Cotto sees Mayweather having problems with Pacquiao’s quickness

By Boxing News - 03/05/2015 - Comments

pac00002By Chris Williams: WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto, who shares the same ring with WBO 147lb champion Manny Pacquiao, thinks Pacquiao is going to give Floyd Mayweather Jr a lot of problems with his hand speed and explosiveness in their fight on May 2nd.

Cotto didn’t come right out and say that he thinks Pacquiao will win the fight, but he does seem to think that Mayweather will struggle with Pacquiao’s hand speed and the power of his shots when he’s on the attack.

“I’ve been working with Freddie Roach for the last two fights, and I know what he’s capable of doing with Manny,” Cotto said via ESPN’s First Take. “I think he’s going to get Manny through Floyd’s mistakes. Manny is going to take advantage of…I’m rooting for Manny. I think the explosiveness and quickness of Manny is going to have a big impact on Floyd’s performance. The explosiveness will be an advantage. He can move from point to point in less than a second.”

In looking at Pacquiao’s fights against Chris Algieri and Tim Bradley, Pacquiao didn’t look all that impressive. He was only able to fight at a sustained rate for one-third of every round. After that, he was tire out and his pace would slow way, way down. Pacquiao was still able to land pitty-pat punches when he was able to get near enough to both guys to throw shots, but his punches lacked power.

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Pacquiao was also lowering his head a lot of squaring himself when moving in for an attack. Bradley was able to nail Pacquiao a lot while he was coming forward. If Pacquiao fights like that against Mayweather, he’s going to get picked part by Mayweather.

As far as the movement that Pacquiao was bragging about that he would show against Mayweather, I only saw Pacquiao moving fast in the first one-third of the first round against Bradley in their second fight. After that, Pacquiao was basically plodding forward the same way he was against Joshua Clottey in 2010.

Pacquiao’s ability to jump around from side to side, and change angles has greatly diminished since 2009. Pacquiao can no longer fight like that. He’s now slow and lethargic compared to the fighter that was light on his feet in the Cotto and Ricky Hatton fights.

The power also seems to have greatly diminished with Pacquiao. He’s not punching with the same kind of power that he did years ago, and he doesn’t have the explosiveness that Cotto speaks about.

To be sure, Pacquiao had it in his fight against Cotto six years ago, but it vanished overnight after that fight was over. Pacquiao didn’t have the explosiveness in his next fight against Clottey, and he’s not showed it since then.

I know Pacquiao can’t go back in time to become the fighter he was in 2009, but he can learn to fight smart. If he wants to beat Mayweather on May 2nd, Pacquiao can’t afford to square himself up and lower his head like a little bull while coming forward. He likes to do that while throwing combinations on the move, and it’s clearly not going to work against Mayweather.

If Pacquiao tries that move against Mayweather, you’re going to see Mayweather move to the side like a Matador to let the little bull Pacquiao come rushing by. Mayweather will then pick Pacquiao off with a check left hook like he did Ricky Hatton in their fight in 2007, and likely knock him out.



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