By Nate Anderson: In watching many of Manny Pacquiao’s fights, he shows a tremendous amount of raw ability in beating most of his opponents and often gets by on his inherent physical abilities along rather than on his much less impressive technical skills. Like many fighters that get by on their hand speed and power, Pacquiao (48-3-2, 36 KOs) makes a lot of mistakes in the ring.
The lucky thing for him, is that most of his opponents are so over matched that they’re unable to properly take advantage of Pacquiao’s mistakes. Juan Manuel Marquez was one fighter who did, countering Pacquiao often as he would come charging in trying to land flurries in a wild manner. Pacquiao seemed to put too much faith on his ability to take the shots from his opponents when he takes risks.
This practice of leaving his chin out there for his opponents in his charging attacks is bound to catch up to him sooner or later, and it might be sooner if Hatton is able to land some of his big shots on the button. Pacquiao, to be sure, hasn’t been in with a puncher nearly as big as Hatton and then will be a whole different ball game for him.
Pacquiao’s fight against Oscar De La Hoya, an 8th round stoppage in December, hardly counts because Oscar had foolishly dieted down to make the 147 pound weight class, stripping off much of his muscle in the process, leaving him weak and depleted. It was no wonder then that Pacquiao was able to dominate him and ultimately take him out in the 8th.
Hatton, however, won’t be forced to take off a ton of weight in the same manner as De La Hoya, and will be just as strong as he always is. Hatton is vulnerable to getting hit, but he mostly gets hit by short punches rather than the longer more telegraphed kinds that Pacquiao typically throws. Pacquiao likes to attack his opponents in one of two ways.
First of all, he likes to charge at them while pumping his fists out in front of him as he dashes across the ring. Most of the time, his opponents are frozen in the spot and are hit with Pacquiao’s shots as he comes forward, but in some of the cases like against Marquez, Pacquiao was hit often when he made these flailing attacks.
I don’t suspect that Pacquiao is going to move away from this kind of attack anytime soon, so you can expect him to continue to fight like this against Hatton in May. The other thing that Pacquiao likes to do is throw hooks from the outside, often choosing to throw them too far out and leaving himself open for counter shots.
The hook is a new weapon for Pacquiao, who learned this punch late in his career under the training of famous trainer Freddie Roach. Unfortunately for Pacquiao, he still doesn’t understand that he’s throwing them from too far out and getting hit often because of it.
So, Hatton needs to focus on picking Pacquiao off as he comes flying forward trying to land his big shots, while also needing to keep his right hand cocked and ready to nail Pacquiao as he tries to throw hooks and uppercuts from the outside.
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