By Esteban Garduno: Manny Pacquiao has come up with his own prediction for the May 1st clash between unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Shane Mosley, saying to the Yahoo Philippine News “I pick Mosley to win that fight because he can throw a lot of punches compared to Mayweather, who’s a very defensive boxer. Defense can’t win fights, especially against a fighter like Mosley who relies on speed.” Someone needs to break the news to Pacquiao that defense can and does win fights. Actually, defense wins fights all the time in boxing. Just mindlessly throwing punches doesn’t win fights.

Pacquiao looked awful in his recent fight against Joshua Clottey, throwing a lot of punches at Clottey’s gloves all night long seemingly without trying to aim them. If that was Mayweather who was in the ring with Clottey on that night, I think Pacquiao would have been picking up his teeth of the canvas and wondering what hit him. Pacquiao looked defenseless against Clottey, and was nailed frequently whenever Clottey had it in his mind to throw a punch.

If Pacquiao had used his wide open high volume punch attack against Mayweather, he would have been getting picked apart all night long. Clottey just stood in front of Pacquiao with his gloves covering up his face. It was an easy target for Pacquiao. There’s no way that Mayweather would be stupid enough to fight in such a primitive, backwards style like this against Mosley. That would be like flushing down the toilet all the things that Mayweather has learned over the years and decided to fight in a self-defeating manner.

I wonder if it’s a case of wishful thinking on Pacquiao’s part by saying he thinks Mosley will beat Mayweather? After all, if Mosley gets rid of Mayweather for Pacquiao, the pressure would be off of Pacquiao as far as fighting Mayweather. No one in their right mind would bug Pacquiao about taking on the dangerous Mayweather and risk getting humiliated in front of the entire world.

Pacquiao then would be free to fight more Top Rank guys like Miguel Cotto, Clottey, Yuri Foreman and Edwin Valero without anyone saying anything about it. I think Mayweather will totally destroy Pacquiao in one of the worst one-sided fights you’ve ever seen before. But if Mayweather was to get beaten by Mosley, then Pacquiao would be free to move on and fight whoever without much pressure.

Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s trainer, likes the idea of Pacquiao fighting Mosley rather than Mayweather. Who can blame Roach? If you had a choice of putting your fighter in with a guy that you felt he could beat or putting him in with a fighter that you think he might struggle and possibly lose to, who would you want him to fight? Roach says “I like Shane because he’s a real fighter. It will be a more exciting fight that than the one involving Mayweather.”

Roach also said that the fight between Clottey and Pacquiao would be a more exciting fight than a fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao. As you can see, Roach’s ability to judge fights needs some minor corrections. Clottey a better opponent than Mayweather? Yeah, right, Roach.