By Jermill Pennington: Composure under pressure, in my estimation is the psyche need to perform when stakes are at their highest. In order to have that composure you must be in control of your emotions to be able to think at times when emotions are running high. For Freddie Roach I have started to wonder if him being so emotionally invested in the upcoming mega will end up being the sole reason we could see Pacquiao lose.
Have you ever heard the phrase “study long, study wrong” for those that haven’t its origin comes from playing dominoes. When two people are playing and one guy is taking a long time to make his next move, the other often times will say “study long, study wrong”. Generally considered part of the antics and trash talk that comes along with playing, but when taking a deeper look the assertion it has great meaning. Pacquiao has admitted that he and Roach over the past five years have studied Mayweather and broken down what they would do if the two were ever to meet.
When you take a fighter such as Pacquiao into consideration I personally don’t think you should over load him with strategy. We saw in the second fight of Mayweather vs. Miadana when leading in to the fight trainer Robert Garcia started to talk about how he was working with Marcos to create distance with the jab and so on. In turn what happened for Miadana was a lesser performance then the first time around. Now you can attribute that to the adjustments that Mayweather was able to make, however I knew once I heard Garcia talking about creating distance it would only strap Miadana mentally.
There are a few different kinds of athletes in the world; two that I know exist for certain are the thinkers, and the reaction athlete. The reaction athlete is the guy who was always the best even as a child. The thinker was good, but didn’t have the natural given athleticism that the reaction guy has. Pacquiao is all about muscle memory and reaction; in essence it’s what makes him so good because you can’t teach what he does. Freddie Roach didn’t make Pacquiao; Freddie could take the next 100 top prospects coming through the ranks and never have another fighter fight in the style of Pacquiao. That said you are walking a thin line trying to in some way discipline and tame something that is wild and untamed at its core.
Look at it this way, Mayweather’s strategy as we know will be to get Pacquiao to fight at his pace. Mayweather would like this to be a boxing match rather than an all-out war. A boxing match is a thinking man’s game whereas war can be fueled by emotion. What I’m saying is I hope Freddie doesn’t over think his strategy since he’s had so long to think. Freddie could have fallen victim to his own hype thinking he made Pacquiao in to the fighter that he’s become. Not to say Roach had nothing to do with Pacquiao by any stretch, but I believe the day Manny walked in to the Wild Card Gym for the first time he was already fighting in some version of what we see today. Freddie seems to want to be the guy that beats Mayweather just to say I told you so. You see Freddie has his own investment in the fight personally which I find strange. I worry that Freddie will try to be too smart and in turn like Miadana strap Pacquiao with strategy. For reaction guys, that split second he was thinking about whether he should be doing this or that where in the past he never thought, can have him a second behind all night.
So we know that Pacquiao and Freddie have studied Floyd for at least five years prepping a game plan. Will my theory of “study long, study wrong” come in to play? I wouldn’t be surprised one bit. In the case come May 3rd and were all wondering what Pacquiao was that last night saying to self “he just never seemed to attack like he does”. I will know that Roach was over his head and forgot to dance with the person he came with.
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