Pacquiao vs. Mayweather: Who wins?
November 19th, 2009
By Liam Fitzgerald: After Manny Pacquiao’s stunning demolition of Miguel Cotto on Saturday night we are surely now set up for the ultimate showdown: Manny Pacquiao vs Floyd Mayweather. There’s no point denying that these two fighters are in a class of their own and the p4p number one spot cannot be truly held by one without beating the other.
In my opinion, the fight will come down to whose greatest strength prevails and whose biggest weakness, although it’s hardly weak in both cases, is best capitalised on. For Pacquiao this is lightning fast attack and for Mayweather it is his defensive wizardry. Either of these two skills would be good enough against any other welterweight to win but they might not be sufficient in this fight as the other fighter is equally adept.
As witnessed on Saturday, Pacquiao is at his best when he just explodes into life and unleashes combinations of up to 10 punches at a time. In particular, I was impressed with how his right hand has improved and nowadays he can throw any type of punch. His straight left, right and left hooks and uppercuts are all spiteful shots which overwhelmed Cotto the other night. This is significant as I considered Cotto to have a great chance on Saturday and couldn’t see how a natural welterweight could be stopped by an ex-flyweight in Pacquiao. If Manny can do this to one of the best fighters in the world in Cotto, could his explosiveness also do it for him against the best opponent he will ever face?
This is a lot more doubtful because Mayweather is so competent defensively. His excellent head movement and famous shoulder roll usually keep him out of trouble in fights but like Pacquiao, he has to overcome a unique fighter in order to win this time. Mayweather’s defence is undoubtedly brilliant but will he be able to keep Pacquiao off him if he throws 7, 8 or 9 punches at a time. Pacquiao certainly has the stamina to be able to do this for 12 rounds as he showed on Saturday and for this reason I feel Pacquiao has the best opportunity to put a defeat on Mayweather’s record. I don’t know, maybe Mayweather is good enough to thwart Pacquiao’s threat but without doubt this will be the bigget threat he has ever encountered.
As these strength’s are s influential for each fighter, there is a worry that they could neutralize each other. However, this is where capitalising on the other man’s weakness becomes so prevalent. For Pacquiao, his problem is that he does get hit with a reasonable amount of punches in his fights. His impressive chin compensates for this, as was the case vs Cotto, and the fact that Mayweather in truth likes to pot shot could render this useless. Mayweather for me has to throw a lot more than he did against Marquez to have real success vs Pacquiao. The one saving grace for Mayweather is that Manny struggles occasionly against counter punchers and there is no better exponent of that art out there today. The question remains though, will Mayweather be able to cause enough damage from countering opportunities? That for me could be the key as to who wins this epic contest.
Therefore, I remain undecided as to whom I think will win when these two face off and that for me is what makes this bout so exciting. Before, the Cotto-Pacquiao fight I was sure that Maywetaher’s defence could handle Pacquiao whilst his counter punching would see him prevail. Now, however Pacquiao’s impressive performance in both defence and attack has me wondering if he is the man to finally ruin Mayweather’s perfect record. At this moment, he is the only man capable of doing so in my eyes. I see the fight going 12 rounds either way due to them both possessing good chins and at this moment I would probably be leaning towards the little Filipino slightly. Either way it will be a superb fight and us fight fans are the real winners.
Tags: 34 Responses to “Pacquiao vs. Mayweather: Who wins?”
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I can’t stand PBF but I do respect him. Most people watch Manny fight and think wow he’s so explosive with his combinations and hand speed. Floyd doesn’t get the respect he deserves because of the style of fighter he is which is unfair. Manny puts himself in several off balance positions and that could prove costly because Floyd is no Cotto or Margarito. His handspeed is superior to that of both of the and he is the most gifted defensive fighter of our generation a la Pernell Whitaker. Floyd will jab and counter Manny. Ohh and Floyd is the naturally bigger fighter. Manny’s only chance to win is on points and I just don’t see it happening. It will be a better performance then Marquez gave but ultimately Manny will lose. I hate to say it bc I can’t stand Floyd but I’m a huge boxing fan.
I heard the same crp before the Hatton fight and the Coralles fight. Floyd is gonna get rocked, and floyed can’t deal with constant pressure. Yeah ok. Marquez and Morales hit him repeatedly with offensives and counters and they couldnt touch Floyd.
