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HOW HE DID IT: Mayweather’s Scintillating Display

In what was his most dominating performance since mastering Juan Manuel Marquez back in September of 2009, Floyd Mayweather retained his welterweight title and kept his professional unbeaten streak going with a quite scintillating display of boxing against Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero in Las Vegas last Saturday night.
Despite now being 36 years-old, Mayweather showed no signs of decline in what was his first outing in little over a year (it was also his first fight since being incarcerated back in June).
After two fairly even rounds, Mayweather seized control (that’s if he hadn’t already done so in the first two, but more on that in a moment) and dominated the remainder of the fight to earn himself a unanimous decision, winning 117-111 on all three of the judge’s scorecards.
After 12 rounds, Mayweather (now 44-0 with 26 Kos) had landed an astonishing 60% of his power shots, handing a very frustrated Guerrero (now 31-2-1 with 18 Kos) only the second defeat of his 33-fight professional career in the process.
And so, for the most part of this analysis, I’d like to touch upon some of the things Floyd Mayweather did at different stages throughout the fight which allowed him to subdue a tough opponent in Robert Guerrero with relative ease.
Lead hand work against the southpaw
Because both fighters often find their lead hands and feet are obstructed by each other’s during a southpaw/orthodox clash, the jab is not always the easiest punch to establish. In this scenario, to land the jab successfully, the lead foot will oftentimes have to be positioned to the inside of an opponent’s lead foot. The problem with this, of course, is that one would be inadvertently lining themselves up with an opponent’s more threatening power hand. Therefore, during a mixed lead clash, the advantage usually lies with the fighter who can continually work their lead foot to the outside of their opponent’s, enabling them to better set up their rear hand while simultaneously placing themselves at a safer angle in relation to their opponent’s rear hand.
Notice the contrasting body alignments and spacing in the two stills. When you have a matched lead clash (shown on the above left here between Mayweather and Mosley) the jab is the most efficient punch to land (longest weapon to the nearest target). When you have a mismatch of leads going on (shown on the above right here between our men of the hour, Mayweather and Guerrero) you’ll often see more body space between each fighter and also a lot of jockeying for position with the lead hand in an attempt to create a clearer path to the target. As a result, it’s often better to place more emphasis on the rear hand by stepping to the outside of an opponent’s lead foot. Simply put, the rear hand, particularly the rear straight, becomes arguably the most effective weapon for a fighter during a mixed lead clash.
To suggest that any chance of a Guerrero victory would be dependent on the success or failure of Floyd Mayweather’s right hand would have been a gross understatement to say the least. Without question, Mayweather is the owner of one of the best right hands in the sport and he has little problem making it work against orthodox opponents, let alone southpaws. Needless to say, despite being fully aware and as well prepared as he could have been for the right hand threat of Mayweather, Robert Guerrero couldn’t do a thing to avoid being hit with it almost at will. This is the mark of a true craftsman in boxing –it’s not only about how many different tools you can bring to the table, it’s also about how many different ways you can use a single tool.
So how did Mayweather manage to chop up Guerrero with little else apart from a right hand? Simple, he constantly set things up, creating false patterns for Guerrero to read before breaking away from them abruptly.
In the early going, and indeed, throughout most of the bout, Mayweather threw blinding jabs (or slow jabs) toward Guerrero’s lead hand to disturb Guerrero’s rhythm, control his lead hand and to disguise his (Mayweather’s) next plan of attack. Unlike regular jabs, a blinding or slow jab is a non-committal jab that is extended out and brought back without actually punching.
Here’s Mayweather throwing blinding jabs aimed at Guerrero’s lead glove during the early stages of the fight. Although its non-committal (the polar opposite to a thudding Sonny Liston stiff jab), the blinding jab is a great weapon to use against someone who is in an opposite lead to yourself (Guillermo Rigondeaux used it often to disrupt Nonito Donaire recently). As I mentioned earlier, when you have a mixed lead clash going on, you’ll see a lot of jockeying for position with the lead hand. The correct way to parry/cover/catch the jab of someone who is facing you in an unmatched lead is to use your own lead hand (the opposite of orthodox versus orthodox or southpaw versus southpaw where the rear hand should be used). Therefore, by throwing blinding jabs, you can occupy an opponent’s lead hand –discouraging them from trying to establish their own jab as well as manipulating the lead hand away from their guard to create openings.
