Roach Discusses the Keys to Beating Mayweather: Break down his body
July 29th, 2009
By Eric Thomas: The ole Nostradamus Freddie Roach has come up with the perfect plan on how to beat Floyd Mayweather Jr., namely by attacking Mayweather’s body and breaking him down, Roach says in an article by writer David Tyler at Doghouse Boxing. Roach, the famous trainer for pound for pound boxer Manny Pacquiao, is looking forward to a future fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao and is already calculating a way for Pacquiao to beat the undefeated Mayweather.
In the past, Mayweather has had problems fighting opponents that attacked him hard to the body and ignored his head. This was the case against Jose Luis Castillo, who fought Mayweather very closely in two losing efforts in 2002. In both fights, Castillo went after Mayweather’s body and made it very close in the end. Many people feel that Castillo won the first fight, but was given a bad decision against the more popular Mayweather.
Since that fight, Mayweather has only faced a couple of good body punches in Arturo Gatti and Ricky Hatton, but in post cases, Mayweather picked them apart with short, precise counter punches to stop them. Obviously, what Roach fails to point out is that it takes more than a fighter focusing on body punching to beat a fighter as talented as Mayweather.
If someone thinks it’s that easy to beat him, they’re going to be sadly mistaken. It takes skills, movement and defense to avoid Mayweather’s short punches. Mayweather is able to generate a lot of power in his short shots and has knockout power in his left hook. Hatton found that out the hard way when he was nailed by a check hook and taken out by Mayweather in 2007.
Roach thinks that pressure will be the key to Pacquiao beating May weather – pressure and speed. Roach goes one step further in his confidence about Pacquiao beating Mayweather by saying that Floyd will be an “easier opponent than Cotto, Mosley or even Marquez.”
I doubt Roach is serious about that, because Cotto seems like a shell of his former self after his beating by Antonio Margarito last year and it’s hard to see him being a better opponent than the undefeated Mayweather.
I agree with Roach that pressure will be a problem for Mayweather, but if Pacquiao focuses exclusively on throwing to the body and ignoring Mayweather’s head, Pacquiao will be picked apart my Mayweather. While Castillo was able to get away with attacking Mayweather to the body, I doubt that Pacquiao will be able to have the same kind of success.
Castillo was a skilled body puncher and knew exactly how to move his head to avoid Mayweather’s shots while getting in his body shots. Pacquiao has always been a head hunter and if he tried to imitate Castillo’s earlier success against Mayweather, he’ll be knocked out and humiliated by Mayweather.
It takes a long time to get good at body punching and to learn how to throw the shots without getting clobbered like Castillo. Pacquiao probably won’t be good enough to get away with it against a skilled fighter like Mayweather, so I hope for his sake he doesn’t blindly follow Roach’s instructions.
Tags: 14 Responses to “Roach Discusses the Keys to Beating Mayweather: Break down his body”
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it seemed to me that the only good jab that mayweather ever faced gave him all kinds of problems….Dela Hoya could have won that fight. i think keeping a jab in his face, while hooking under the ribs could give him problems. only use the jab to the head, everything else to the body…
This fight is hard to predict until they meet in the ring,then we can see how the best defensive skills will hold against the best offensive skills.I think Pacquiao will employ in and out movement,his foot work will be the key to this fight,before Mayweather throw a punch,he is out of reach. Floyd is not hard to hit if you have a fast hand,he just recoils in the ropes and roll his shoulder which is not hard for Pacquiao to hit him in different angles,so I’m leaning to what Roach is saying.
I think for a fighter to fight Floyd jr and only focuse on his body,that fighter would have to be realy realy good defensively.
Mayweather is not only a pure talent with superior boxing skills on the outside but the mans great on the inside aswell.
In order to get to a fighters body you need to get alittle closer to your opponent to do so and i think mayweather being one of the smartest fighters out there would reconize this and tie up his opponent as needed.
I think BC of the way Floyd jr fights,to slowly break down his opponent or to hit and not be hit,its not the most crowd pleasing and thats why your average boxing fan will be like”O Floyd jr,that guy is boring”but realy what he’s doing in the ring is poetry in motion.
Floyd jr has what no other boxer out there today has,pure boxing skill, and he’s the smartest fighter out there.
Ever notice that he never gets rattled by a big event or get caught up in the crowds roar,Floyd just stay’s calm n cool n does what he does best.
Realy i dont think Pac is good enough defensivly to go to floyd’s body all night without getting counter punched all night.Pac will need to use his legs like never b4 to get into good positioning and mix up the head n body shots.Pac has the best legs in boxing and will need it with Floyd jr.Somehow Pac will have to fustrate Mayweather and that wont be easy but if he uses his great movement in the ring he has a chance to.
I said it b4,this IS the fight i personaly would like to see and been waiting for it to happen…Lets hope it does for the sake of us fans but for now,lets see Cotto first.
