When it comes to Ring IQ few if any were better than Floyd Mayweather Jr. Mayweather was able to make adjustments during the fight better than any other fighter I have seen. Boxing history is rich when it comes to fighters with high ring IQ – something I have previously written about and you can read about the various sharp minded quick thinking fighters in the article here – RING IQ.

Mayweather Jr though may just sit at the top here, it is rumoured that Mayweather at times did not even bother to study his opponents before the fight, because Mayweather believed you could study an opponent but come fight night they may just try something different you haven’t seen in which case you are back to making adjustments on the fly again within the squared circle. Mayweather rather would come out and take a few rounds to figure out his opponent to gauge what they were doing and then plan his strategy right there in the middle of the fight.

An example of Mayweather doing precisely this and yet again showing his Ring IQ was against Miguel Cotto. Cotto himself is a smart fighter and an excellent one too. With a high and tight guard Mayweather figured out early this was going to be one of his toughest fights and he had to find a way to break down and open the guard of Cotto.

With the straight right not landing, Mayweather set to work on testing Cotto’s guard with the wide right hook to the head, instead of going straight with the right hand he was now going around the guard. The right hook begins to land and Mayweather opens him up further by adding the feint to the mix.

Now that the wide right hook is landing, Cotto has to account for this by slightly changing the guard – and now that Mayweather has manipulated the guard of Cotto, he can go back to using the straight right by going wide with the hook drawing Cotto’s guard and leaving an opening for the straight right. Have a look t the video below to see how Mayweather puts this into action and yet again displays a high level of Ring IQ.