By Yannis Mihanos: The blueprint in beating Manny Pacquiao (57-5-2) seems to be out there available in his 5 defeats in the past. The one blueprint that seems to stand out of them more is also his most recent one: it is in the 4th fight against Juan Manuel Marquez in 2012. In that fight an impatient and reckless Pacquiao got knocked out and stopped in the 6th round by Marquez.
I believe this is the general idea that runs into Floyd Mayweather Jr’s mind and of course to his training team. I believe this is also the main focus of his training, and that’s why he has gone into all these different types of training: to make him become stronger.
Why else would he hire Pacquiao’s former strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza and spend so much time in strength training? I think the reason is obvious. And, yes, Ariza might know a few things about Pacquiao, but the real reason is this: Strength.
Feeling the hatred that Pacquiao appears to have about him, makes Mayweather to expect a full attack from round 1. Mayweather also expects Pacquiao at some point in the match to become impatient and reckless just like he did against Marquez.
Pacquiao dropping his defenses while fighting has happened a lot of times but not all his opponents could capitalize on that.
Mayweather believes he has the necessary skills to do it. He may also use as an advantage his bigger size even though that bigger doesn’t mean stronger.
There is also another blueprint that Mayweather may put in use and it comes not by the defeats of Pacquiao but by the victories of Mayweather.
Mayweather has another good example that might help him with this idea and it comes from his fight against Ricky Hatton in 2007. While Ricky Hatton obviously is not Pacquiao still the way he started that fight against Mayweather and the way he fought was somewhat similar with Pacman’s style.
Hatton created problems in the early rounds and made Mayweather very uncomfortable but began to lose strength and stamina as the rounds passed and when finally he dropped his defenses for a desperate attack on round 10 he got easily knocked down and lost the fight.
I think that fight boosts the idea of Mayweather that he can stop Pacquiao. Going toe to toe against Pacquiao just doesn’t make sense and is a certain way for Mayweather to get knocked down. Also the idea of Mayweather winning on points just doesn’t run very well to his mind even if he can defend very well, the high volume of unpredictable punches that Pacquiao usually unleashes in fights makes this scenario to become very, very distant and is another way for Floyd to lose.
For Mayweather to win on May 2nd, he must stop Pacquiao, period. Unless the judges favor Mayweather, I don’t see him winning this fight on points, and I think Mayweather knows well this too. Pacquiao will be just too much to keep up with. There is no other way but to stop Pacquiao sooner or later. And this will be the best statement for the number 1 pound for pound king of boxing. Otherwise I really see big trouble coming for Mayweather. His record 47-0 will be put on real test.
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