Is Floyd considered "prime" or declining?

[The Promoter]

I'm not sure how you could say he's passed his prime. We would need to find somebody that could push him to the wall to see if he's still as good as the guy who absolutely wrecked Diego Corrales almost 9 years ago. The only area I've seen were he may have gotten a bit less speedy is is footwork as he tends to stand a bit more now. But his lack of footwork now may be due to his added weight or more basically because he whips everybody without having to work that hard. Again it's hard to say he's slipping until somebody can actually bring out his best in him as I thought Corrales did...

[ruthless rocco]

the comparison to roy jones jr is a good one. when those natural talents go the fighter is left with a bunch of bad habits exposed... they can't fight the same style that they used to... and their ego often impedes adapting their style. when it goes it goes...

[jahmez]

the comparison to roy jones jr is a good one. when those natural talents go the fighter is left with a bunch of bad habits exposed... they can't fight the same style that they used to... and their ego often impedes adapting their style. when it goes it goes...

I don't agree. The only chink I see in Floyd's armour being exposed if he loses his reflexes and speed is when he baits his opponents with his head and weight over his front foot with his hands held low. I hear alot of peole saying that the shoulder roll relies on reflexes and speed when it doesn't. It depends on stance, balance, technique, experience and knowledge of your opponent's combos. This allows you to anticipate punches and essentially defend them before they are thrown. Look at Toney, Hopkins or alot of the old school fighters. Alot of the time Floyd moves out of range while rolling anyway when he could just shoulder roll counter right hand or simply parry and circle away while jabbing. That's the one thing I see catching up to Floyd. Sometimes he moves back in a straight line too concerned with not getting hit and finds himself against the ropes. This happened against Hatton and De la Hoya but they didn't have the ability to capitalize.

This same mistake of retreating in a straight line is part of the reason why Roy keeps getting KO'd. However, unlike Floyd Roy routinely retreats leaving his left hand low while putting his head and weight over his front foot. This means he cannot raise his shoulder. Instead, he leans back looking for the counter left hook. This is a move that depends on speed and reflexes and nowadays anyone who can throw an overhand right with enough power has a serious chance of hurting him.

Floyd gets away with alot of things because of his speed but he always has solid fundamentals to fall back on. The problem is that he employs some old school techniques that alot of contemporaries think are too risky or should only be done by "freaks" when they really just don't undestand the principles behind them. Even his lead right hands and leaping left hooks are well set up by feints to the body or jabs. End at the end of the day Foyd can still fight the "modern" way with his hands held up too high.