21.06.05 – By Goran Dragosavac: If I would be absolutely certain that Floyd Mayweather will win the fight against Arthuro Gatti on Saturday night, I wouldn’t think about the fight, I wouldn’t write about it, and certainly wouldn’t bother to watch it. Make no mistake, Mayweather is technically one of the best boxers, not only in his generation, but one of the best that ever entered the ring.. So far, his defensive and offensive abilities are pure magic; His switch from inside to outside and back – is beyond – anything I have ever seen in the ring. So, against a boxer of such a calibre, any other boxer would have steep slope to climb, and so will Arturo Gatti.
However, even though I cannot see Gatti outboxing Mayweather, ever – I could well imagine the possibility of him pulling an upset. Gatti does have decent power, and we have seen that Gatti under the brilliant coaching of Buddy McGirt, is a completely different boxer than he was previously. Mayweather is right claiming that boxers he fought are far better than Gatti’s opponents, but the way Gatti has disposed of Leonard Dorin and Jesse James Leija, has given him the right to believe in himself and that he can pull this one off.
Gatti needs to look for the type of shot, that allowed Demarcus Corley to stun both, Mayweather and Miguel Cotto. Unfortunately, Corley wasn’t able to capitalize on it.
Gatti’s biggest ally may be Mayweather’s own seemingly out of control arrogance. As is his custom, Mayweather will likely try to fool around and make Gatti look silly, as Mayweather did in his last bout against the hopelessly overmatched Henry Bruseles, Nevertheless, Mayweather may well succeed in making Gatti seem unskilled, in his quest to present himself as an entertaining boxer. However, in doing so, Mayweather may leave himself wide open for one of Gatti’s vicious body shots, which will sap the strength from Mayweather’s body.
Needless to say, Gatti must exercise patience like never before, and let Mayweather comes to him, and I believe he has stronger chance to pull the upset, as a counter puncher than by being the aggressor. Gatti also needs to the body whenever he can. After all, that is the only thing that can slow a boxer like Mayweather down, since it’s almost impossible to land a head shot against him. If Gatti goes for the head, especially in early stages of the fight – he will keep on hitting the air, leaving the openings for rapid counters that Mayweather is known for.
More importantly, Gatti must move continually, pivoting sideways, doing lateral head movements, in other words – using a moving defence, so that he can look for an effective counter punch.
That is easier said than done, but at the same time, Gatti needs more than just guts, more than just strength – he needs to transcend himself, even if it means being more of a clone of Mayweather and less of a Gatti.
Apart from relying on lucky punch, this is the only other way that Gatti can hope to have any realistic chance of winning the fight.
Nobody gave much of a chance to Hatton, and he pulled it off, but he did it with the right strategy that worked well with his natural strengths.
Gatti’s camp need just the same.