By Liam Fitzgerald: After Manny Pacquiao’s stunning demolition of Miguel Cotto on Saturday night we are surely now set up for the ultimate showdown: Manny Pacquiao vs Floyd Mayweather. There’s no point denying that these two fighters are in a class of their own and the p4p number one spot cannot be truly held by one without beating the other.
This fight for me is so intriguing because I genuinely can’t be sure who will emerge victorious. They are both supremely talented boxers and you can make a case for either of them winning the potential bout.
In my opinion, the fight will come down to whose greatest strength prevails and whose biggest weakness, although it’s hardly weak in both cases, is best capitalised on. For Pacquiao this is lightning fast attack and for Mayweather it is his defensive wizardry. Either of these two skills would be good enough against any other welterweight to win but they might not be sufficient in this fight as the other fighter is equally adept.
As witnessed on Saturday, Pacquiao is at his best when he just explodes into life and unleashes combinations of up to 10 punches at a time. In particular, I was impressed with how his right hand has improved and nowadays he can throw any type of punch. His straight left, right and left hooks and uppercuts are all spiteful shots which overwhelmed Cotto the other night. This is significant as I considered Cotto to have a great chance on Saturday and couldn’t see how a natural welterweight could be stopped by an ex-flyweight in Pacquiao. If Manny can do this to one of the best fighters in the world in Cotto, could his explosiveness also do it for him against the best opponent he will ever face?
This is a lot more doubtful because Mayweather is so competent defensively. His excellent head movement and famous shoulder roll usually keep him out of trouble in fights but like Pacquiao, he has to overcome a unique fighter in order to win this time. Mayweather’s defence is undoubtedly brilliant but will he be able to keep Pacquiao off him if he throws 7, 8 or 9 punches at a time. Pacquiao certainly has the stamina to be able to do this for 12 rounds as he showed on Saturday and for this reason I feel Pacquiao has the best opportunity to put a defeat on Mayweather’s record. I don’t know, maybe Mayweather is good enough to thwart Pacquiao’s threat but without doubt this will be the bigget threat he has ever encountered.
As these strength’s are s influential for each fighter, there is a worry that they could neutralize each other. However, this is where capitalising on the other man’s weakness becomes so prevalent. For Pacquiao, his problem is that he does get hit with a reasonable amount of punches in his fights. His impressive chin compensates for this, as was the case vs Cotto, and the fact that Mayweather in truth likes to pot shot could render this useless. Mayweather for me has to throw a lot more than he did against Marquez to have real success vs Pacquiao. The one saving grace for Mayweather is that Manny struggles occasionly against counter punchers and there is no better exponent of that art out there today. The question remains though, will Mayweather be able to cause enough damage from countering opportunities? That for me could be the key as to who wins this epic contest.
Therefore, I remain undecided as to whom I think will win when these two face off and that for me is what makes this bout so exciting. Before, the Cotto-Pacquiao fight I was sure that Maywetaher’s defence could handle Pacquiao whilst his counter punching would see him prevail. Now, however Pacquiao’s impressive performance in both defence and attack has me wondering if he is the man to finally ruin Mayweather’s perfect record. At this moment, he is the only man capable of doing so in my eyes. I see the fight going 12 rounds either way due to them both possessing good chins and at this moment I would probably be leaning towards the little Filipino slightly. Either way it will be a superb fight and us fight fans are the real winners.
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