By Don Steinberg, The Wall Street Journal
It shouldn't surprise you that welterweight Floyd Mayweather Jr., who fights Shane Mosley in Las Vegas on Saturday, has some gaudy statistics to go along with his 40-0 record. But ringside punch-counting firm CompuBox reveals just how much better than everyone else Mr. Mayweather is at boxing's prime directive: to hit without getting hit.
In his latest fight, a nontitle September win over Juan Manuel Marquez, Mr. Mayweather connected with 59% of his punches. Using his speed, shoulder-roll defense and a ring savvy that he began learning in gyms at the age of 1, he allowed Mr. Marquez to land at a measly 12% rate. That 47-point differential was wider than the margin in any title fight CompuBox has tracked in its 25-year history, according to company President Bob Canobbio. By way of comparison, Lennox Lewis had a 36-point differential when he pummeled Mike Tyson in 2002, knocking out the former champ in the eighth round.
When CompuBox looks at the connect rates of the five most recent fights of all current champs and ranked contenders, Mr. Mayweather is far atop that list, too, with an average of plus-32.
What does this mean for Mr. Mosley's chances? "He needs to take the fight to Floyd, working behind the jab, and attempt to drive Floyd to the ropes and do damage with combinations," Mr. Canobbio said, extrapolating beyond the numbers. "He's not going to win the fight on the outside."
Source: online.wsj.com
___
Making a Connection
Here are the champions or ranked contenders that best outpunched their opponents in their past five fights.
FIGHTER CONNECT OPPONENT CONNECT +/-
1. F. Mayweather 48% 16% +32
2. D. Haye 45% 24% +21
3. V. Klitschko 39% 22% +17
4. A. Ward 36% 22% +14
5. S. Mosley 35% 22% +13
6. J. Clottey 34% 21% +13
7. W. Klitschko 42% 29% +13
8. L. Bute 34% 22% +12
Source: CompuBox
No comments:
Post a Comment