By Chris Williams: Sugar Ray Leonard questions whether Manny Pacquiao has fully recovered from his stoppage loss at the hands of Juan Manuel Marquez last December. Leonard feels that there may be some lingering mental issues for Pacquiao from the KO loss that he might drag with him into his fight against 27-year-old Mexican American warrior Brandon Rios (31-1-1, 23 KO’s) on November 23rd that could hinder Pacquiao and prevent him from fighting hard enough to win the fight.
Leonard notes that Pacauiao was supposed to win his last two fights, yet he didn’t and ended up getting beaten by Tim Bradley by decision and Marquez by KO. Now Pacquiao is facing Rios in another fight he’s supposed to win, and it really doesn’t matter what people think Pacqiao will do in this fight because he’s already proven that he can lose fights he was supposed to win.
“It’s all psychological, especially with the last one against Marquez, because when a fighter gets knocked out in that fashion, it can become an Achilles heel,” Leonard said to RingTV. “Physically, I think Manny will be okay, but the next question is his mental stability. How secure is that? No one really knows where he is mentally and psychologically.”
There’s no way of knowing how Pacquiao will perform in the heat of battle. We could see him unravel as soon as the bombs start flying from Rios in the 1st and 2nd rounds. We’ll see the fight or flight reaction from Pacquiao, and the question is will he be able to hold up under full scale battle against a younger fighter with more power than he’s faced in years.
With the way Pacquiao was knocked cold by Marquez, I don’t think it’s a good thing for him to be taking power shots from Rios that are more powerful than the shot that knocked him out last December. In that case you would hope that his trainer Freddie Roach would have designed a good game plan to keep Pacquiao from taking head shots in the fight.
If Roach hasn’t come up with a plan, then we’ll have to see how Pacquiao decides to fight. Will he run and avoid getting hit, will he fight in the his old in and out style that he’s known for, or will he stand in the pocket and attempt to beat Rios at his own game. It’s anyone’s guess what Pacquiao will do in this fight. I can see him getting poleaxed from one of Rios’ hard right hands at some point if he chooses to go to war with him.
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