Arum thinks Pacquiao won’t show any adverse affects from KO on Saturday

By Boxing News - 11/21/2013 - Comments

pac673468By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum doesn’t expect Manny Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KO’s) to show any signs from his previous 6th round knockout loss when he steps inside the ring on Saturday night to face Brandon Rios (31-1-1, 23 KO’s) in Macao, China.

Arum believes that because Pacquiao was knocked out with a sudden punch from Juan Manuel Marquez rather than from having taken a sustained beating that led to the KO, it will mean that Pacquiao will shown no negative signs or ill affects from his KO last December.

This is Arum’s belief that he has about Pacquiao, and he feels that he’s going to be rejuvenated for this fight.

“Pacquiao seems to me to be rejuvenated,” Arum told RingTV. “There are two different knockouts. There is a knockout where you get the crap beaten out of you. It’s very difficult to come back because you’ve taken a tremendous beating. But if you get hit with a punch and it’s a one-punch knockout, it’s much easier to come back. So I don’t think the knockout by Marquez will have any adverse affect on Pacquiao.”

I think that’s wishful thinking by Arum. I’ve seen fighters that have been knocked completely out with a single shot, and they weren’t the same fighter afterwards. They were knocked out easily in their next fights, so it’s not always the case where a fighter that is knocked out with one shot is totally fine in their next fights. I think it really depends on the fighter and how badly they were knocked out.

Pacquiao was out cold from a right hand from Marquez last December. We don’t know whether Pacquiao will be more susceptible to getting knocked out in the future until gets in the ring on Saturday. If Pacquiao can knock Rios out early, then we’ll still not know anything about whether Pacquiao can take a big punch. It’s going to take a fight where Pacquiao is forced to fight at least 8 rounds where he’s getting hit a lot to find out whether he’s then same fighter. If he blitzes Rios on Saturday and gets to him before Rios has had a chance to test his punch resistance, then we won’t won’t learn anything about Pacquiao from that fight. Rios is a slow guy with poor defensive skills, and if Pacquiao flurries on him in the first 2 rounds, the referee might even halt the bout while Rios is covering up waiting for Pacquiao to stop throwing punches. I can see that happening, and it might be Pacquiao’s best chance of winning the fight without getting hurt.

I think Arum is wrong about Pacquiao being rejuvenated in any way. How can he be? Pacquiao will be turning 35 in December, he’s not looked good in the ring since 2010, and he’s not knocked anyone out in the last four years in his 12th round TKO win over Miguel Cotto in their catch-weight fight that might have drained Cotto, and even then, it was a very, very questionable stoppage because Cotto was still fighting back.

Pacquiao’s real last knockout was against Ricky Hatton in May of 2009, and that was against fighter that had dropped a lot of weight in training camp in getting ready for the fight. To make a long story short, I don’t think Pacquiao is suddenly younger because Arum is saying he’s rejuvenated, and I don’t think a fighter is better than he was before after he’s been knocked out cold. I see that as being a negative no matter how you want to spin it. Arum is doing a good job of putting a positive spin on Pacquiao’s knockout loss, but I think it’s silly to see Pacquiao as being better for having been knocked out. If anything, he’s not going to be better for having been knocked out.



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