Although the first two rounds were competitive on the surface, I believe Mayweather was simply laying down the ground work for his right hand. It’s what technicians do.
Execution of the right hand
I’ve already mentioned that Floyd Mayweather probably has the best right hand in the sport right now. But what does he do that makes it so special? Technically speaking, I’m of the opinion that he doesn’t throw it that much better than other fighters do. I’m pretty sure there are plenty of fighters out there that if you were to ask them to throw a straight right hand they would throw it with technical correctness. However, I don’t think there is a current fighter in boxing who has mastered the intangibles of a single punch quite like Floyd Mayweather has with his right hand. Sure, there are fighters out there who can hit harder than Floyd, but in terms of the set up –using feints and footwork to force his opponents into certain positions—and the delivery –mixing up the targets both high and low and narrow and wide in order to keep his opponents guessing as to where the next one is coming from, he may stand alone.
As we’ve already discussed, here is Mayweather using his blinding jab to set up his straight right hand. Hypnotized by Mayweather’s snake charming lead hand, Guerrero barely manages to avoid Mayweather’s straight right in this instance. It should also be noted that Mayweather is throwing his right hand rather conventionally in this instance –his lead foot is positioned to the outside of Guerrero’s and his right hand is travelling from his guard with very little telegraphic motion.
Just as Guerrero was getting used to and compensating for one attack, Mayweather changed up and unveiled yet another one.
Still working behind his blinding jab, this time Mayweather adjusts the arc of the blow and changes its trajectory. Whereas Guerrero had been anticipating straight right hands between the gloves earlier in the fight, Mayweather was now throwing right hooks around the guard. Although right hooks are unconventional and considered too risky for orthodox fighters to use, because of the sudden change-up and unpredictable nature of the punch, Floyd found great success with it. A varied attack, even one with the same hand, can keep an opponent guessing instead of punching.
Despite the fact that he wasn’t the first fighter to use it (men like George Benton, Nicolino Locche and James Toney used it first and were arguably even more effective with it than Floyd is), Mayweather’s (and Broner’s) use of the shoulder roll on defense has resulted in the technique becoming very popular of late. However, if there was one technique that Mayweather pulled off against Guerrero on Saturday night that best sums him up as a defensive fighter (or an offensive one for that matter), it was the way in which he consistently weaved out at an angle after landing his straight right hand. One of the main goals in boxing is to hit without being hit back in return. Therefore, an intelligent boxer knows that his job is not done once he’s finished his attack.
Here, Mayweather is drifting to his right and toward Guerrero’s more dangerous left hand. Notice how Mayweather has conceded the outside lead foot position in this sequence as he lands his right hand. As fundamentally sound as Mayweather is, he’s still capable of doing unconventional things in there. After landing his straight right hand, Mayweather drops low and weaves out to his right, evading Guerrero’s attempted counter left. When you see this in real time (Mayweather did this extensively throughout the fight) you’ll notice that Floyd begins weaving under before Guerrero has even released his left hand. This is Floyd Mayweather all over –taking some kind of pre-emptive measure against his opponent’s most likely/dangerous technique in any given situation. In this fight, it was Guerrero’s left hand.
Mayweather continued to circle right, occupy with a blinding jab or feint, before landing the right hand and exiting at an angle. You could say this move of Mayweather’s, which took away Guerrero’s left hand and exploited his inability to adjust against a multi-faceted fighter, was the story of the fight.
Here’s Mayweather pulling off the same offensive/defensive technique as before. Only this time, he’s using a straight right hand to the body. By going upstairs for a period of time before bringing the attack downstairs, Mayweather forced Guerrero to overcompensate with his guard. Regardless, the angling out –avoiding Guerrero’s counter left hand by weaving under and out to his right—was the same.
In his last fight before facing Mayweather, Robert Guerrero managed to maul a one dimensional fighter in Andre Berto and found little in the way of resistance coming back at him. Guerrero soon found out that trying to do the same thing to Floyd Mayweather at close quarters would be no easy task. Even though Mayweather rarely called upon his typical half-guard defense against Guerrero (a sign of his boxing acumen and Berto’s lack thereof saying as the half-guard defense out of an orthodox stance is less effective against southpaws) he still showed defensive mastery on the inside.
