By Chris Williams: Trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr thinks that WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao will be vulnerable to getting knocked out when he gets inside the ring with WBA/WBC 147 pound champion Floyd Mayweather Jr (47-0, 26 KOs) in their fight on 5/2.
Floyd Sr points out correctly that Pacquiao was knocked unconscious by Juan Manuel Marquez in 2012, and because of that, Pacquiao could be vulnerable to getting knocked out again if he gets caught with a big shot by Mayweather Jr on May 2nd at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“Of course, any time somebody’s been knocked ice cold like that, man, of course they can get knocked out again – quick, fast and in a hurry,” Floyd Sr said via Mlive.com.
The question is will Pacquiao be able to take the big shots that Mayweather nails him with on May 2nd? While Mayweather isn’t as big a puncher as someone like Marquez, he hits with close enough power to knockout someone who may not have the same punch resistance that he once had. What makes Mayweather even more dangerous is that he’s got a lot of hand speed, so he’s going to be catching Pacquiao with punches that he doesn’t see coming.
When you combine Pacquiao’s sloppy, overly aggressive style of fighting with that of Mayweather’s fast hands, it could lead to Pacquiao getting hit on the button by a shot that he doesn’t see coming. It doesn’t matter that Mayweather isn’t the most furious puncher in the welterweight division; if he catches Pacquiao with a good shot, he’s going to knock him out.
“I heard about what Freddie said about Roger’s better,” Floyd Sr said. “He can say that all he wants to say it. You want me to tell you what Freddie wants? He wants Roger in there because he knows I’m the man.”
I believe that that Roach wants Roger in there as the No.1 trainer for Mayweather mainly because Mayweather is a lot more aggressive as a fighter with Roger training him than he is with Floyd Sr. Roger has always been a guy who has encouraged Mayweather to mix it up with his opponents.
This could be due to Roger having been a dangerous knockout artist during his own pro career, so he wants to see a lot of offense. But with Floyd Sr, he’s focused more on the defensive side of the game. He doesn’t want to see his son Mayweather Jr take punishment in his fights. He wants him to win without getting hit.
What’s interesting about this is that Floyd Sr was a very aggressive fighter during his own pro career, and he wasn’t afraid to mix it up with his opposition, which led to him getting hit a lot, and taking losses when he stepped it up against better opposition during his career. But as a trainer, Floyd Sr is a completely different type of guy. He doesn’t want his fighters to get hit.
Roach obviously knows that Pacquiao stands a better chance if Mayweather is fighting aggressively compared to when he’s fighting defensively; hence we’re seeing Roach bad mouthing Floyd Sr while building up Roger Mayweather. It appears that Roach is trying to implant an idea into the head of Mayweather Jr that Roger is the better fighter in order for Mayweather to replace Floyd Sr before the May 2nd fight.
I don’t think it’s going to work, because it’s so transparent. There’s no way that Mayweather is going to replace his father with Roger at this point, because Floyd Sr has done a great job of bringing back Mayweather’s old style of fighting in which he was a more defensive fighter. Mayweather didn’t quite follow the scrip for his first fight against Marcos Maidana last year, but in his second fight, he was back on board with what his father wanted him to do in fighting defensively and winning without getting hit a lot.
“He [Mayweather] doesn’t care about the fans at all,” Roach said. He has to exchange more because his legs won’t take him out of the way. When he has to exchange with Pacquiao, I think that’s good for us. That’s why I think we’re going to win this fight.”
There it is. Roach is giving away what he’s really after in trying to create turbulence between Floyd Sr and Roger. Roach needs Mayweather to exchange with Pacquiao in order for him to have a chance of beating Mayweather. That’s just the way it is. The 36-year-old Pacquiao is too short, and his reach too limited for him to be able to fight Mayweather if he fights defensively and moves around the ring.
Roach is smart enough to realize this on his own. That’s why he’s hoping and praying that Mayweather fights Pacquiao in a toe-to-toe manner by standing perfectly still like Pacquiao’s last three opponents have done. That’s the only way Pacquiao can win, because he doesn’t have the reach to connect against a moving target.
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