By Dave Lahr: I think Floyd Mayweather Jr. (40-0, 25 KO’s) has been worrying himself to death over nothing for his March 13th fight against World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao. The last thing that Mayweather should be worrying about is random blood tests or any other testing nonsense. Mayweather is a major talent with speed, power, size and perfect boxing skills going for him in this fight with Pacquiao.
Mayweather doesn’t need to be spending time on trying to get Pacquiao to agree to the random blood tests, because frankly I think Mayweather will beat Pacquiao like no tomorrow. I see this as a one-sided fight, much worse than Mayweather’s dominating 12 round decision over Juan Manuel Marquez in his last fight in September.
It’ll be easier because Pacquiao won’t fight cautiously like Marquez did, and will instead be going after Mayweather trying to tear him apart with fast combinations. I’m sure Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach will warn him repeatedly about trying to bum rush Mayweather, because we saw what happens when a fighter does that in Ricky Hatton’s 10th round knockout loss to Mayweather in December 2007.
But Pacquiao is the type of fighter who competes with his emotions. What I mean is when Pacquiao gets hit hard, he immediately tries to even the score by viciously attacking his opponents with tremendous attacks. Pacquiao is very predictable in that sense, because he does every time he gets hit really hard. Mayweather will be able to pick Pacquiao apart when he tries to respond with wild attacks.
I think Pacquiao will end up getting hurt by trying to attack Mayweather in their fight. Roach will probably do his best to get Pacquiao to fight under control, but I can’t see it working. Pacquiao will come out for each round under control, I can see that, but once Mayweather lands a hard fight hand and the crowd gets into it, Pacquiao will want to hit him back with something.
That desire to fire back at his opponents has served Pacquiao well in most of his fights with the exception of his two bouts with Marquez. However, that won’t work against Mayweather. He’ll pick Pacquiao off if he comes rushing in trying to land flurries. It won’t be even be interesting if Pacquiao tries to attack Mayweather blindly all fight long.
The only thing that will work is if Pacquiao can fight in controlled bursts, and not lose his head when he’s getting tagged hard by Mayweather. Pacquiao has to accept that Mayweather will be hitting him cleanly with hard right hands from the outside. That’s just going to happen, there’s no two ways about it. But Pacquiao is going to have to keep it together mentally and not try to fly off the handle and lose his head trying to get even. T
hat won’t work, and will probably cause Pacquiao’s downfall. I wish I could say that Pacquiao will do well in this fight, but I can’t. I think he’s going to lose his senses completely when Mayweather starts hitting him, and he’s going to want to bum rush him to pay him back. That will play completely into Mayweather’s hands.
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