By Dewi Powell: My previous article described Cotto-Pacquiao as a fight that is the pinnacle of the welterweight decade; I worded it carefully because I knew the winner of that fight against Mayweather would be the pinnacle of the welterweight era! However, most people seem to have already predicted that Mayweather-Pacquiao has an absolute certain conclusion without looking at any tactical issues. I’m writing to dispel the criticisms of Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, read with an open mind and disconnect yourself from any bias or loyalty you may have ….
Regarding Pacquiao, it’s been said that his jumping through the weights has not been as impressive as portrayed. I severely disagree because I think Pacquiao has always taken the best available to him. David Diaz was the only lightweight world champion available to him as IBF, WBA and WBO lightweight champion Juan Diaz had already agreed a fight with Nate Campbell when the possibility of a Pacquiao fight occurred.
Also, critics discredit Pacquiao’s victory over Oscar De La Hoya, but going into this everything was against Pacquiao. I ask who can put their hand on their heart and say they predicted a Pacquiao victory? You can say De La Hoya had not fought at that weight in nine years and had been pretty inactive in the few years leading up to this fight but he had far more experience at 147lbs than Pacquiao. Pacquiao was against a man who at this weight had beaten Pernell Whitaker, Hector Camacho, Julio Cesar Chavez and Ike Quartey.
Yes De La Hoya did fade quickly but it doesn’t take anything away from the fact that straight from the start Pacquiao out boxed De La Hoya by dismissing the trade mark left hook and jabs through undeniable speed, accuracy and strength.
After this Pacquiao fought Ricky Hatton, a victory which was soon undermined. People like to highlight that Hatton is one dimensional, only a brawler etc. but Mike Tyson, George Foreman and Pernell Whitaker never altered their style. This does not mean they are bad fighters, just that they are extremely good in imposing their own style, better than others are able to. Also at this time Hatton was undoubtedly ranked #1 at 140lbs. He had proved it just 6 months before against the ranked #2 at light-welterweight, Paulie Malignaggi. Another doubt over Pacquiao is his power as he goes up the weights, all I have to say is go ask Ricky Hatton how hard Pacquiao hits.
The most ridiculous argument against Pacquiao is his victory against Miguel Cotto. This is invalid because of the catch weight. Like many boxing fans I prefer a title fight to be at the traditional weight but if two fighters agree to a weight months in advance to the fight then they have no excuses come fight night. If weight was an issue then why hasn’t Arum or Cotto stated this? Cotto weighed only one more pound for his fight with Clottey and for anyone who follows the sport knows that one pound is never that much of a difference. It’s common for a boxer to spend an hour in the sauna the morning of weigh-in day to lose a pound and it doesn’t affect their performance or you can lose a pound by visiting the bathroom for example.
As for Mayweather’s critics, I really don’t understand the arguments of yours that I’ve heard. Firstly I’ll start with what I think has been Mayweather’s toughest fight yet (yes tougher than Castillo), Oscar De La Hoya. In boxing we often hear about how tough it is for a fighter to fight at a weight which is lower than his natural fighting weight, I agree but this doesn’t mean that moving above a natural fighting weight isn’t one of the toughest asks for a boxer. Here De La Hoya out weighed Mayweather by four pounds so why don’t Mayweather critics realize that if a fighter is good enough four pounds won’t make a difference (even at a new weight, in this case Jr middleweight)? Yet, they use this argument to discredit the Marquez victory. The risk to fight De La Hoya is one that should be respected and it’s too often forgotten.
It has also been said that Mayweather ‘ducks’ or avoids potential opponents, again I disagree. To this point, I ask you Pacquiao die hard fans to question yourself truthfully and see the sense. When Mayweather was offered Cotto the figure was $8 million (at the time it was roughly just over £4 million), would Pacquiao have fought Cotto last weekend for this figure? The answer is no, to fight Cotto for so little in terms of world level boxing whilst risking a pound-for-pound #1 status and undefeated record is simply ludicrous, as Freddy Roach has acknowledged. It’s a sad but true fact, and one reason why Paul Williams isn’t in the top five pound-for-pound.
I’ve read a lot that Mayweather is ducking Shane Mosley; do us boxing fans have such a small memory that we cannot remember Mosley’s response after his second fight with Fernando Vargas? He stuttered, looked unsure of himself and said he can’t fight Mayweather because he had a loose tooth, wanted a two week holiday and then claimed that Antonio Margarito deserved a fight more than Mayweather (even though them two did not fight until three years later). This is one hundred percent truth, go youtube it or something. The difference between Mosley’s reaction here and Mayweather’s after his fight with Juan Manuel Marquez is that Mosley seemed scared and Mayweather seemed shocked.
Manny Pacquiao fans also like to highlight that Mayweather has not fought anybody of note and they do this by claiming that De La Hoya was over the hill and Hatton wasn’t good enough. In this case, what does this say about two of Pacquiao’s most impressive wins? Just to go on record I think that the wins over De La Hoya and Hatton by Mayweather and Pacquiao were equally impressive.
The main criticism often raised about Mayweather is that he’s boring. Once again I completely reject this. Mayweather is quite simply the perfect practitioner of the art of boxing, to hit and not get it is an essence of the sport which shall never be lost for as long as fighters like Mayweather shall live. Yes you can say that he doesn’t dominate fights but I stress that in combat to this he controls fights instead, which is just as skilful. Boxing needs to be appreciated, if it was just about offence then it would be called fighting. It seems to be the curse of the contemporary boxing fan, to expect a fighter to rely on brute force rather than skill, if this is the case then go and watch the Ultimate Fighting Championship or other forms of Mixed Martial Arts. Fighting on the back foot like Mayweather is equally effective and impressive as Manny Pacquiao’s way of fighting on the front foot, it is not boring.
I’ve no doubt that Mayweather will come in at 147lbs in this fight whether its in the contract or not, also I’ve got no doubt that it will be 50-50 purse split. A simple solution to the purse would be; if both fighters think they will win then why not agree for the winner to get 100% of the purse? But lets leave that to the fighters and promoters.
As previously stated I want people to disconnect themselves from any national, cultural or ethical bias when reading this and concentrate on the boxers. Here we have two boxers who would be greats in any era ever yet both sides feel the need to ridicule the opposing boxer, if the opposite boxer is so bad then why are we all so determined for this fight to happen and for your preferable fighter to win? I’ll answer for you, because we all know this is as close to the sixties heavyweight era or the middleweight 80’s era as we can get and we want to know the name of the fighter who is the best in our era. This is what boxing is about for fans, this is the perfect clash of styles that makes all time great fights. Let the fighters sort out the arrangements for the fights and as fans, writers, analysts or anyone else let any predictions be made on solid tactical analysis after observing the respective fighters where it counts … in the ring!
Respects, Dewi Powell.
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