Malignaggi: Pacquiao has to control the range against Mayweather to win

By Boxing News - 03/29/2015 - Comments

pac55By Chris Williams: If Manny Pacquiao (57-5-2, 38 KOs) is to have a chance of beating WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr (47-0, 26 KOs) on May 2nd, Pacquiao will need to control the range against Mayweather, says former two division world champion Paulie Malignaggi.

This is something that Pacquiao will need to be able to accomplish without him jumping in like he normally does, because he’ll be picked apart by Mayweather if he attempts to fight in that way on May 2nd at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Malignaggi has extreme doubts whether Pacquiao can fight without jumping in and jumping out the way he always does. Malignaggi thinks Pacquiao is just too hittable for him to continue fighting like that.

“If Pacquiao is going to win, we’re going to have to see him control the range over Floyd,” Malignaggi said via Hoopjab. “Floyd’s biggest weapon is his ability to intelligently control the range. If Pacquiao can be the one to control the range, it means he’ll be able to dictate the ability to get inside and get off his combinations, and be outside when he wants to.”

Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach is what I consider an enabler. Rather than Roach training Pacquiao to fight smart by not jumping in, Roach has kept him fighting with the same style as he did when he first walked into Roach’s Wildcard Gym in Los Angeles.

You can’t expect Roach to have Pacquiao not jump in against Mayweather, because that’s the only way Pacquiao knows how to fight, and Roach is already talking about how Pacquiao is going to be jumping in and out against Mayweather on May 2nd.

“Pacquiao’s biggest problem will be his ability to get off all those punches, because in order to get off all those punches, he’s going to have to find his range. No matter how fast you are and how hard you hit, if you can’t find the distance and your range correctly that’s all that will affect you and you can’t even get those kinds of shots off,” Malignaggi said. “I think the key to winning the fight is range control from both sides. Mayweather does it better than Pacquiao. If Pacquiao can somehow figure out ways to control range. By doing that, he’ll have to find out creative ways of entering Mayweather’s punch zone, aside from just jumping in.”

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With Pacquiao giving away six inches in reach and two inches in height against Mayweather, he’s going to find it next to impossible to control the range in this fight. This isn’t Chris Algieri, who was backpedaling and moving lateral the entire fight without standing his ground.

Mayweather is going to stand his ground at times and catch Pacquiao coming in with pinpoint shots to the head when he tries to jump in. At the same time, Mayweather will be making Pacquiao miss with his shots and then countering him immediately with accurate punches to the head and body.

It would be nice if Pacquiao had an actual plan-B he could fall back on when Mayweather starting picking him apart when he tries jumping in against him, but it’s doubtful that Pacquiao and Roach have any other ideas but that one. When Mayweather starts dominating Pacquiao, Roach won’t be able to go back to the cupboard, because it’ll be bare. There won’t be any ideas there for Roach and Pacquiao to utilize other than the old tired plan of having Pacquiao jump in and jump out.

“My issue with Pacquiao is that he just jumps in pretty much. No matter what he’s doing, he’s just bouncing around the ring,” Malignaggi said. “At the end of the day, he stops bouncing and just jumps in. He kind of gives you that hitch. I don’t think you can afford that with Floyd Mayweather. If he does figure out a way of cutting distance without walking into counters and starts to control the range and that distance, then you’re going to put Floyd behind the eight ball, and that’ll be an interesting thing,” Malignaggi said.

All that useless bouncing that Pacquiao does will further give away what he’s doing in the Mayweather fight, because Mayweather will obviously realize that once Pacquiao stops jumping around, he’ll be moving forward with his jumping in attack. That’s when Mayweather will nail Pacquiao before he can get close enough to land a shot.



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