Mayweather Sr: Brandon Rios is too damn slow!

By Boxing News - 11/22/2013 - Comments

mayweather222By Chris Williams: Floyd Mayweather Sr. thinks they’ve found an opponent that Manny Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KO’s) can finally beat at this point in his career in Brandon Rios (31-1-1, 23 KO’s), a fighter that belongs with the same Top Rank stable as Pacquiao. Mayweather Sr. sees Rios as just too slow for Pacquiao, and because of that he sees Pacquiao winning the fight. But Mayweather Sr. still sees this as being a difficult fight for Pacquiao due to Rios’ toughness and Pacquiao’s last of technical skills.

Mayweather Sr. said to Hustleboss “He’s [Rios] tough and strong, he hits hard, but he’s too damn slow. If he’s too slow, it looks to me like to go Pacquiao’s way.”

Rios is very slow and probably just a shade faster than former Pacquiao victim Antonio Margarito. But Pacquiao is also older now than he was when he beat Margarito three years ago, and he’d had three years of wear and tear on his body since then. Things could be very different on Saturday night when Rios starts putting leather to Pacquiao’s head compared to the mostly body punching Margarito in what he did against Pacquiao years ago.

Asked if he is impressed with Pacquiao as a fighter, Mayweather Sr. said “Never ever. It starts with the coach [Freddie Roach]…I’m going to tell you right now. Even though that guy is slow, he’s probably going to give a good tough fight.”

This probably will be a really tough fight for Pacquiao win or lose. Rios isn’t someone like Ricky Hatton, who will fall over each time Pacquiao lands a hard left hand. Rios has a great chin and he’ll probably be able to walk through Pacquiao’s best left hand shots to get in to land his own power shots. I know Roach has Pacquiao training to get in and get out using angles, but he’s still going to get hit an awful lot in this fight if he’s unable to knock Rios out. Just being 35-years-old and having to last 12 rounds with a 27-year-old, Pacquiao is going to take a lot of punishment. It’s going to be a tough fight for him unless he can knock Rios out, and that’s not likely to happen with Pacquiao following Roach’s game plan to keep from taking head shots.

This fight could potentially be a lot harder than what many boxing fans expect it to be if Pacquiao decides he wants to get even with Rios for him teasing Roach years ago and for his strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza giving Roach a kick to the chest this week when Roach tried to walk up on him during an argument. If Pacquiao foolishly tries to fight Roach’s battles by going after Rios from the get go, then we could see Pacquiao knocked cold again like he was last December by Juan Manuel Marquez. The look on Roach’s and Bob Arum’s face will be priceless at that moment, because Rios is obviously being brought in as more of a tune-up opponent than someone with a real chance at beating Pacquiao, like the bigger, stronger and better defensive fighter Ruslan Provodnikov.



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