Unlike Andre Berto, Here is Mayweather nullifying Guerrero at close quarters. Notice how Floyd has Guerrero’s lead hand tied up and is using his right forearm to manoeuvre Guerrero around and stop him from throwing his left hand effectively.
Although this may seem relatively straight forward, Mayweather is actually smothering his opponent and is preventing him from working on the inside. In this position, Mayweather can’t be hit with anything clean as his right glove is protecting the right side of his face (a pre-emptive measure against Guerrero’s left hand) and his lead arm has Guerrero’s lead arm tied up. Should Guerrero manage to break loose and sneak something through, Mayweather has his chin tucked in for good measure. On the inside, much of the infighting success Guerrero had against Berto was shut down.
I could go on and write page after page here describing what Mayweather did to Guerrero last Saturday. Although I’ve touched on most things, I’ve still left out a few things, of which, I could probably write a whole other article about. Take Mayweather’s footwork for example, which, despite rumours of it not being what it once was, looked excellent. His persistent stop-start, non-rhythmic movement forced Guerrero to constantly reset himself or risk conceding an angle. Just as Guerrero would get set to punch, Mayweather would catch him between steps and nail him with the right hand and start all over. I could also have said more about the way in which Mayweather conditions his opponents to expect one technique before giving presenting them with another. In particular, after familiarizing Guerrero with the right hand for some time, Floyd began feinting with it and started throwing left hooks over the top of Guerrero’s lead hand, giving him even more to think about.
It’s one thing when you have a distinct hand and foot speed advantage over your opponent, but it’s something entirely different when you also hold the advantage in ring craft and IQ over them as well. Despite thinking Guerrero could have possibly done more to better disguise his intentions behind some rhythm changes and feints (just as Floyd did throughout), one can’t help but feel that should they face off another ten times, the outcome would always be the same. Robert Guerrero was soundly beaten by a superior athlete, a smarter ring general and a much better fighter.
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Bombs Away in Las Vegas where Inoue and Espinoza Scored Smashing Triumphs

Japan’s Naoya “Monster” Inoue banged it out with Mexico’s Ramon Cardenas, survived an early knockdown and pounded out a stoppage win to retain the undisputed super bantamweight world championship on Sunday.
Japan and Mexico delivered for boxing fans again after American stars failed in back-to-back days.
“By watching tonight’s fight, everyone is well aware that I like to brawl,” Inoue said.
Inoue (30-0, 27 KOs), and Cardenas (26-2, 14 KOs) and his wicked left hook, showed the world and 8,474 fans at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas that prizefighting is about punching, not running.
After massive exposure for three days of fights that began in New York City, then moved to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and then to Nevada, it was the casino capital of the world that delivered what most boxing fans appreciate- pure unadulterated action fights.
Monster Inoue immediately went to work as soon as the opening bell rang with a consistent attack on Cardenas, who very few people knew anything about.
One thing promised by Cardenas’ trainer Joel Diaz was that his fighter “can crack.”
Cardenas proved his trainer’s words truthful when he caught Inoue after a short violent exchange with a short left hook and down went the Japanese champion on his back. The crowd was shocked to its toes.
“I was very surprised,” said Inoue about getting dropped. ““In the first round, I felt I had good distance. It got loose in the second round. From then on, I made sure to not take that punch again.”
Inoue had no trouble getting up, but he did have trouble avoiding some of Cardenas massive blows delivered with evil intentions. Though Inoue did not go down again, a look of total astonishment blanketed his face.
A real fight was happening.
Cardenas, who resembles actor Andy Garcia, was never overly aggressive but kept that left hook of his cocked and ready to launch whenever he saw the moment. There were many moments against the hyper-aggressive Inoue.
Both fighters pack power and both looked to find the right moment. But after Inoue was knocked down by the left hook counter, he discovered a way to eliminate that weapon from Cardenas. Still, the Texas-based fighter had a strong right too.
In the sixth round Inoue opened up with one of his lightning combinations responsible for 10 consecutive knockout wins. Cardenas backed against the ropes and Inoue blasted away with blow after blow. Then suddenly, Cardenas turned Inoue around and had him on the ropes as the Mexican fighter unloaded nasty combinations to the body and head. Fans roared their approval.