I know this seems like im a big fan of Mayweather’s,honestly i’m not,just a boxing fan stating my opinion.
to all,
Fyi, Roach has repeatedly said already before the Cotto-Pacquiao match had been proposed (because they wanted already that Mayweather fight Manny) that if ever Mayweather accepts Bob Arum’s and Freddie Roach’s challenge to Mayweather to fight Pacquiao, that Manny will destroy Mayweather and not just win over him. If all of you who are saying that Freddie is on drugs for saying this then why didn’t you called on a wager with him or anybody against his predictions now or before. It is easy to say things but I guess you were all predicting that Dela Hoya and Hatton would destroy Manny before they were destroyed by Manny.
i hate Mayweather why is he so boring, and hes never fighted any one special in my eyes, i hope Marquez destroys him and i think if mayweather wins he shud fight a true pressure fighter coz he just dances around the ring all day, and its not even fun to watch unlike the Greatest Muhammad Ali
Secondly Floyd is just a no body his just a spoiled American and America thinks his the best, but the WORLD thinks that Manny is the best both in the Ring and outside of it!!!that’s the difference between them. Boring Mayweather and Exciting Pacquiao, of course Excitement and speed always win….
tito dunay is the man. hehehe
“Pride comes before the fall.” I’m not a Bible guy, but this seems appropriate here. I want to see this fight as much as anyone else, knowing that both of these men have skills which on any given night have the potential to dismantle the other boxer depending on who gets the opportunity to unload first. It could be Pacman’s or Pretty Boy’s fight depending on one mistake. But anyone who’s ever played sports, I’m sure, will back me up here. When’s the last time you heard a good coach say, “This next game’s a wrap, guys. Let’s concentrate on the one after that.”? The reason this is poignant in this case is because Roach is making a big mistake in even talking about Mayweather. There is no Pacquiao-Mayweather fight on the table as of today, and there won’t be until Pacquiao beats Cotto. To suggest in any way that a win against Cotto is a given is naive. Cotto is a warrior, and a win against him will be hard-fought. Do I think Pacquiao will win? Yes, I think so. But he will have to go to war in way I don’t think he has done in a long time. Same goes for Mayweather against Marquez—another outstanding, won’t-back-down warrior. Mayweather and Pacquiao are likely to come out of their respective fights changed fighters–maybe in a good way, maybe not. But putting the cart before the horse is a mistake, and Freddie Roach should know that. And here’s the part that will draw the ire of the Pac-Man fans: Manny already has a problem with vanity, and therefore pride (yes, I know “Pretty Boyd does, too). If you watch his fights he spends much of the time in his corner watching himself on the oversized projector when he should be listening to his corner. This is what happens when a fighter has people around him telling him he’s the best in the world, that he can’t be beaten. Feed a fighter like that the notion that his next fight is a wrap could be his downfall. Roach is a great coach, Manny a great fighter. Sure, the war of words is always part of building hype. But Pacquiao has one fight on the table, and that’s with Migueul Cotto. Nobody in Pacquiao’s camp should be talking about Mayweather.
PAC MAN DOESNT STAND A CHANCE… THE PROBLEM IS EVERYONE SEES WHAT PACMAN IS DOING NOW… BUT PRETTY BOY ALREADY ACCOMPLISED EVERYTHING PACMAN HAS 2 YEARS…. AGO… AND DID IT WITH STYLE… HONESTLY MAYWEATHER IS ONE OF THE BEST IF NOT THE BEST BOXER IN MY CENTURY ALONE… IF HE BEATS MARQUEZ AND HE WILL WITH EASE…THEN PACMAN IS GONNA DODGE EM… ESPECIALLY IF ITS BY KNOCKOUT… MAYWEATHER GONNA BE THE ONE TO PUT PACMAN IN RETIREMENT…. IF PACMAN THINKS HES GONNA COME IN THE RING AND ITS GONNA BE EASY, HES GOT ANOTHER THING COMING… I SAY MAYWEATHER IN THE 10TH WITH A STRAIGHT RIGHT HAND…..
i think alot of you misread these articles. #1. he wasnt implying that castillo has better head movement than pacman. #2. its not about pacman “not” following Roach’s instructions. the real issue here is simple,… pacman is a great fighter and has proven his pound for pound status to be for real. on the other hand, mayweather has proven to have excellent boxing skills, a true boxing i.q., and he’s definitely not an easy target to just beat up on. in saying this, pacman should definitely follow what Roach instructs him to do bc they have a strong relationship and he is his trainer, but he should also advise and prepare pacman that the task at hand (to go to mayweather’s body) isnt gonna be as simple as beating up on dela hoya or ricky hatton! pacman is strong. mayweather is slick. its a great match up. may the best man win w/o excuses!
i just wanna say to the article By Eric Thomas, what do you mean by “so I hope for his sake[manny pacman] he doesn’t blindly follow Roach’s instructions.i mean, come on man you think castilo is better than pacman, in head movement. get educated first
Roach is on drugs if he thinks Pacman is going to beat PBF by going to the body.If it was SSM i’ll say yes,but if Pacman fights him that way,he’ll be jnocked out by the 7th or 8th rd.HE DOESN’T HAVE THE CHIN OR THE DEFENSE TO DO THAT.
Considerin hes finding it harder to speak these days hes managing to say more than any other coach on the circuit.
Lets hope he doesnt let slip what he has for breakfast on a Sunday or what he reads on the crapper or we all will be reading about it on here.
I know the real key to breakin down Mayweather. Take his credit cards off him. or if its a fight, knock him the hell out.
Do you really think that Castillo is better than Pac with his movment? The article made sense in the earlier parts, but didn’t make sense in the last half. The article gets D+ at best.