Pacquiao making a mistake in fighting Rios

By Boxing News - 05/07/2013 - Comments

jmm_ko_pacBy Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao and his team may think they’ve got an easy mark on their hands with the stationary fighter Brandon Rios, but I see this fight going really badly for Pacquiao when he meets up with Rios on November 24th at the Venetian Room in Macau, China.

There’s no question about it Pacquiao has the better hand speed and he moves better – or he used to. However, if he plans on standing and trading with Rios for 12 rounds, he’s going to be in a lot of trouble in this fight because Rios can any take shot Pacquiao can give.

I honestly don’t see there being any guy at 147 or even 154 that can knock Rios out. It would take a middleweight like Gennady Golovkin to stop Rios, and Pacquiao doesn’t have that kind of power.

This is going to go really badly for the Filipino because he’s facing a guy that wants him to trade, and he’s got the much better chin and he’s a lot younger at 27 compared to the 34-year-old Pacquiao.

That may not seem like a big difference in age, but believe me it’s a huge difference. Rios is a young 27, while Pacquiao is an old 34. He’s like a car with a lot of miles that’s blowing massive amounts of blue smoke out his tailpipe as he moves around the ring.

With a car like that it’s a sign that you need to overhaul the engine, but with a boxer like Pacquiao you can’t do that. The only thing you can do is either retire him or teach him to run and block punches.

Given Pacquiao’s problems with leg cramps, I can’t see him being able to run from Rios, and I don’t think he would even try due to his tremendous pride. It’s his pride that is going to get him knocked out on November 24th because if he saw this fight in a logical manner, he’d put on his track shoes in this fight and try to follow the blueprint that Mike Alvarado created in beating Rios last March.

Pacquiao won’t even bother trying to follow in Alvarado’s footsteps. Pacquiao is going to fight as he always does by going right after Rios and try and knock him out the same way he knocked out guys like Ricky Hatton, Miguel Cotto and Oscar De La Hoya by overwhelming them with punches until they either fall or the referee steps in to mercifully stop the fight.

Pacquiao won’t be able to do that with Rios because he’ll just keep firing back huge shots, and I wouldn’t be taking those kinds of head shots if I was Pacquiao. Rios’ uppercuts are incredibly powerful and now that he’s able to come into the fight heavier for this one given that it’s taking place at 147, you can expect Rios to be even stronger.



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