So for everyone who thinks they know what they’re talking about. Don’t favor the flash, favor the skill, and there hasn’t been such a gifted pure boxer than ALi post 1970
FLOYD BY UNANIMOUS DECISION
everybody is saying that manny will lose to mayweather because hes a great counter puncher you guys are discrediting pacman he beat a great counter puncher cotto with no problem. he beat him in every aspect u can name. who has mayweather fought who is in the same level as manny or even have the same style as manny???
cotto and dela hoya made big mistakes before entering the ring, why would either agree to come in at 142, thats crazy weres your strength a fighter that outgrows a certain weight can never go back and be successful, cotto and delahoya both probably walk around at 170 to come down to 142 this catch weight freddy demands is why he won, cotto had nothing to fight with, delahoya look like a skinny out of shape man, mayweather shoundnt take the fight if they want him to fight at 142 even shane mosely said thats to light, you give up to much to come down, mayweather wins easy at 47, mannys great but not that great its his team, and they know these guys will lose it all at that weight
@paktard.
Just because I share the same first name with Liam Santiago, it doesn’t mean I have the same opinions or am in fact him.
invincible opponent???? , what cotto mate. your kidding us surely.
Floyd Sr. saw how dangerous PacMan is and is cautioning his son against taking this fight. He witnessed how this small fighter bored through Cotto’s defenses and overwhelmed his seemingly invincible opponent.
PacMan will follow Fred Roach’s gameplan of going to the body and mixing with the head. He has all the tools to do this and like when Jose Luis Castillo pounded Mayweather years back as a lightweight, Floyd slowed down considerably and caught a lot of head shots. I liken this fight to Julio Cesar Chavez fight with Meldrick Taylor when he finally put a blemish on the flashy speedster thru a war of attrition and KO him in the last round. Another analogy would be the war in Montreal when a then superbly shaped Duran battered Ray Leonard into defeat for the first time in his career.
floyd is the dogs end of. the pacman is awesome end of. who wins. godknows. it’d betta happen thats all that im sayin.
Good article. Balanced views. It might end up to be a draw.
So Liam Santiago retires and replace by Fitzgerald? LOL….
BTW – Pac’s gone on the record to say, Yes, I want to fight Floyd…but has Floyd said…Yes I want to fight Pac? He goes on a tirade about Pac not saying it, but he hasn’t said it himself. He’s got no one to hide behind now.
amiguelcottofan: Pac would accept any deal Mayweather throws at him if he really wants to fight Floyd? If Floyd really wants to fight Pac, shouldn’t Floyd accept any deal that Pac throws at HIM?
Everyone talks about Mayweather’s ‘famous’ shoulder roll.
This is only really helpful against orthodox fighters.
revisit his fight against Judah and you’ll see just how ‘effective’ it is.
hard to tell. But should Floyd really be fighting against someone his own size or even bigger first before he even starts thinking about boxing someone smaller like MP?
Manny did that and challenged himself so Mayweather should too then maybe I can say he deserves to be an ATG
ahugemiguelcottofan,
you are an imbecile. how is mayweather gonna KO pacman in round 5? he’s gonna need more than 20 rounds to do that… + a hammer.
ahugemiguelcottofan,
you are an imbecile. how is mayweather gonna KO pacman in round 5? he’s gonna need more than 20 rounds to do that… + a hammer.
WHO CARES ABOUT MAYWEATHER MAN!!!! IF PACMAN AND FLOYD FIGHT YOU WILL ONLY PAY $65 TO SEE FLOYD LOSE A BORING FIGHT!LETS SEE PAC DEFY THE ODDS AGAIN AND DEFEAT MOSLEY!!!! YEAA SOME ACTION!
F**K Mosely & Williams the World wants Pacquiao v Mayweather!!!!!!
Floyd wins on pts.
@ahugemiguelcottofan,
uh, what? that’s lame. famous boxers wont accept “any deal” even though they really want to fight.
and by that ko by 5, how is he gonna do that? Pity Boy will have broken ribs and shoulders by the end of round 3.
sporty is an idoit. if pacman really wanted to fight floyd he would accept any deal floyd throws at him. for manny, the victory over floyd would be greater than the money he will get for the fight against floyd. on that note- floyd will ko pacman by round 5.
mayweather easily , mannys headhunting style is all wrong against this slipping , rolling , sliding , shoulderblocking defensive counterpunching opportunist who is the last great follower of the old sweet science – hit and not get hit.To the nuetral analysist manny still took a lot of unnecessary punches after rd 6 from a badly beaten fighter in cotto , if floyd catches manny boring in with those 2 fisted punching combinations with the check hook – look out!
