By Mr. Pennington: First I would like to start by saying this has been a refreshing experience as a fight fan. I haven’t watched any of the behind the scenes footage such as All Access since Floyd Mayweather versus Ricky Hatton. So for boxing to once again have the power to sit me down in time to watch guys punch bags is very exciting. With the fight only eleven days away, I thought it would be smooth sailing from now until fight night.
Every aspect of the fight has been talked about to the point on redundancy, by now we all know, Mayweather can’t hurt Canelo, and Canelo is flat footed. But just when I thought the coast was clear, the golden boy himself comes out and makes comments that I found very interesting. “I have unlocked the vault and given Canelo the blueprint to defeat Mayweather”.
Now there were two things about that comment that drew my attention. One, the Oscar versus Mayweather fight though ruled a split decision was not a highly contested fight in my eyes. I felt Oscar was aggressive, but far from being effective.
It’s a matter of perception how you choose to judge ineffective aggression, in my view, that only wins fights if the other fighter is doing nothing. But in the case of that fight, Mayweather threw more than 100 less punches, and landed 100 more. So to me it’s pretty clear, the numbers don’t lie.
That said, I question if the game plan Oscar has is the blueprint to defeat Mayweather. Also I would think Oscar would be smart enough to evaluate his fighter and understand what type of approach would be best for his fighting style. Canelo as fighter has proven to be in the mold of Juan Marquez, rather than a fighter who has the ability to fight with the tenacity of a Julio Chavez. And a quick side note, as great as the great Chavez was, it was proven that a defensive fighter with movement and hand speed could cause even a once in a lifetime fighter fits every time out.
If you look at the Chavez-Whitaker fight, Whitaker was able to dictate everything. Many like to compare Whittaker and Mayweather, but let me be the first to say Mayweather is far better than Whittaker ever was. Offensively, Mayweather’s arsenal is far more diverse and fluid. Defensively, though Whittaker a marvel, his defense was not fundamentally based. Whitaker would dodge punches by bobbing and weaving, doing that you will eventually be caught, hence him hitting the canvas many times in his career. Mayweather’s defense is an advanced level of fundamentals and anticipation from years of working the pads with Uncle Roger, he can almost feel a punch coming.
Before I get lost in meaningless comparison, let me get to the second aspect of the comment made by De la Hoya that stood out most. If I didn’t know any better, I would think it was Oscar himself who devised the strategy in the fight versus Mayweather. By the sounds of the comment, Oscar would have one to believe that he’s the only man on earth with the blueprint, and has had it locked away in his vault. But the fact of the matter is that Oscar is neither the designer nor the architect of the infamous blueprint.
That title would belongs solely to none other than Floyd Mayweather Sr. himself. Have we forgotten who trained Oscar for that fight? Oscar has repeatedly praised Floyd Sr. in the past siting him as one of the finest trainers in the sport. For those who may have never seen Mayweather Sr. fight, I encourage you to watch his fight versus Sugar Ray Leonard on YouTube.
There you will clearly be able to see who the designer on Mayweather Jr’s fighting style is. With that said, you must give credit to the value of the blueprint and its strategy involved. The man who created the blue print, also created the fighter it’s geared towards. That’s just one small, yet huge intangible that Oscar seems to forget to mention.
As for a prediction, the process of analysis went as such. Canelo has proven to be a patient fighter with great timing and power. For 90% of guys you face, those assets would be more than capable to propel you to victory. But in regards to Mayweather, he happens to be in conversation of being the best ever in the sport as far as timing and patience goes.
Even a great fighter like Juan Marquez who is noted for having excellent timing and accuracy, when in the ring with Mayweather, just a bit slow. So the question is, Does Canelo possess that split second of hand speed that 44 other have lefted the fight scratching their head thinking “man, I was barely missing him”. Possible, no one is 100% sure, but it’s the possibility that has me as a fan so excited, September 14th is eleven days away.
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