Malignaggi: Manny Pacquiao has to control his aggression against Mayweather

By Boxing News - 02/24/2015 - Comments

pac006By Chris Williams: Former two division world champion Paulie Malignaggi thinks that Manny Pacquiao is going to have to control his overly aggressive fighting style if he wants to have a chance of beating Floyd Mayweather Jr on May 2nd in their fight on HBO and Showtime.

Malignaggi thinks that Mayweather will take advantage of Pacquiao’s overly aggressive fighting style if he comes out fast like a wild man on May 2nd, trying to overwhelm Mayweather with punches like he’s done with his other opposition fed to him by his promoter Bob Arum.

Malignaggi sees Mayweather winning this fight due to his superior arsenal of punches, and his better ring IQ.

It’s no secret that Pacquiao likes to attack his opponents in waves, and that he rarely gets away out of the way of punches unless it’s by retreating. Pacquiao leaves himself open to shots with the way he comes forward, and this is something that Mayweather will take advantage of if Pacquiao doesn’t control his aggression.

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“When you’re up against a fighter who’s as intelligent as Floyd Mayweather, he sets traps for that kind of over-aggression. So I think Pacquiao’s aggression has to be kind of controlled and tapered off,” Malignaggi said via gottlieb.radio.cbssports.com. “I’ve said it for five years: Floyd Mayweather wins this fight, and I still stick by that. I still agree with that. I just think he’s got too varied of an arsenal.”

Instead of tapering his offense like Malignaggi is talking about, I think Pacquiao is going to be more aggressive in this fight than he ever was before. Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach has said in the past that he knows the way for Pacquiao to beat Mayweather and that’s by overwhelming him with punches by throwing 100+ punches per round.

If Pacquiao follows Roach’s model of beating Mayweather, then we’ll see Pacquiao fighting Mayweather much in the same way that Pacquiao fought Joshua Clottey in their fight in 2010. If you remember that fight, Pacquiao stood in front of Clottey and threw one punch after another for 12 rounds.

Pacquiao ended up throwing over 1000 punches in the fight, and he was hit a lot by Clottey with some clean shots. Mayweather would do well against Pacquiao if he chooses to follow Roach’s high volume punch attack.

Pacquiao’s wild man attack will leave him open to getting nailed by Mayweather’s pin point shots over and over again, just as Pacquiao was repeatedly nailed by Juan Manuel Marquez in their four fights together.

Most likely we’re going to see Pacquiao falling into the same pattern as he did in his fights against Marquez in which Pacquiao will be fighting at a slower pace because of all the counter shots he keeps getting hit with.

Pacquiao can’t fight in an all-out manner against Mayweather, because he’ll get hit with too many shots that he doesn’t see coming from Mayweather. The first few times that Pacquiao gets hit with shots that he doesn’t see coming will likely cause him to slow down his offense in order for him to keep from getting knocked out by Mayweather.



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