Will Mayweather's experience with bigger fighters help vs. Pacquiao?
Floyd Mayweather Sr. suggests his son's experience fighting bigger men will be a decisive factor, while others say it'll depend on other things
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This just in: Floyd Mayweather Sr. has a prediction for May 2 in Las Vegas.
And not surprisingly, it goes in favor of the person in whose corner he’ll be spending that desert night at the MGM Grand -- one Floyd Mayweather Jr.
But among the bits of “logic” the elder Mayweather has dispensed as justification for a pro-Junior viewpoint, one in particular has gotten lukewarm reaction from a cross-section of fight-watchers.
“Mayweather fighting guys 20 pounds over his weight, and he beating their asses,” Floyd Sr. told Dontae’s Boxing Nation, whose YouTube channel has more than 14,500 subscribers.
“What the hell you think he’s going to do to Pacquiao?”
While the answers to the latter question by itself may vary, the typical reactions from onlookers outside the Mayweather camp indicate that weight won’t play a remarkably significant role either way.
Case in point, soon-to-be International Boxing Hall of Fame inductee Ray Mancini.
"Floyd's advantages are that he's bigger, faster and stronger. That's the trifecta in boxing,” he told CBSSports.com. “They have both been in there with world-class fighters and have both given away weight in fights. It'll come down two styles. Who can figure the other guy out first and make him do what he wants him to do. Remember, when Ray Robinson fought Jake LaMotta every time, Ray weighed no more than 147 pounds for every fight. But, because of styles it worked to his advantage.”
As it turns out, Floyd Sr.’s calculation of the weight gaps between his son and opponents appears a bit larger than it actually is. A sampling of six of recent title fights -- ones in which locker-room scales were utilized on fight night -- show that while Mayweather has indeed been on the short end of big vs. little matchups, the disadvantages have typically been less drastic than dear ol’ Dad suggested.
He was 17 pounds lighter than Marcos Maidana (165 to 148) on the way to a majority decision win against the Argentine mauler last May, but that gap shrunk in the September rematch as Maidana trimmed down to 157. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez was 165 to Mayweather’s 150 in September 2013, while welterweights Carlos Baldomir and Victor Ortiz puffed to 162 and 164, respectively, in 2006 and 2011.
A 5-foot-8, 149-pound Mayweather pitched a near 12-round shutout against Baldomir -- winning every round on two of three scorecards -- while he registered his most recent stoppage, a KO in round 4, while scaling in at 150 pounds against Ortiz.
So, to Adrian Stiff, coordinator of the UK-based Independent World Boxing Rankings, it does have a lot to do with numbers.
But not necessarily the ones on the scale.
“With some fighters it would, but Floyd’s qualities are more about speed so it’s less important,” Stiff told CBSSports.com. “I think that Floyd is just better. He will be faster and more elusive.
“If you look at the last 20 fighters Floyd has fought and their pre-fight ranking, he has the best resume for 30 years. Manny’s is still good, but he does have losses. At 147, Floyd will be stronger. I still think Manny can make 140, so in that respect Floyd has an advantage.”
Pacquiao is no stranger to being the small guy, but he’s hardly a shrimp compared to Mayweather.
A sampling of six of his title fights do include a gap of 17 pounds (165 to 148) for a 12-round bludgeoning of Antonio Margarito in 2010 and a seven-pound disadvantage (155 to 149) against Chris Algieri in November, but they’re alongside bouts against Timothy Bradley (147 to 150) and Oscar De La Hoya (147 to 148.5) in which the Filipino actually reached the ring as the larger competitor.
In fact, the 5-foot-6 Pacquiao’s own average in-ring weight for the six-fight sampling was 149.4 pounds, while Mayweather’s was 148.5 -- making it less about size and more about skill in the eyes of PhillyVoice.com’s Franklin McNeil, who’s also covered boxing for the Newark Star-Ledger.
“Weight isn't an issue in this fight,” McNeil told CBSSports.com. “Mayweather isn't a big welterweight. Never has been. He is, however, very strong physically. Besides, Miguel Cotto, for example, is a physically bigger welterweight than Mayweather and Pacquiao handled him with little difficulty. The size of Mayweather's past opponents won't be a factor in this bout with Pacquiao. Mayweather's fight-night strategy, skill-set and history of always being in prime physical condition will prove significant.”
And even if Mayweather has been hit by bigger men for longer, David Staba labels it immaterial.
Instead, he said, it will turn on how “Money” is able to offset “Pac Man’s” other qualities.
“Maidana and Alvarez are bigger than Pacquiao, but they're also a lot slower, both in terms of hand speed and fighting pace,” the former Rochester Free Press managing editor and New York Times contributor told CBSSports.com. “Unless Mayweather is going to go to a style we've never seen from him and turn brawler, I don't see where having fought bigger guys gives him much of an advantage. This fight will turn on how well he copes with Pacquiao's hand speed and aggression, neither of which have been a strength of any of Floyd's recent opponents.”
