What makes mayweather great

As was the case during his first fight with Marcos Maidana, looping power shots that don't land often catch the eye of fans and some media members more than the cleanly landed jabs and straight rights from Mayweather. Maidana was impressive early, and his style flashes more on TV, but Mayweather landed more punches and connected more effectively for the majority of the fight.

Go back and watch the portions of the fight where Mayweather was against the ropes and look for him landing more clean shots than Maidana, especially with short hooks and uppercuts. For statistical proof I offer you this: Mayweather landed 34 percent of his jabs during the last fight compared to just 11 percent for Maidana. In case you thought Maidana was more effective with the power punches, Mayweather actually landed an absurd 65 percent of his power punches to just 34 percent from Maidana.

As a counterpuncher with superior speed, timing and experience on every opponent, Mayweather finds holes in his opponent's defense that others don't see and has the skill set to exploit those holes. For a recent example, go back and look at his fight against Robert Guerrero and watch for how often he lands the lead right hand during the middle and late portions of the fight.

Guerrero was open for the punch and had no answer as Mayweather left his mark on the face of The Ghost. Even casual fans have probably noticed the discrepancy in hand speed between Mayweather and the majority of his opponents.

With his advantage in speed and his great sense for timing and learning his opponent's rhythm, Mayweather is often able to get off multiple punches before his opponent can blink.

As anyone reading this knows, he's not a fighter who thinks about offense first but uses his offense to complement his great defense. His ability to avoid punches and get his opponent out of position opens up holes that he's then able to exploit by using his hand speed. Mayweather is capable of landing punches without that assist from his defense, but he's most effective when his defense sets up his offense. You won't see Mayweather look to throw first during the early rounds very often, but as the fight reaches the middle rounds and he starts to learn his opponent's rhythm, he'll usually start to look for his own offense more frequently, as I mentioned previously.

A fighter might get a lucky break, throw a lucky punch, or use gimmicks or fancy tactics to win occasionally. Greatness, however, can only be achieved with solid fundamentals. Floyd trains at the tutelage of his father - Floyd, Sr. With his dad, Floyd, Jr. It almost reminds me of jazz, precise and yet improvisational. So Floyd does lots of fancy training combinations and makes his mitt training into a sort of rhythmic dance , so what?

Being perfect and yet fluid at the same time. You can't just simply repeat the same moves in boxing. How you train matters and Floyd shows us that practice makes perfect. Boxing is about brawling, punching, intimidating, dominating, and knocking out. These are offensive things. It goes without saying that aggressiveness in boxing matters, but Floyd wins as a defensive specialist because he fights smarter than his opponents. He fights his game plan, not theirs. He always controls his breathing -- and that's an art.

A lot of fighters, you see them breathing out of their mouths. Floyd always breathes out of his nose. He fights in the 12th round like he fought in the first round due to how hard he works. He does mitts for 30 minutes, then hits the bag for 30 minutes straight, then goes running, then goes to play basketball.

Judah: When he trains, he lines up like 15 to 20 sparring partners at a time. I've known him since we were amateurs. He's always done over and beyond what the job consists of. You can't beat someone who's not going to get tired.

Corley: He starts talking to his opponent, and that's something that I experienced in the fight and in camp with him. He's saying, "Eat this! Catterall: You're tired, and he's still fresh. When he sees that, it's kind of like he's appreciating his own work. He's kind of smiling, thinking, I'm bossing this fight, and you can't do s about it. He has not knocked you out, but it's like he's enjoying the fact that he's giving you a calculated beating and you can't do nothing.

Spence: I've seen him stop guys in the gym with ounce gloves. Bigger guys. He just beats them up. In his young career, you saw how he was knocking guys out. But he can punch hard. They're not just walking through his punches. You haven't seen anybody who's walking through his punches.

Even Marcos Maidana started backing up when Floyd started coming forward. Corley: His power is the quickness of his punches, the placement. His punch placement is so on point, from the outside it looks like he doesn't hit hard. But when he hits you, you feel like, G--damn, I have to regroup now. Catterall: The one thing I picked up on in sparring was his accuracy, catching the same spot over and over again. He's very cute with his punches, finding the same little spot. I always like to think I work on my defensive game a lot, so I'm like, F, how does he keep hitting that same spot?

But he always manages to find a way. Catterall: When he's backed up, he'll use the shoulder roll. He'll pull and slip the punch, then he'll take a short little step back and he'll pivot. You'll be there still throwing punches. He makes you think he's there, but then he's off all of a sudden. A lot of fighters try to do it, but it's not a style a lot of fighters can adapt to. It takes years and years of practice. But with Floyd, he can even walk toward you in the shoulder roll and use it to attack more.

Judah: Floyd has been doing that shoulder roll since day one. I was very certain that I could hit him with good shots and I thought that could be the difference. I caught him when he thought that he was out of the way. I kind of slid it, a veteran move, and caught him right on the button and rocked him. He was surprised and I was like, 'Wow, this is my chance.

I'm going to get him. I'm going to knock him out. He made the adjustment. He was able to capitalize. After that the fight was over. Mayweather did what he was supposed to do as a champion to win. He sees what you are about to throw and is out of there before you can punch.

What can you say?