Pacquiao working on using his left hand more, says Roach

By Boxing News - 04/09/2015 - Comments

Manny Pacquiao(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach has been having the 36-year-old Filipino star working more on his left hand for the Floyd Mayweather Jr (47-0, 26 KOs) on May 2nd rather than his right.

Roach figured out that Pacquiao has been using his right hand more in his training than his left, so Roach has been focusing on having Pacquiao train just with his left hand to make it a weapon again.

In the past, Pacquiao mainly used his left hand for his power punching, but Roach was able to teach him how to use his right. But now it looks like Pacquiao isn’t using his left enough to please the 55-year-old Roach.

The thing with Pacquiao is that if he starts working on using his left hand more against Mayweather than his right, he could wind up getting nailed repeatedly by Mayweather. Pacquiao can’t afford to be predictable with his offense, because it’s already very, very predictable given the way Pacquiao jumps in and jumps out when going on the attack in his fights.

Pacquiao’s right hand would be of more use because he can use it to hook Mayweather when he throws his straight rights. But it’s still going to be difficult for Pacquiao to land any of his power shots against Mayweather because Pacquiao will be giving up to much in the reach department.

“It’s all about usage, muscle memory,” Roach said via the Latimes.com. “Manny’s been favoring the right side so much now, I need to bring the left back. We did 12 rounds of left hand only. The right hand was never used. Oh, it’s deadly. Deadly. My chest is … killing me. It’s about putting everything together.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWH4-bjrcxc

The fact that Pacquiao is able to nail Roach doesn’t mean anything. Roach is just an aging trainer who holds the mitts and wears body a body protector when Pacquiao is working out with him. It’s not as if Roach is leaning away from the shots, using movement and nailing Pacquiao with counter shots each time he attempts to throw anything like Mayweather will clearly be doing on May 2nd when the two of them face each other at the MGM Grand.

The true test of whether Pacquiao’s left hand will be a weapon or not will come when he get inside the ring with Mayweather and he has to try and land it against a moving target who hits back. You can bet that Mayweather will be looking to pay Pacquiao back each time he throws a punch because he’s not going to just let him tee off without him getting out of the way of the shots and returning fire to hit Pacquiao back with hard shots, and perhaps shots than Pacquiao is expecting.

Mayweather is going be looking at any opening he can find in Pacquiao’s game. Instead of Pacquiao focusing so much on his offense, he needs to be working on his defense for this fight because it’s in that area where Mayweather is going to be looking to take advantage of him. But it’s not surprising that Pacquiao’s focus is on his offense because Roach has always been seen as an offensive coach by a lot of boxing fans.

It’s not great news that he’s still focusing on the offense rather than the defense for Pacquiao. This could ultimately lead to Pacquiao getting whipped by Mayweather on May 2nd. If he has no way of stopping Mayweather’s offense then this could turn out to be a really easy fight for Mayweather with him hitting Pacquiao at will with his shots.

We already know that Mayweather’s defense is superb. His offense is also superb. But we haven’t seen Pacquiao show that he has good defensive skills, and it looks like he’s still going to be flawed in that area when he gets inside the ring with Mayweather. That’s why it might be in Pacquiao’s interest to start thinking about adding a new coach to his team to help him with his defense going forward, because he can’t focus on his offense his entire career because it’s causing him to take too many head shots. I expect Mayweather to really have his way with Pacquiao when they get inside the ring. If Pacquiao hasn’t fixed his leaky defense, then this is going to be a really easy fight for Mayweather.



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