[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
I disagree. Mayweather is a product of both them, and he was far from a complete fighter when he was just with his father - he was more offensive minded, but his defense and his ring generalship was nowhere near what it is today. Floyd fights EXACTLY like Roger. Creepily so.
As far as padwork goes, Roach doesn’t do anything different than most other trainers I know (or even much different than my own does.) It’s pretty simple stuff because boxing, at the surface, is not a complicated sport.
The Mayweather style (Floyd Sr. tends to do the same thing, watch him do pads with Ricky Hatton) is kind of a different animal. There’s a lot of patterns in there - it’s not just slapping at the pads - and there’s a lot of slipping and ducking and blocking, which is often lacking in more traditional padwork. My best guess is that it makes defense and offense blend much more efficiently and eliminates the differences between them.
Roger kind of has an easy job with Floyd. He’s said that he doesn’t tell him how many rounds to do on a given day, or how much to run, and that Floyd is pretty much the ultimate self-motivator. However, be careful to rob him of credit. Floyd without Roger is not the same fighter, for whatever reason.
And look at the quality guys that Floyd Sr. has trained - there are many - and I’ve got to believe their style is pretty good. They both were good fighters (Roger was better) and they truly know the game inside and out.
As far as Freddie goes, I can’t say honestly that I’m a fan of his but he also knows the game. He’s taken several fighters that were good but lacking in key areas and made them into more complete fighters - Pac and Khan come to mind.
I wouldn’t say he’s overrated. I’d just say he comes off as a doucher. But I’ve never met him, so I can’t say for sure.[/quote]
Yeah, it turns out that Floyd was a product of both Mayweathers. I read (a time ago) that Floyd did not like working with his father because he demanded perfection. Thereafter I gave his father the bulk of the credit. It fitted in with my “crazy parent creates athletic superstar” view of the world. I still do. But I don’t have much proof.
I like the blend of offence and defense in their particular brand of padwork. But there is also a lot of tapping punches and a lack of full extension most of the time. I don’t know if this is a good or a bad thing. But until a lot more trainers start adopting it, I’d opt for traditional work every time.
I don’t know much about Sr.'s resume. But I know even less about Roger’s. Who else has he trained? Roger was a serious boxer, with a good punch, but as a trainer I haven’t seen much of him aside from that one gifted relative. Obviously he gets credit for that, Floyd would never stand for a chump, but nothing that would put him next to Roach (in my opinion).
And speaking of Roach, I’m surprised you don’t see him as overrated. For a long time (his stock seems to have fallen recently) the boxing press had him as the untouchable greatest trainer on earth. Heck, he still almost received the (public) trainer of the year vote on ringtv despite his star fighters having a relatively poor year. For the record, I am a fan of his, particularly since our own Steve Collins picked him out from the plethora of trainers he worked with, but even for me the adulation would sometimes go too far.