“I dreamed about fighting in front of thousands of people in Las Vegas,” said Cardenas. “So, I came to give everything.”
Inoue looked a little surprised and had a slight Mona Lisa grin across his face. In the seventh round, the Japanese four-division world champion seemed ready to attack again full force and launched into the round guns blazing. Cardenas tried to catch Inoue again with counter left hooks but Inoue’s combos rained like deadly hail. Four consecutive rights by Inoue blasted Cardenas almost through the ropes. The referee Tom Taylor ruled it a knockdown. Cardenas beat the count and survived the round.
In the eighth round Inoue looked eager to attack and at the bell launched across the ring and unloaded more blows on Cardenas. A barrage of 14 unanswered blows forced the referee to stop the fight at 45 seconds of round eight for a technical knockout win.
“I knew he was tough,” said Inoue. “Boxing is not that easy.”
Espinoza Wins
WBO featherweight titlist Rafael Espinosa (27-0, 23 KOs) uppercut his way to a knockout win over Edward Vazquez (17-3, 4 KOs) in the seventh round.
“I wanted to fight a game fighter to show what I am capable,” said Espinoza.
Espinosa used the leverage of his six-foot, one-inch height to slice uppercuts under the guard of Vazquez. And when the tall Mexican from Guadalajara targeted the body, it was then that the Texas fighter began to wilt. But he never surrendered.
Though he connected against Espinoza in every round, he was not able to slow down the taller fighter and that allowed the Mexican fighter to unleash a 10-punch barrage including four consecutive uppercuts. The referee stopped the fight at 1:47 of the seventh round.
It was Espinoza’s third title defense.
Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank
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Undercard Results and Recaps from the Inoue-Cardenas Show in Las Vegas

The curtain was drawn on a busy boxing weekend tonight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas where the featured attraction was Japanese superstar Naoya Inoue appearing in his twenty-fifth world title fight.
The top two fights (Inoue vs. Roman Cardenas for the unified 122-pound crown and Rafael Espinoza vs. Edward Vazquez for the WBO world featherweight diadem) aired on the main ESPN platform with the preliminaries streaming on ESPN+.
The finale of the preliminaries was a 10-rounder between welterweights Rohan Polanco and Fabian Maidana. A 2020/21 Olympian for the Dominican Republic, Polanco was a solid favorite and showed why by pitching a shutout, punctuating his triumph by knocking Maidana to his knees late in the final round with a hard punch to the pit of the stomach.
Polanco improved to 16-0 (10). Argentina’s Maidana, the younger brother of former world title-holder Marcos Maidana, fell to 24-4 while maintaining his distinction of never being stopped.
Emiliano Vargas, a rising force in the 140-pound division with the potential to become a crossover star, advanced to 14-0 (12 KOs) with a second-round stoppage Juan Leon. Vargas, who turned 21 last month, is the son of former U.S. Olympian Fernando Vargas who had big money fights with the likes of Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya. Emiliano knocked Leon down hard twice in round two – both the result of right-left combinations — before Robert Hoyle waived it off.
A 28-year-old Spaniard, Leon was 11-2-1 heading in.
In his U.S. debut, 29-year-old Japanese southpaw Mikito Nakano (13-0, 12 KOs) turned in an Inoue-like performance with a fourth-round stoppage of Puerto Rico’s Pedro Medina. Nakano, a featherweight, had Medina on the canvas five times before referee Harvey Dock waived it off at the 1:58 mark of round four. The shell-shocked Medina (16-2) came into the contest riding a 15-fight winning streak.
Lynwood, California junior middleweight Art Barrera Jr, a 19-year-old protégé of Robert Garcia, scored a sixth-round stoppage of Chicago’s Juan Carlos Guerra. There were no knockdowns, but the bout had turned sharply in Barrera’s favor when referee Thomas Taylor intervened. The official time was 1:15 of round six.
Barrera improved to 9-0 (7 KOs). The spunky but outclassed Guerra, who upset Nico Ali Walsh in his previous outing, declined to 6-2-1.
In the lid-lifter, a 10-round featherweight affair, Muskegon Michigan’s Ra’eese Aleem improved to 22-1 (12) with a unanimous decision over LA’s hard-trying Rudy Garcia (13-2-1). The judges had it 99-01, 98-92, and 97-93.
