too. Muhammed Ali would say this is how Sugar Ray Robinson would do it.

I remember their was a cuban fighter from the 50's who's name was Kid Chocolate/Cocoa, anyways a lot of his skill was was aftermath of carefull studing the films of other fighters before him. And I can imagine just like any good champion he had to train like one too.