By Dennis Broadhurst: First of all, I think that this fight will happen. There is too much money to be made for either side to walk away from the table, both fighters need the fight to cement their all time legacy, the fighters will not want to disappoint the fans and Roach and Mayeather Sr. still want to get at eachothers throats.
As far as Manny Pacquiao being on steroids is concerned, I think that is a load of rubbish, he is simply a great fighter with a great trainer who has carefully crafted him of many years against good fighters.
So if we are going on the grounds that the fight will happen, then I see only one out come, a win for team Pacquiao. Of course if both men put on a great display then they are both winners as they will be adored by fans and make tens of millions doing so but the man I think will have the win on his record will be Pacquiao.
There are many saying that Mayweather is naturally the bigger man and that he will beat the naturally smaller man. The first thing is that Mayweather has only ever fought one good, natural welterweight fighter at welterweight, Zab Judah. Zab caused Mayweather some problems early on but Mayweather eventually got through him, coasting through the later rounds. We have seen that Pacquiao took out Miguel Cotto in twelve rounds, a prime, fully muscled welterweight. This was his only fight against a good weltereight at welterweight (excluding DeLa Hoya who was drained). This means that each man is on equal terms in terms of these fights so this cannot count in terms of who would win.
Now lets take a look at the three fighters that both men have faced, Marquez, DeLa Hoya and Hatton. When Pacquiao fought Marquez he had lots of trouble with him, drawing once and winning once but both contests could have gone either way. These fights were fought at feather and super-feather, Marquez’s natural weight class. Pacquiao knocked Marquez down 4 times in two fights. When Mayweather fought Marquez, Marquez had jumped up two weight classes to fight Mayweather at a 144lb welterweight catchweight, Marquez weighed in at 142lbs and Mayweather 2lbs over at 146.
Marquez looked soft around the waist and was very slow, he was dominated by Mayweather and dropped in the second round. So there we have it, Mayweather dominated a man who gave Pacquiao fits but did it at a weight where Marquez was ineffective so we can count this one out. Oscar DeLa Hoya is another man that both men fought. When Pacquiao fought DeLa Hoya, Oscar was completely weight drained and was far past it, being dominated and stopped in eight rounds. When Mayweather fought DeLa Hoya he won by a split decision but Oscar got closer to beating Mayweather than anyone has before.
So Pacquiao now destroys the man who gave Mayweather some trouble, the thing is though, Pacquiao did it at a weight at which Oscar was then ineffective but Mayweather did it at Oscar’s natural weight at the time so we cannot compare these fights. The third fighter that both have fought is Ricky Hatton. When Pacquiao fought Hatton, they fought at Hatton’s natural light-welterweight.
Hatton was confident going into the bout but was flattened by Pacquiao in two rounds, being knocked down twice in the opening round and then knocked out cold in the second. When Mayweather fought Hatton, Hatton was undeafeted and confident but this was at Mayweather’s natural welterweight and Hatton had moved up 7lbs. Hatton gave Mayweather some troubles as Mayweather admitted that he was very hard to keep off but eventually knocked Hatton out in the tenth round with a TKO victory.
Some would say that Pacquaio beating Hatton after Mayweather did devalues the victory but I think the fact that Pacquaio fought Hatton at light-welter equals the fights over. Hatton was taken out by Mayweather in 10 rounds but Manny took out Hatton in 2 rounds, so I think Manny gets the edge here.
I think that Manny has stylistic advantages over Mayweather too. Mayweather does have great defence but I think that if he thought that Hatton was hard to keep off, who does have decent power and speed but nowhere near that of Manny then I don’t see him keeping off Manny for twelve rounds. Also when DeLa Hoya fought Mayweather, Roach’s plan was troubling Mayweather but the old Oscar didn’t have the stamina to sustain it, we all know that Manny will have enough stamina.
If Mayweather at all thinks that he can fight like he did against Marquez against Pacquiao then he is sadly mistaken as Manny will not be hesitant to throw shots and will be on Mayweather from the opening bell. I do not think Mayweather has the firepower to keep Manny off at all so I think Manny will be on him all night.
My view is that Manny will be far too fast and strong for Mayweather and will have worked on cutting off the ring more with Roach for this fight, I think as soon as Mayweather is on the ropes then he will eat lots of punches from Manny. I see the fight going to a decision for Manny due to landing the harder punches in bunches or a late stoppage of Mayweather as I am not sure he will know what to do if he is hurt.
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