Mayweather Has Lost a Lot of Speed
September 3rd, 2009
By William Mackay: After seeing the HBO Mayweather-Marquez 24/7, episode 1., I can see a significant drop off in Floyd Mayweather’s hand speed from his prime two years ago. If I was to put it in percentages, I’d say that Mayweather appears to have lost at 10%, possibly 15% of the speed that he had two years ago when he was beating fighters like Ricky Hatton and Oscar De La Hoya.
Reflexes are basically nerve fibers and a person is losing them year by year – it never stops – until they die. The effects of nerve cell death become noticeable for most athletes in their 30s and early 40s. At that time, they lose their ability to punch as fast as they previously did or in sports like baseball, they can no longer get their bat around quick enough to hit a fastball.
It’s just how it goes. Mayweather, obviously, isn’t immune the age related death of his fast twitch nerve fibers, and he may have to start considering a different fighting style if he wants to continue to stay on top of the sport. Besides his loss of speed, Mayweather looks a lot older as well.
He is starting to look like, well, a person in their 30s. And that’s okay, but it is what it is. Mayweather is looking older now and we may start to see the aging take effect on September 19th against Juan Manuel Marquez by seeing Mayweather get hit a lot more than he ever did before.
Some of the credit will naturally go to Marquez for being able to hit Mayweather, but what might be obscured in this all is the deterioration of Mayweather’s once lighting quick reflexes. Who knows? Mayweather could possibly have enough speed to beat Marquez, that’s certainly a possibility.
But given that Mayweather’s entire career and fighting style is designed around his hand speed and ability to pick off or lean away from punches, I think Mayweather will be much less effective than he was two years ago. I think it could very well be shocking at how much slower and hittable Mayweather will be when he faces Marquez. I watched the Mayweather-Marquez 24/7 episode I several times, and the speed loss for Mayweather is pretty significant, and I think he’s going to shock some people by how bad he looks against Marquez.
Mayweather might have enough left in the tank to win the fight, because he is the much bigger fighter of the two, he made sure of that by hand picking a small fighter like Marquez. I guess you could call that insurance for Mayweather.
By picking someone a lot smaller than him, he’ll stand a better chance at winning even if his skills have badly eroded. And, believe me, they have from what I can see of him. Whether Mayweather wins or not, he’s going to probably have a lot of excuses afterwards about why he didn’t look so good, something along the lines of “I was rusty from inactivity.”
I could agree partially with that. It certainly won’t help him that he’d been out of boxing for two years, but that’s his own fault. But the thing of it is, Mayweather will continue to look slower in his future fights and will continue to get hit more and more, regardless of how much he trains. It’s age showing the effects on Mayweather.
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Whether Mayweather wins or not, he’s going to probably have a lot of excuses afterwards about why he didn’t look so good, something along the lines of “I was rusty from inactivity.”
another Mayweather basher… give it a rest already
I agree with several other posts concerning the 24/7 episodes. There’s no way a person can determine reduction of speed simply by watching a tv show. Thats ridiculous. There certainly will be some ring rust from Floyd but I believe his conditioning is still there. Nothing is the same as continuing to be busy in the ring by fighting but Floyd has remained in the gym during his layoff.
That being said, for those that made comments about JMM not standing a chance and getting killed have absolutely no idea about boxing. I agree that Floyd should win this fight but there is no way you can count out a fighter like Marquez. He has the boxing iq and technical skill, and not to mention the drive, to pull out the upset against Floyd. Floyd is probably the most intelligent fighter in the sport but lacks a great deal in the heart department. Pair this up with ring rust and Marquez’s heart and if he’s not careful he could be in for a long night.
I doubt at thirty two he will of gotten noticably slower. floyd is very rich and educated ie good diet, doesnt smoke and imagine doesnt drink alcohol too much and has a good/excellent fitness programme. This will all add up to him showing signs of age “less immediately” than the common man.
Maybe 38ish sure but not now.
Plus 24/7 is completely subjective evidence, it is inaccurate and non precise for infering evidence for judgement on things like speed
well said and agree if you take a rest , you rust.
two years of lay off make a big difference. To comeback it takes a years or more before you get back your prime status.its not like a chile that when you deep it, its hot right way.
moron how can u say u think hes lost 10-15 percent, did u time his hands and see how many punches he can get off and compare to say mayweather de la hoya 24 7…i dont think so, rediculous statement, rediculous article
So..your making expert analyzation from watching a television program….Yeah you seem to know a lot about boxing…Another MORONIC Article from this website…I love this site though..I get so many jokes from it!!
This guys is a retard! I mean I’m rooting for Marquez but Floyd still quicker then ever and 32 is old? tell that to Bernard Hopkins lol…
marquez does not stand a chance even if floyd is 90% slower. juanma has better chance against cotto or judah, even still i don’t think juan can win against those guys. wake up people!
fmw jr. is a different type of a beast period.
juanma is just so disperate that he willing to go as far as getting badly beaten by floyd in hope to have a 3rd shot at pac. pathetic,silly,&petyfull.
this will be floyd shining moment in boxing thanks to juan. but that won’t last until pac will beat floyd.
This is pretty hilarious. Oh well, anyone can write what they want on the Internet. Marquez is 36 by the way. Let’s hear some more very scientific stuff about his … um … nerve fibers … and … um … stuff. It’s about nerve fibers, guys. Give me a break. I could see either one of these fighters winning; love to watch both of them. But, for sure, this fight will not be decided by nerve fibers (Disclaimer: There’s about a 10-15 percent possiblity I could be wrong on that. I did just turn 30). But just because someone spews what sounds like medical jargon, that doesn’t make them a doctor any more than George Clooney.
No way you can determine how much slower he’s gotten by looking at a tape.Get in the ring with him,then let us know how slow he’s gotten.
10 to 15% of the video in 24/7 is in slomo. Makes sense.
he does looks slower and older
mayweather will toy against marquez then will knock him out in the 10th round…he still has the fastest hands in boxing by far!
kingy-every fighters different, some fighters dont reach there peak till 30′s and others are past it by then it just depends.
to the writer- ive seen alot of mayweather training and he always hits pads slower than he punches, and never goes all out on either pads or bags. i think he does it to protect his hands.infact only when he wants to put on a show hel speed it up, i seen the footage of him training in london as part of the london pre-fight tour and he looked very fast. but ofcourse well never know until fight night.but mayweather has been slowing down ever since hes been moving up in weight, at superfeatherweight he was the overall fastest fighter i had ever seen
32 year old mayweather getting on? Hes fighting a (35,36,37?) year old Marquez!
I agree, how can you watch an episode of 24/7 and decide he’s 10%-15% slower. What is 10%-15% anyway. How do you scale how much speed a fighter loses? And even still a “slower” PBF is faster than than “90%” of the welters fighting at his level of comp. Im not saying time out of the ring helps him, but do you really believe he hasent been training, the whole time. Hes a mayweather. He understands the importance of this fight, and his hand speed will not be a factor.