Aleem, 34, was making his second start since June of 2023 when he lost a split decision in Australia to Sam Goodman with a date with Naoya Inoue hanging in the balance.
Check back shortly for David Avila’s recaps of the two world title fights.
Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank
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Canelo Alvarez Upends Dancing Machine William Scull in Saudi Arabia

Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, who has acquired a new nickname – “The Face of Boxing” – is accustomed to fighting on Cinco De Mayo weekend, but this year was different. For the first time, Canelo was fighting outside the continent of North America and entering the ring at an awkward hour. His match with William Scull started at 6:30 on a Sunday morning in Riyadh.
In the opposite corner was 32-year-old William Scull, an undefeated (23-0) Cuban by way of Germany, whose performance was better suited to “Dancing With the Stars” than to a world title fight. Constantly bouncing from side to side but rarely letting his hands go, Scull frustrated Canelo who found it near-impossible to corner him, but one can’t win a fight solely on defense and the Mexican superstar was returned the rightful winner in a bout that was a fitting cap to a desultory two days of Saudi-promoted prizefighting. The scores were 115-113, 116-112, and 119-109. In winning, Canelo became a fully unified super middleweight champion twice over.
Terence Crawford was in attendance and HE Turki Alalshikh made it official: Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) and Canelo (63-2-2, 39 KOs) will meet in the Fight of the Century (Alalshikh’s words) on Sept. 12 in Las Vegas at the home of the city’s NFL team, the Raiders. For whatever it’s worth, each of Canelo’s last seven fights has gone the full 12 rounds.
Semi-wind-up
In a match between the WBC world cruiserweight title-holder and the WBC world cruiserweight “champion in recess” (don’t ask), the former, Badou Jack, brought some clarity to the diadem by winning a narrow decision over Noel Mikaelian. One of the judges had it a draw (114-114), but the others gave the fight to “Jack the Ripper” by 115-113 scores.
A devout Muslim who is now a full-time resident of Saudi Arabia, the Sweden-born Jack, a three-division title-holder, had the crowd in his corner. Now 41 years old, he advanced his record to 29-3-3 (17). It was the first pro loss for Mikaelian (27-1), a Florida-based Armenian who was subbing for Ryan Rozicki.
The distracted CompuBox operator credited Mikaelian with throwing 300 more punches but there was no controversy.
Tijuana’s Jaime Munguia, a former junior middleweight title-holder, avenged his shocking loss to Bruno Sarace with a unanimous 12-round decision in their rematch. This was Munguia’s first fight with Eddy Reynoso in his corner. The scores were 117-111 and 116-112 twice.
Surace’s one-punch knockout of Munguia in mid-December in Tijuana was the runaway pick for the 2024 Upset of the Year. Heading in, Munguia was 44-1 with his lone defeat coming at the hands of Canelo Alvarez. Munguia had won every round against Surace before the roof fell in on him.
Surace won a few rounds tonight, but Munguia was the busier fighter and landed the cleaner shots. It was the first pro loss for Surace (26-1-2) and ended his 23-fight winning streak. The Frenchman hails for Marseilles.
Heavyweights
In a 10-round heavyweight match fought at a glacial pace, Martin Bakole (21-2-1) and Efe Ajagba (20-1-1) fought to a draw. One of the judges favored Ajagba 96-94 but he was outvoted by his cohorts who each had it 95-95.
Bakole, a 7/2 favorite, came in at 299 pounds, 15 more than he carried in his signature win over Jared Anderson, and looked sluggish. He was never able to effectively close off the ring against the elusive Ajagba who fought off his back foot and failed to build on his early lead.
The fight between the Scotch-Congolese campaigner Bakole and his Nigerian-American foe was informally contested for the heavyweight championship of Africa. That “title” remains vacant.
In a 6-rounder, heavy-handed Cuban light heavyweight Brayon Leon, a stablemate of Canelo Alvarez, was extended the distance for the first time while advancing his record to 7-0 at the expense of Mexico’s Aaron Roche (11-4-1). Leon knocked Roche to the canvas in the fourth round with a right-left combination, but the Mexican stayed the course while eating a lot of hard punches.
Photo credit: Leigh Dawney / Queensberry Promotions
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