After my lengthy explanation of why DLH vs PBF was a compelling event comes this much shorter post-mortem of the fight itself.
As usual with boxing, the anticipation of the best case senario quickly gave way to the inevitability of the fight playing out almost exactly as most knowlegable observers thought it would. Aside from a flurry of bodyshots from DLH in round one that got a rise out of the Oscarcentric crowd, the fight spooled out as anticipated.
DLH was a bit long in the tooth to maintain the kind of studied agression necessary to overcome the genuinely brilliant defense of the undersized Mayweather over 12 rounds.
Contrary to many of my boxing compadres I actually had Oscar winning enough rounds through the midpoint of the fight to make it competitive. The forula was simple- when he jabbed, he upset Floyd's offensive rythm enough for his ineffective flurries to carry the round. When he didn't jab, Floyd nailed him at will with shockingly fast right hand leads and hooks.
I had Floyd up a round going into I think the 9th, at which point DLH completely abandoned the jab and got handed his ass for the rest of the fight.
I'm not a fan of Mayweather's offensive approach to the higher weight classes. At 130 and 35 he was a dynamo, a terrifying combination puncher with power who backed it up with brilliant defense. I can't blame him for adopting the Roy Jones Jr gameplan for dealing with the higher weights (defense first, use your incredible handspeed to out-point your opponent with single shots) because big guys hit hard. But it doesn't make for scintillating drama inside the ring.
I'm hoping DLH retires after a 'gimme' farewell fight.
Floyd I'd like to go back down to 140, where he looked good and still threw combos.
Unfortunately boxing is boxing and the money tends to be at the higher weights.
A possibility that would have been laughably unthinkable a few months back: Floyd Mayweather Jr vs Jermain Taylor for the legitimate linear middleweight championship of the world.
Taylor is a big middle, but in his last two fights he was chased around the ring by little Kassim Ouma and basically embarassed by former welterweight champ Corey Spinks, who can be charitably described as the poor man's Mayweather.
Floyd is one of those once a generation talents who can be effective (if not brilliantly entertaining) fighting at weights that would land most men his size in the hospital. Why not make a run at Taylor?
Going from legit champ at 130 to legit champ at 160 would be one of the seminal feats in boxing history.
(note to DT: I greatly enjoyed your contribution to the 'posting style' thread)
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