Who is better between these 2 will sadly remain rhetorical since this fight simply will not happen. Mayweather will shout to any media outlet listening, that he wants Pacquiao, but will sabotage negotiations behind closed doors by unreasonably demanding too much and thus pricing himself out of the fight. Mayweather will never face the risk to his undefeated status that is Pacquiao, and Pacquiao will end up retiring after fighting 1, maybe 2 more fights. Pacquiao really does not have much left to prove and his legacy is secure. Conversely, Mayweather will only prove relevant in the short term as Pacquiao’s achievments will be heralded decades from now leaving Mayweather’s career long forgotten.
Styles make fights pac-man struggle with counter puncher’s but certainly winning it though controversially the question is he really lost convincingly to a counter puncher? and answer is No either and now he evolve to a complete fighter.So the real Question is Can Mayweather defeat Pac-man Convincingly?
floyd cannot win by ko so only chance he has is by decision, if he can stand an onslaught of punches by manny ,pac can chase mayweather all night and sooner or later he will catch mayweather and his corner will throw in the towel and blame it on the roids – which is only an excuse!
at abolish the catchweight! ali vs frazier in thrilla in manila, crybaby!!!
he does pose a HUGE threat to Manny Pacquaio???? lol
batangastig, mannymannymannymanny,what you know about the sport of boxing anyway, probably just a big time manny follower….if you can,tell me more of significant past or upcoming fights besides manny pacquiao’s?? i’d like to hear from you…
yea…..,think marquez heard all wrong ,it isn’t that you will get stronger.its your pee that will gets stronger if you keep drinking it.
Mayweather is no doubt a talented fighter. But while he was retired and clowning around, Manny was ascending and proving to the world that here is a boxer who was evolving and truly becoming the best he could be. Using all of his strengths and fixing his weaknesses.
Manny proves it in the ring. Mayweather talks.
Unfortunately, because of his ego, PBF doesn’t understand how a fighter like Manny can become so respected even though he has lost early in his career. He seems to totally believe in his own hype about the “0″ in his lost column.
For a family that claims to know so much about boxing, where is the basic understanding that to be the best, you must fight the best? There are plenty of welterweights he hasn’t yet fought.
His excuse is that they’ve all fought each other and lost. Cotto beat Mosely. Mosely beat Margarito. Margarito beat Cotto(while possibly cheating). Blah, blah, blah. We all know that he’s just ducking and making excuses.
Manny has challenged himself. Each fight had plenty of risk. And what’s more telling is that Manny has come back from losses even more hungry. Manny has real heart as a fighter. And people can appreciate that.
PBF, blessed with natural talents that come from being raised in a boxing family may never understand this. PBF could certainly become one of the greatest, but by not fighting the best fighters his size, his record will forever have an asterik. A very good fighter, but we’ll never really know because he didn’t test himself enough.
At this point, who knows who will win. They both are tremendously gifted.
But I will be rooting for Pacquiao come fight night and I feel that he will have as good a chance as anyone has had against Mayweather.
i hate it when everyone brings marquez in the picture when discrediting manny. if you still think that pacquiao was the same fighter that fought marquez then you dont know anything about boxing. ariza has woken up something inside pacquiao, and it started with diaz. if you still think that manny was the same guy that fought marquez, then let me ask you this, will you bet all your money on marquez if they fought again right now?…i think not. if you will, then you shouldn’t gamble ever lol.
ok as far as mayweather, if cotto couldn’t even hurt pacquiao, i dont see floyd hurting him ether. manny was using the rope-a-dope on cotto, which just shows you how much confidence pacquiao has. ok i will give floyd a slight chance, and thats through a dec win. if anyone is going to be doing any koing when those two fight, its going to be manny.
Mayweather will beat Pacquiao easier than he beat Marquez, watch and see.
Mayweather likes to urinate on himself. I think that’s why he comes off with such a pee-pee attitude. I’s also why his fights stink.
Good Article. Pac-man’s biggest (recent) challenge was Marquez, who is a counter puncher. Mayweather is the best counter puncher that boxing has ever had period. I see Mayweather winning this bout by KO, catching Pacquiao with a counter hook, when the Pac-Man gets desperate and starts reaching. The last 3 years of boxing has been pretty good and it looks like its getting better.
Both of this guys should face williams and mosley then each other………
by the way…good article