Stumbled on this video that's apparently 4-5 years old, but just reinforced my opinion (mine, not claiming an undisputed fact!-) of Floyd Mayweather Sr. sparring with a clearly untrained, not very conditioned, similar sized individual who is about 20 or so years younger (and purely white, wigger, street trash). I'll link video at bottom, but summary is Mayweather while trying to use his amazing defensive skills to set up the young fool with a one punch knock out right hand. After 2 minutes he still can't land a clean shot once, and while his defense is amazing and beautiful normally, he seems to be struggling with the timing of the untrained guy's sloppy haymakers. (He gets sucker punched and guy gets jumped in the end which is actually better than the entire sparring session and hilarious).
Anyway, yes Sr. is old, but as a trainer (maybe the best in the world), I am surprised his skills have not held up enough just by teaching, holding mitts, drilling, etc. plus he's always in videos even this year, taking off his shirt and flexing, clearly in great shape still and much better than his "opponent" in this sparring session. Sr. was a legit World Champion (back when a title meant u were only one of 3 guys at a weight to be considered a champion, not one of 20 as today) so there is no better example to use than him to gauge boxing's techniques ability to still be efficient at handling yourself against an untrained "fighter," again speaking of the technical worthiness of boxing's skill set after you've aged a bit and lost some reflex time, since not only being the highest level of expression of the art/sport, he's still involved and training regularly.
Also, the buffoon he's going against is wearing 16 oz gloves and following boxing rules (til the end ;-) and not kicking, grappling, etc. which undoubtably would have been a thousand times worse for Mayweather. Again, speaking stylistically, I can't see this same goofball coming in and out wrestling a similarly aged John Smith or kickboxing Benny the Jet today. Obviously all sports present the athlete with diminished skill levels as they age, but boxing seems to be particularly necessitated on youthful reflexes and timing.
Any opinions from the older, more experienced guys here with any boxing or martial arts backgrounds? Anyone else saw this video or have opinion about it? Video in question:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yINeFX-SC4sSomeone please embed, on cell phone...
