@vcmmafan
He wasn't outclassed. You just don't know boxing
Conor's length, lead hand game, fienting, jabs, speed, reflexes, countering were giving Floyd MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR ISSUES rounds 1-8
Did you notice how Floyd's jab wasn't a factor vs Conor, when Floyd's jab is usually his go to vs southpaws to control range and dictate with?
(Floyd's 2 biggest weapons vs southpaws is his jab and right leads. Conor took away both the first half of the fight)
So im sure you already know the reason why Floyd's jabs were a total non factor against Conor
Because Conor was taking away Floyd's jabs and rendering it a non factor
Conor's leadhand was continually checking Floyd's jab hand
- Conor by continually placing his leadhand above Floyd's leadhand was dominating leadhand positioning.
Conor by placing his leadhand higher gave him the advantage in being able to threaten coming up over Floyd's leadhand with a jab or right hook. It kept Floyd's jab hand in check.
And of course Conor continually probing his leadhand kept Floyd pre-occupied and essentially "distracted" ...(I will go more into that later)
Conor's leadhand probing/leadhand game, along with his fients and jabs, and in how Conor was continually mixing it up with probes/fients/jabs, was keeping Floyd continually off set
That's one of the reasons why Floyd had such trouble countering Conor effectively
(Other being Conor was continually stepping around Floyd)
Floyd was never able to consistently plant and counter like he wanted to because Conor kept stepping around Floyd and turning Floyd thus off setting him. Conor also fiented out some of Floyd's attempted counters pretty well which takes us back to Conor's leadhand game
Conor's leadhand radar system was also there to feel out or draw out any right leads from Floyd to counter
Conor was having a field day slipping Floyd's right hand leads (clearly the gameplan was to come up with uppercut counters off the slip and follow up with a right hook combo)
-Look how Conor has his leadhand out there just feeling Floyd out and while keeping a barrier between him and Floyd with his leadhand
-Pay attention to how as soon as Floyd slightly changes levels, Conor takes a subtle step back and plants ready to go. That's all the tell tale sign Conor needed. Conor truly is remarkable himself too
-As soon as Floyd slightly dropped levels and stepped in to get past that lead hand barrier of Conors, this let Conor instantly know Floyd was going to step in with the right lead. Conor slips and counters with the uppercut right hook combo.
Conor was having great success landing that slip uppercut counter to Floyd's right hand leads,
Floyd had to find an adjustment, and did so by starting to shoot the right leads down to the body (instead of the head)
Conor was a master amd was slipping all the right leads to the head the first half of the fight.
Conor was giving Floyd a serious chess match that Floyd had to seriously work hard at to overcome
Here was another example btw
In that gif we also have multiple examples of the things Conor did well.
-Look at Conor's brilliant jab.
-Again the uppercut right hook slip counter combo. (All though that one wasn't the cleanest).
-And lastly, the way that gift starts out, is going to lead into another bigger point as well
To showcase another brilliant way in which Conor was using his leadhand against Floyd
You see Conor shoot his leadhand up high as a blinder/ditarctionary device to set up the left straight to the body down low
This is another brilliant tactic of Conor's that was having major success.
And Floyd never found an adjustment to it either. For some reason Conor just stopped focusing his left straight to the body
Breaking down the gif I posted earlier of Conor rocking Floyd, that is how Conor set it all up
Not only was Conor range finding with his leadhand often, found his range perfectly here, here he was keeping Floyd pre-occupied with his lead hand, using as a blinder or set up for what is to come
Touch, distract up high, get to check, shoot down low.
So off the lead hand probe distraction, Conor on the off beat dropped the left straight down to Floyd's body. Conor was hoping to get Floyd to drop his guard. Very smart. You can already see Conor displaying high level boxing fight IQ.
The left straight to the body gets Floyd to tuck in even harder in an attempt to try to catch it off his sternum or forearms.
This leaves Floyd's sides completely exposed, and Conor quickly follows up with a right hook to the exposed side of the body. Again Conor showing high level fight IQ (was winning the chess match over Floyd often)
Really just a sublime right hook to the body by Conor, off the lead hand touch up high distraction, to go down low to the opened up midsection after the check, to open up the side of the body
You will start to see Conor stepping around Floyd after landing the right hook to the body.
I can break that down if you a like. That goes into how Conor was constantly stepping around Floyd to change up the angle and positioning, forcing Floyd to turn to him/keeping Floyd turning and off set etc (Floyd also makes an adjustment that Conor still beats out)
Btw, here is ANOTHER example of Conor using his leadhand as a blinder up top to distract for the left straight down low to the body
Seriously, it was BRILLIANT stuff from Conor...and I wish that would've been a larger part of the gameplan....
Every single time, Conor had Floyd with it (because of all the ways Conor was using his leadhand, Floyd never had a clue)
Jab. Jab. Fient. Probe. Then Conor would just touch up high to blind and distract then shoot down low etc.
Conor is truly an under rated brilliant master boxer and a fight IQ master/specialist himself
Conor's leadhand game was a serious issue for Floyd, and would be again in a rematch
If you want to be more educated, I can also breakdown what adjustments Conor would need to make, and how he could also further build on to all the success he already had etc
Enjoy this post
@JKS Hope you read it: )
