By Jaime Ortega: Many Floyd Mayweather Jr fans rate Manny Pacquiao’s ring intelligence to be inferior to Floyd’s because he gets hit often whereas Floyd even though reluctant has never been knocked out.
Floyd’s style is evasive, defensive and protective which fans consider to be his best weapon to defeat other less gifted fighters who unlike him are supposed to have a lower IQ.
But is getting hit less, make you the smarter fighter? Receiving less punishment on the long run, indeed, helps boxers inflict less harm to their brains considering the amount of punches some of these fighters have to take during their careers, but this is boxing not ballet dancing.
When I look at Rocky Marciano who was undefeated, or I look at Joe Louis, and I compare them to Floyd who labels himself as the smartest boxer ever because he became his own promoter and is undefeated is that signify he is smarter than other legends who took punishment?
Sugar Ray Robinson fought over 200 fights in his career, in some instances fought twice a week which was risky because of recovery, and despite outclassing his opponents he took a lot of punishment. So Robinson according to some must have had a lower IQ than Floyd on the ring since he not only was defeated but got hit throughout his entire career.
Floyd did not invent his own fighting style, he copied via Floyd Sr. who liked Pernel Wittaker and adopted his style, who in my opinion despite losing to Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. I believe he fought better than Roger Mayweather, Floyd‘s uncle and trainer when they squared on the ring.
Willie Pep did invent his own defensive style and fought more fights than any other boxer before or after him. Willie Pep was a creative counter defensive fighter that is still studied today given his impeccable defensive form, but that might not be enough for Floyd’s fans because despite his ring ability he got punished on many fights, lost a few fights and did not make a lot of money compared to Floyd.
Muhammad Ali, lost via knockout to Joe Frazier, his arch rival. Ali decades before Floyd, also labeled himself as the greatest of all times, and in fact given his technical mastery many analyst have pointed over the years that Ali is indeed the greatest of all times. However we have a problem, Ali was defeated by Joe Frazier, showing he was not invincible as he also lost other fights, and to top everything ended up with Parkinson’s disease. According to Floyd’s own philosophy Ali’s IQ must being significantly lower than his because he was not only less skilful losing to Joe, but he got punished lots.
What I am going to do with sarcasm of course, is take Floyd’s philosophy of smartness and twisted it against him, are you ready? Floyd is the smartest boxer to have ever entered the ring, he is cleverer than Rocky Marciano, Joe Louis, Ray Robinson, Whittaker, Chavez, Willie Pep and Ali. Are we happy now? If you have a gut feeling that this sounds stupid, welcome aboard Ortega’s ship because it not only sounds childish but diminishes boxing as a whole, specially when he has the courage to call himself The Best Ever without allowing his career to speak for itself.
Pacquiao is no different than any of the past legends because he shares their same experience, so sadly for Floyd and his fans to categorize him as an inferior fighter since he is not undefeated, jeopardizing his ring IQ, laughing about the fact he can’t speak fluent English (even though, (laughs) he is Filipino), he gets hit a lot and takes on people who are bigger than him, with all those bumps he shows traces of greatness. Here is the problem, the sport is called boxing not dodging and running.
Boxing might be a metal battle, but its still boxing. Its about punching, not about running so for anyone to assume one’s ring IQ is greater than the other is very stupid because what makes fights interesting ultimately falls directly on styles other than individual skills.
When Sugar Shane Mosley took on Winky Wright, his style was tailored made for Winky to exploit. Not that Winky was better than Mosley, but his style had Mosley’s number. When Joe Beat Ali, the first time he just had a style that complicated Ali’s incredible boxing maneuvers.
When Erik Morales lost to Antonio Barrera, it wasn’t because he was worst than Barrera, but because Barrera’s style was a constant threat to his ring technique. Barrera got smoked by Pacquiao, who lost to Morales, that is true boxing. Every boxer sooner or later finds his number and the adequate style will defeat even the most avid fighter.
Fans assume that it takes another Floyd to beat another Floyd, but that is untrue, misguided and unhistorical. Floyd will outperform brawlers, but that does not make his IQ higher than Pacquiao or any of the past boxing legends. All great boxers that lost in the past, lost against boxers who were unknown or against styles bipolar to each other. Boxing is a yin-yang of contrasted styles.
Pacquiao is just as smart as Floyd, he just possesses a different style. Pacquiao masters his style, Floyd masters his style and when Floyd steps in the ring with Pacquiao, both are going to experience technical wizardry.
To box and move with Pacquiao’s foot speed you have to process really quick coordination and precision. Floyd will never emulate Pacquiao’s style, and Pacquiao won’t emulate Floyd’s style.
Its dogs and cats all again. Some people claim dogs are smarter than cats, and others that cats outsmart dogs. Can and dog argument.
I got Pacquiao in this fight, his bouncing back and forth will drive Mayweather nuts. Cotto believes so, so does Teddy Atlas who till recently hold the opposite view.
If you are a Mayweather fan, you should be nervous because this is a different league with a fighter on Pacquiao, who has ring experience, scars of knowledge, and a big smile who is eager to show his worth come May 2nd.
This ring IQ talk is all blab, all legends were just as smart as Floyd.
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