By Chris Williams: The conventional wisdom that many boxing fans and writers feel is that Manny Pacquiao needs a knockout if he wants to beat Floyd Mayweather Jr in their long-awaited bout in the next three months on May 2nd at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Pacquiao’s personal adviser Michael Koncz thinks Pacquiao can beat Mayweather whether it goes to the cards or not. Koncz sees Pacquiao as having more than enough skills to win at least seven of the twelve rounds.
Pacquiao isn’t known for being a great boxer, as he’s always been more of a knockout guy during his career. It’s been only recently that he’s started winning his fights by decisions, but that’s largely due to him having problems hurting his opponents with his punching power.
Pacquiao hasn’t fought anyone with great boxing skills like Mayweather so this is going to be a really difficult test for Pacquiao. Juan Manuel Marquez, who no one would ever mistake for Mayweather in terms of skills, gave Pacquiao fits in their four
“Manny [Pacquiao] doesn’t need to force himself to knockout Floyd and I truly believe that we can win also by decision. It [knockout win] is not necessarily needed,” Koncz, said via the Manilatimes.net. “We have a very good strategy as we prepare for the fight, but of course I cannot reveal it to anybody,” Koncz said.
Pacquiao is going to need to display a lot more discipline than he’s shown in the past if he wants to conquer Mayweather. Pacquiao’s normal style of fighting in which he rushes in, throws a fast 3-punch combination before getting out, isn’t going to work against a fighter with the skills that Mayweather has.
Pacquiao is going to get hit with a lot of clean, judge-pleasing shots if he fights like that. That’s also a possibility that Mayweather could score a knockout if Pacquiao insists on fighting the way he normally does.
I can’t agree with Koncz that Pacquiao can beat Mayweather by a decision. I don’t see that as a possibility in this fight, and that’s really the only way Pacquiao has a chance of winning. He’s not going to be able to knock Mayweather out.
If Pacquiao’s power was still present, then he’d have knocked out Shane Mosley, Tim Bradley, Antonio Margarito, Brandon Rios and Chris Algieri. The fact is Pacquiao isn’t knocking out anyone nowadays and I expect that to stay that way when he gets inside the ring with Mayweather.
Mayweather can conserve his energy and pick Pacquiao off at will with his shots. If Pacquiao is going to try and win rounds by outworking Mayweather, then he’s going to be getting riddled with shots from Mayweather. If Mayweather can get Pacquiao bleeding, he’ll be able to focus on the cut by using it as a target to keep the blood flowing. Pacquiao’s aggressive fighting style is going to put him in the position where he could get cut or worse.
It would be in Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach’s best interest to sit Pacquiao down and have a long talk with him about fighting smart instead of thinking he can outgun Mayweather.
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