How good was Floyd?

[mikeeod]

In my opinion, Floyd was great. He was that rare athlete who was naturally gifted but also an extremely hard worker who had phenomenal skills and ring IQ. I’m not sure if you were asking how “good” his skills were or how “good” his career was, but for me the answer to both is “great”.

Floyd started at 130 and was not a big man (Chico Corrales was much larger at 130), yet he went up and won vs elite 147/154 pounders. He was able to accomplish this through speed, stamina, and because he was so much better/ more skilled over everyone else. Starting with his career, he had some great wins over Chico (unified a portion of the belts and cleaned out 130 since Freitas and Casamayor weren’t in a rush to fight him), won the lineal title at 135 from a very tough/formidable Jose Luis Castillo, stopped the undefeated Ricky Hatton, and beat Oscar, Shane, Canelo, and Manny. I don’t hold his lack of knockouts at the higher weights against Floyd, I feel he was like Sweet Pea Whitaker in that he moved up way past his ideal weight and still dominated but didn’t have the pop to knock the much larger men out.

As great as Floyd’s career was, I feel his skills inside the ring were even more impressive. Watch his fights vs Chico and Hatton and try and name one thing Floyd didn’t do masterfully. Great jab. Great footwork. Great counters. Great work to the body. Great defense (multi-layered with head movement, slipping, parrying, blocking…etc.). Good punching power. Great footwork. Fighting inside and outside, off the ropes and center of the ring, and dictating pace, distance, and location of the fight. Boxing IQ that allowed him to make adjustments and completely take over competitive fights.

I can see the arguments against Floyd. While I don’t agree with them, I can see how people have come to those perspectives, especially considering the emotional reaction to the Money Maywesther/TBE schtick he moved to later in his career. I think Floyd was very much like Ali and Ric Flair in that he understood the heel/bad guy creates more passion and therefore sells more tickets. Floyd was a great fighter, was a great promoter ( of himself), and is a successful businessman.