Floyd Mayweather Jr. had
a message for Marcos Maidana — be prepared to think once inside the
ring at the MGM Grand Garden on May 3.
“To me, the sport of
boxing is like a game of chess,” Mayweather said Tuesday at media day at
his gym off Spring Mountain Road. “Every move has to be thought of. You
don’t just make the move.
“In checkers, you can
make reckless moves. In chess, you take your time and your moves are
thought about. You study the board before you make your move. It’s the
same in boxing. Before I make a move, I study my opponent and anticipate
what he’s going to do before I make my move.”
Along with light
heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins, Mayweather, the reigning World
Boxing Council welterweight champ, is one of the grand masters of
boxing. He is constantly setting traps for his opponents, luring them
in, then capitalizing on their mistakes. It’s a strategy that has made
him 45-0 in his career with 26 knockouts.
As for how he’ll deal
with Maidana, the World Boxing Association champ at 147 pounds who is
35-3 with 31 KOs, Mayweather, a 13-1 betting favorite, will be prepared
and be ready to adjust.
“We had seven different
sparring partners for this training camp, so we don’t know what style
Maidana is going to bring,” he said. “When I fight, I fight the fighter.
The same way you dish it out, you have to be able to take it. This is a
give-and-take kind of sport.
“It’s about experience,
being around the sport so long. This is what I’ve done my whole life.
I’m able to make adjustments, just like I showed you in the Shane Mosley
fight, just like I showed you in the Zab Judah fight. In the blink of
an eye, I can make adjustments.”
Mayweather said he’s not sure who Maidana reminds him of.
“I can’t really say
because I haven’t fought Maidana yet,” he said. “After I fight him, I
can tell you who he reminds me of. I watched Maidana against Adrien
Broner, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to fight me the same way
because styles make fights.
“Me and Amir Khan are
two totally different fighters. I like to take my time and be smart.
Amir Khan is a straight-ahead kind of guy who can sometimes be reckless.
It’s not always about hand speed. Adrien Broner’s a fast fighter. A lot
of it is about timing. That’s the good thing about me. I have real good
timing.”
As always, Mayweather
has kept himself in tremendous condition. His father and lead trainer,
Floyd Sr., said throughout the two months of preparation for Maidana, he
could recall just one day where his son had an off-day.
“But the next day, he was back on track as if the day before never happened,” Floyd Sr. said.
Mayweather said with age
comes wisdom, and at age 37 he understands his body’s limits and he
knows when to step on the accelerator and when to back off. He also
understands what it takes to get ready for a fight, and he never shirks
his responsibilities to that end.
“I think I’m a little
smarter,” he said. “I don’t have to run every single day. I don’t have
to train every single day. I can take a day off if I need to and let my
body recover. But I feel good. Training camp has been tremendous. I’m
happy. My father’s happy. My team is happy. We’re ready to go out there
and do what we do best, which is take our time and go out there and
box.”
Mayweather said he still
hasn’t fought the perfect fight, though many will argue his performance
Sept. 14 against Canelo Alvarez was as close to perfect as it gets in
boxing, judge C.J. Ross scoring the fight a draw aside.
“In 18 years, I haven’t brought my best out,” he said. “We’ll have to see this fight.
And he’ll be setting plenty of traps for Maidana along the way, just like any chess grandmaster would do.
No comments:
Post a Comment