(Photo credit: Stephanie Trapp/Mayweather Promotions) By Chris Williams: In response to former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson prediction that Floyd Mayweather Jr will struggle against Manny Pacquiao on May 2nd, trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr says that Mayweather Jr will not be knocked off the top of his throne by the 36-year-old Pacquiao.
Floyd Sr thinks the only reason Tyson is picking against him is because he was beaten during his own career after he reached the top of the mountain. Tyson was beaten by Buster Douglas by a 10th round stoppage in February 1990 in a fight where Tyson lost his IBF, WBA and WBC heavyweight titles.
Tyson was later able to win back his WBA and WBC titles with victories over Frank Bruno and Bruce Seldon in 1996. But in the same year, Tyson was beaten by Evander Holyfield by an 11th round knockout. Tyson would later lose to Holyfield again by a 3rd round disqualification in 1997. Tyson’s final attempt to recapture his heavyweight world titles came in 2002 when he was stopped in the 8th round by Lennox Lewis in a one-sided fight.
“My son ain’t never been knocked off and Pacquiao damn sure not knocking him off,” Floyd Sr said via Fighthype.com. “So I think that’s what that is, man. And honestly, even when they was at the top, they weren’t able to have as much over they career like Lil’ Floyd or make the kind of money he’s making…I think Mike Tyson saying what he’s saying because he was at the top and he was knocked off and out. That ain’t happen to Floyd.”
Who knows why Tyson sees Pacquiao as being a difficult puzzle for Mayweather to solve. It could be that Tyson just naturally thinks that Pacquiao’s fighting style will be tough for Mayweather to solve due to Pacquiao having such a high work rate, and being a guy known for his offensive skills rather than his defensive skills.
Tyson pointed out recently that Mayweather will need to increase his work rate for him to have a chance of beating Pacquiao. That makes sense if Tyson is seeing the fight in frame of Mayweather fighting in a stationary manner like he did in his first fight against Marcos Maidana.
If Mayweather fights Pacquiao with his back against the ropes like he did against Maidana in their first fight, it’s going to be a long night for Mayweather. He might still win by knocking Pacquiao out or making cautious to come forward by picking him off so many times, but it’ll still be a more difficult fight for Mayweather than it otherwise would be.
Tyson obviously isn’t figuring that Mayweather will use movement in the fight, because if Tyson had accounted for that version of Mayweather showing up on May 2nd, he’d likely see Pacquiao as having little chance of winning.
A mobile version of Mayweather is Pacquiao’s worst nightmare. Pacquiao is not a good fighter against mobile guys, and he would be facing the mobile fighter of his career in Mayweather. I don’t think that would go too well for the 36-year-old Pacquiao, because he’s clearly slowed down with his foot movement, and he’s already hampered by his short reach.
Pacquiao is giving up six inches in reach to Mayweather, and that’s quite a bit of reach. You might as well call it a foot advantage for Mayweather, because he learns forward from a long ways away to throw his jabs, and he’s very good at leaning backwards to avoid head shots.
Pacquiao has never been a body puncher during his career, and that’s what he’s going to need to turn into for this fight if he wants to have a chance of beating Mayweather. He’s not going to be able to hit Mayweather with head shots; not with the way that Mayweather will be leaning backwards, jabbing and moving. Pacquiao can forget all about landing punches to Mayweather’s head because that’s not going to happen in this fight. Pacquiao will be hitting air all night long if he focuses on throwing head shots instead of punches to the body.
Mayweather had been at the top of his game much longer than Tyson was during his career. Tyson was only a heavyweight champion for four years, from 1986 to 1990, during his first stint as a heavyweight champion before he was beaten by Douglass.
In Tyson’s second stint as a heavyweight champion, he wasn’t even a champion for a year before he was beaten. Mayweather has been at the top much longer than Tyson, and he’s made a great deal of money over the years. Mayweather has been a champion pretty much since 1998. That’s 17 years vs. 4 year for Tyson.
Additionally, Mayweather is still making huge money with his career, and there’s no telling when it’ll end. It’s possible he’ll retire in the next few years, but he’s going to make a ton of money until the very end of his career. Mayweather has already made a tremendous amount of money, and it is all gravy now from this point. The extra money Mayweather is making now with his career is only feathering his nest for retirement.
I do believe that Mayweather is going to easily beat Pacquiao on May 2nd by negating all the things that he does the best. Tyson doesn’t seem to realize that Mayweather can still move constantly. He’s going to find out by watching him in this fight that Mayweather can move, and that he’s not going to give Pacquiao any target for him to get his shots off.
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