By Dave Lahr: Manny Pacquiao gets a lot of credit for being a powerful puncher and a talented fighter with the ability to move up in weight classes successfully. However, I wonder what Pacquiao would have done had he fought a prime Kostya Tszyu and Julian Jackson (55-6, 49 KOs) in a hypothetical match up.
Before anyone dismisses Jackson as being too big a fighter for Pacquiao, let me remind you that Jackson was a junior middleweight in his prime and this is the weight class that Pacquiao may move up to for a fight against World Boxing Association light middleweight champion Yuri Foreman in the future.
I think Pacquiao will beat Foreman if and when he chooses to fight him. However, I’m less confident that Pacquiao would have been able to beat Jackson. I suspect that Pacquiao would have major problems with the crushing power of Jackson, and I can see this fight ending suddenly with one punch with Jackson flattening Pacquiao early in the fight. It would be a great for a couple of rounds.
I can see Pacquiao going right after Jackson and trying to unload on him with fast flurries. But I think Jackson would catch Pacquiao with a huge right hand just like Julian did against “Terrible” Terry Norris and knock him cold early in the fight. At best, I can somehow see Pacquiao lasting four rounds. Pacquiao would have a better chance of surviving if he stayed away from Jackson, but eventually “The Hawk” would catch him with something big and put him out of his misery. You have to remember that Jackson had one punch power in both hands. Most of Jackson’s fights ended with him landing one huge bomb to take out his opponents. He didn’t need to land flurries like some fighters, because his huge power was enough to end the majority of his bouts.
As for Tszyu, when he was in the prime of his career, there was probably no harder puncher from the light welterweight to the welterweight divisions than him. Tszyu could throw big shots with very little windup on his shots. He didn’t need to put him whole body behind his punches like most fighter do, because he was able to generate a lot of power just from his arms.
In a fight with Pacquiao, I think Tszyu would have too much power for Pacquiao to deal with, and I can see this ending in an early knockout as well. Tszyu always fought in a relaxed manner and was quite skillful in eluding pressure fighters like Pacquiao. I think if Pacquiao rushed Tszyu like he does with most of his opponents, I think it would have ended badly for Manny. I see Tszyu hitting Pacquiao with a hard right and stunning him like Tszyu did with Zab Judah in their fight.
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