floyd6 By Chris Williams: Since he started working with WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr (47-0, 26 KOs) as a sparring partner to help him get ready for his May 2nd fight against Manny Pacquiao, Zab Judah has noticed how much better Mayweather is since their fight in 2006.

Judah sees Mayweather as being “ten times” the fighter that he was back then, and he sees him as being so good that he sees him as a scientist that can get inside people’s heads.

“He’s not the same guy . . . he’s ten times better,” Judah said via Fighthype.com. “He’s very smart, he almost gets inside your body and controls you. He knows what he’s doing. We’re starting to call him the scientist.”

That’s not good for Pacquiao if Mayweather is getting into the heads of his opponents. If Mayweather is able to control his top sparring partners with ease, then it suggests that the 5’6” Pacquiao is going to have a lot of problems on May 2nd when he faces Mayweather in the square circle at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The problem that Pacquiao has is he’s not able to adapt to different situations to improve something when he finds himself getting timed. Pacquiao has a plan-A, and that’s pretty all he ever has. I’ve never seen him really adapt to anyone other than the slow as molasses Antonio Margarito in their in 2010.

Pacquiao moved to the outside after getting hurt with a body shot from Margarito. Obviously, Pacquiao won’t be able to move to the outside against Mayweather because he’ll get picked apart in a completely one-sided fight. This means that if Pacquiao struggles at getting the better of Mayweather in the pocket, it’s going to be pretty over for Pacquiao. If he moves to the outside, Mayweather is going to use his much longer reach to jab and pot shot Pacquiao to pieces.

The only thing Pacquiao can do is to try his in and out style that he always uses, and hope that Mayweather is confused by it like the guys that Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum has been dragging into the ring to fight him. While guys like Chris Algieri, Tim Bradley and Brandon Rios may have been troubled by Pacquiao’s fighting style, I don’t think Mayweather is going to have any problems whatsoever in figuring out what Pacquiao’s doing.

Rios, Bradley and Algieri are lower B-level fighters, and they’re nothing close to being A-level. I see them as B minus to C plus type fighters. Mayweather is so much better than them. You can’t compare them. This is why I feel that Pacquiao has done so well ever since he was knocked cold by Juan Manuel Marquez in 2012.

It’s not that the knockout improved Pacquiao, but rather a case of Arum taking Pacquiao down a couple of levels in terms of the quality of fighters he was putting in with him. We’ve seen the same thing with Miguel Cotto. After his losses to Austin Trout and Mayweather, Cotto was backed off from stiff competition by being put in with Delvin Rodriguez and an aging Sergio Martinez, who was coming off of two knee surgeries on his right knee. Some boxing fans believe that Cotto is a better fighter now, but I think it’s pretty obvious that he’s only looking better because he’s being matched against weaker opposition now.

Pacquiao needs to be able to try different styles against Mayweather on May 2nd because he can’t use the same old one he’s been using since he turned pro 20 years ago. But with his trainer Freddie Roach not coming up with anything different for him to use, Pacquiao needs a new trainer or a secondary trainer in the worst way. He’s not going to do that though. By not realizing that he needs a different trainer, Pacquiao is heading for another loss on his record. One can only hope that he gets a clue after the defeat and looks to get help by adding another trainer or replacing Roach outright.