(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) By Chris Williams: Boxing great Muhammad Ali is backing former eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao (57-5-2, 38 KOs) in his May 2nd fight against WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr (47-0, 26 KOs) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Ali reportedly likes Pacquiao as a person, and for the charity work he does.
It’s nice that Ali is giving Pacquiao, 36, support for the fight against Mayweather. But it doesn’t mean that we’re going to see a victory for Pacquiao. Since we’re not hearing Ali himself speak about this so-called support of Pacquiao, it’s hard to know whether Ali actually supports Pacquiao or not. It’s one thing to read that Ali’s daughter is saying he’s “Team Pacquiao”, but we haven’t see Ali say it himself.
It’s a fight where the best man will win. Whether that’ll be Mayweather or Pacquiao will depend largely on their talent, boxing skills and the tactics that they use in the fight. We already know that Pacquiao is going to be coming out looking to put pressure on Mayweather from the opening bell on May 2nd.
Unless Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach has a plan-B, C, D and E that he’ll have Pacquiao implementing if things don’t go smoothly with the first plan, then this fight could get out of hand early with Mayweather lighting Pacquiao up left and right in a one-sided fight.
“My dad is Team Pacquiao all the way! My dad stood for things,” Rasheda Ali said via TMZ.com. “Mayweather … I don’t think there’s a comparison. My dad really likes Manny. He’s a huge fan of his. He knows Manny’s a great fighter … but it’s more about what he does outside the ring. He’s such a charitable person.”
Pacquiao and Mayweather both have their individual supporters that are backing them, but at the end of the day it won’t have any impact to what transpires inside the ring. If Pacquiao is able to beat Mayweather, then it’s going to be based on his talent and fight strategy more so than him being supported by famous people.
You’d like to see Pacquiao come into the fight with multiple ideas for him to use in case his plan-A strategy doesn’t work out well. If there’s one thing that Ali was known for in his career it was his ability to adapt to any situation. He always did a great job of mixing movement with slugging, and this kept his opponents from getting comfortable with him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t64C55THK4
Ali was able to do both very well, and he could also take a good shot without getting knocked out. We’ve already seen Pacquiao get knocked out cold by Juan Manuel Marquez in their last fight in 2012, so we can’t depend on Pacquiao being able to take monstrous shots the way that Ali could during his career.
Additionally, Pacquiao doesn’t move so well around the ring. He’s kind of a fighter who mainly goes straight forward and then backwards. He doesn’t move laterally around the ring very well.
I believe that Pacquiao’s chances in the Mayweather fight will depend solely on the way that Mayweather chooses to fight. If Mayweather stays in the pocket for 8 of the 12 rounds, then Pacquiao will have a chance of winning. But if Mayweather uses movement and jabs continuously for 12 straight rounds, then I can’t see Pacquiao as having much of any chance of winning the fight. When Mayweather is mobile, I don’t think anyone can beat him.
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