By Manuel Perez: I’ve studied Manny Pacquiao’s (48-3-2, 36 KOs) major fights – all three of them – in researching his upcoming May 2nd bout with Ricky Hatton (45-1, 32 KOs), and after watching all of them, I’ve come to the conclusion that Pacquiao won’t have the needed plan to beat Hatton. Indeed, the one thing that I’ve learned in watching Pacquiao’s fights against Juan Manuel Marquez and Erik Morales is that Pacquiao ALWAYS fights in the same manner each time out regardless of what’s being said to him by his trainer.
If his trainer says ‘work on the outside,’ Pacquiao more often than not goes straight at his opponent and tries to take them out with a flurry of shots to the head. It’s basic and predictable it’s not even funny. All the lip service that his trainer Freddie Roach makes about this or that kind of strategy that Pacquiao is planning on using against Hatton is really a bunch of baloney.
Believe me, the only real strategy that Pacquiao will be trying to use is a heavy pressure one in which Pacquiao bum rushes Hatton and tries to take his head off with every punch. This is what Pacquiao has used for his entire career to get ahead in the sport, so why do you think he would change all of a sudden for this fight. He hasn’t changed yet, and it almost cost him twice against Marquez, both of which should have been victories for Juan in my view and the views of many boxing fans.
And Pacquiao was beaten soundly by Morales in their first fight when Pacquiao tries to pressure an offensively superior Morales for 12 rounds. It didn’t work and Morales ended up winning easily by a 12 round decision. In the rematches, Morales was weakened from having had to take off a huge amount of weight which left him in no condition to fight well, and he ended up losing both fights.
With Pacquiao using the same strategy as he always does, I see him having a nightmarish fight against Hatton. Ricky is the exact same fighter that Pacquiao is, a straight ahead, come forward type of slugger. But with Hatton, he’s bigger, stronger and the much superior slugger than Pacquiao. Hatton has signed up a new trainer in Floyd Mayweather Sr., who’s supposed to be trying to tone down Ricky’s aggressive slugging tendencies.
However, it won’t work for him either, because he’ll revert back to what brought him this far when he meets up with Pacquiao. If Pacquiao was a bigger fighter and with better boxing skills, I’d say that Ricky is going to be in trouble with his one-dimensional fighting style.
However, given that Hatton is the bigger fighter and the more powerful puncher, he’s going to be able to get away with his wide open style of fighting. It will be made easier for him because Pacquiao will be doing the exact same thing he will be doing, namely going straight at him and trying to take him out.
This is like a bout between Joe Frazier and George Foreman, with Ricky as the young Foreman and Pacquiao playing the part of Frazier. Before meeting up with Foreman, Frazier was able to walk through every opponent that he ever faced and overpower them.
However, Foreman was the bigger, stronger fighter and he easily chopped Frazier down with huge uppercuts and hooks to the head. The same thing will happen to Pacquiao on May 2nd, except I see Pacquiao going down and staying down. He won’t get dropped six times like Frazier.
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