Chavez: Pacquiao shouldn’t focus on God, should instead become a demon for Mayweather fight

By Boxing News - 04/20/2015 - Comments

Manny PacquiaoBy Allan Fox: Boxing great Julio Cesar Chavez believes that WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao needs to change his focus from religion to becoming a demon when he gets inside the ring with WBA/WBC 147 pound champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. in their unification match next month.

Chavez couldn’t miss the fact that Pacquiao is focused on God frequently. Chavez thinks he’s going to need to go on the attack with a demon-like personality when faces Mayweather because he feels that he’ll need a knockout for him to get the ‘W’ against the 38-year-old Mayweather.

Chavez thinks that Pacquiao is going to need to smother Mayweather for the entire 12 rounds to beat him. If Pacquiao fails to smother Mayweather, then Chavez sees Mayweather using movement to out-box the 36-year-old Pacquiao and earn the decision.

“Pacquiao will miss a lot of punches and Mayweather will counter back,” Chavez said via esnewsreporting.com. “If I was Pacquiao’s trainer I would tell him ‘instead of focusing too much on God, convert yourself to becoming a demon that day and try to tear off Mayweather’s head’ because that’s the only way he can beat Mayweather.”

I imagine that Pacquiao is going to be totally energized for this fight, because he knows that he’ll lose a lot with a defeat. A loss to Mayweather could see Pacquiao’s future pay-per-view earnings drop, as some boxing fans will see him as little more than just another victim of Mayweather’s. Others will see Pacquiao as No.2, and that’s not good. In boxing if you’re not No.1, you’re pretty much nothing in the eyes of a lot of fans.

“He has to put pressure on him Mayweather from the first round to the last bell stay on him,” Chavez said. “That’s the only way Pacquiao wins. If not, Mayweather will dance all over him.”

Putting pressure on Mayweather won’t work unless it’s constant pressure, and that means that Pacquiao will need to attack Mayweather and stay on top of him without backing off and looking to escape to the outside like he always does in his fights.

Pacquiao will need to follow the game plan that Marcos Maidana in his first fight against Mayweather in May of 2014. Maidana was really effective with that strategy, and he was able to keep Mayweather in position against the ropes by leaning on him to force him to stay there.

In the rematch it didn’t work as well because Mayweather used a lot of circular movement to keep from getting trapped. It’s hard to see Pacquiao being able to smother Mayweather because he’s smaller and lighter than Maidana. Pacquiao also isn’t as strong as Maidana, and he hasn’t been that kind of a fighter during his career to smother an opponent. I think Pacquiao, even if he’s been trained by his trainer Freddie Roach to smother Mayweather every round, he’s still not going to be able to do that.

“It will take an aggressive Pacquiao, being on him, staying close and not giving space by putting on pressure to Mayweather,” Chavez said. “I would bet on Pacquiao with my heart and Mayweather with my head.”



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