Floyd Mayweather Jr. Vs. Frankie Edgar

[The Arbiter]

Meet in the middle of their 2 sports.

Pro kickboxing match.

[Sharpandpointies]

Frankie a really, REALLY good standup fighter?

Because if he isn't, and doesn't have really fantastic kicking on top of that, you're hamstringing the wrestler by putting him in a kickboxing match, here.

Additionally, Mayweather has 3" of reach on him - edit: sorry, 4" - and is at least the same weight.

So...Frankie better be a stellar boxer himself and have some pretty great kicks for this to even be a fight, is what I'm saying.

[The Arbiter]

Frankie is a /great/ boxer, by MMA standards at least. Obviously Floyd is clearly better still.

His biggest strengths are his absurd durability/soak and inexhaustible gas tank. He's constantly moving.

Kicks are ok. Not top tier by MMA standards but not terrible either. He uses them to create openings more than damage

[The Arbiter]

https://youtu.be/DqbDs_6fmQ4

Quick highlight vid.

[Sharpandpointies]

Is this American kickboxing rules?

[The Arbiter]

Is this American kickboxing rules?

I'm ashamed to admit I don't know the difference in rule sets. I was assuming K1 rules...

[Sharpandpointies]

...working solely off of the video, by the standards of a boxer, Frankie's boxing is mediocre. At best. :P

[The Arbiter]

...working solely off of the video, by the standards of a boxer, Frankie's boxing is mediocre. At best. :P

Bwahaha

It doesn't help that I found the one video focusing mostly on his durability :P getting hit isn't very flattering.

[Sharpandpointies]

I'm ashamed to admit I don't know the difference in rule sets. I was assuming K1 rules...

K1 gives him better odds than American, though I don't feel his odds are fantastic.

Okay, so as a boxer he's going to get waaaay outboxed by Mayweather.

His big chances are to try to wear away Mayweather's legs with kicks. And use the knees.

K-1 disallows elbows, and he can't throw in the clinch. That hurts him.

The kicks will 'surprise' Mayweather. I mean, he'll be expecting them, but he hasn't trained to defend against them and lacks the proper reflexive reactions to them. They might make him tentative, which opens up the way for more kicks to slow him down.

But if he manages to get inside the kicks and not get hurt by a knee, he's going to destroy Frankie.

Mileage may vary.

[The Arbiter]

K1 gives him better odds than American, though I don't feel his odds are fantastic.

Okay, so as a boxer he's going to get waaaay outboxed by Mayweather.

His big chances are to try to wear away Mayweather's legs with kicks. And use the knees.

K-1 disallows elbows, and he can't throw in the clinch. That hurts him.

The kicks will 'surprise' Mayweather. I mean, he'll be expecting them, but he hasn't trained to defend against them and lacks the proper reflexive reactions to them. They might make him tentative, which opens up the way for more kicks to slow him down.

But if he manages to get inside the kicks and not get hurt by a knee, he's going to destroy Frankie.

Thanks for the clarification! And the breakdown. I tend to agree

I am curious about the x factors to this fight though. I doubt Floyd can KO Frankie just based on their respective offense/defense histories. So a decision seems likely.

My thoughts are maybe Floyd wins the early rounds, but then begins to slow and lose ground due to kicks in the later rounds? Maybe?

[Sharpandpointies]

The kicks still have to land.

Is it possible? Sure. Mayweather doesn't have the experience dealing with kicks, it's going to mess up his ability to react to them (just wait, someone is going to come flying in here and say 'what, he can react to a punch but not a kick? That's wrong!' <-- I'm guessing, but past experience...real life isn't comic books, one gets what one trains for and not training to deal with kicks means....). So it's possible that Frankie will be able to wear out his legs....

...only you just said that Frankie isn't exactly an inspired kicker, and tends to only use kicks to make openings. Throwing out 'decent but not great kicks' against someone who is one of the better boxers around, who has 4" of reach advantage, means it's quite possible that one finds oneself standing on one leg when getting hit Really Freaking Hard™.

This is not good.

My money is on Mayweather, here. If it was MMA rules he'd lose this one, but it's not. Frankie probably makes a fight of it thanks to the kicks and potential of a knee if Mayweather gets too close, and has a chance of taking it I guess, but I'd say safe odds are on this particular boxer in this particular circumstance.

[The Arbiter]

I don't hate this as the most likely result.

Hmm... now I've got lots of other fights in mind, but I don't want to spam the forum.

[Sharpandpointies]

I will note that my opinions are based on what I have seen of the fighters. Sooooo....maybe there's some youtube out there that proves me wrong, I don't know.

And as always, mileage may vary. ^_^