By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao is feeling kind of cocky after seeing Floyd Mayweather’s bout against Shane Mosley last Saturday night. In an article by Michael Marley of Examiner.com, Pacquiao, talking about how Mosley had Mayweather hurt in the 2nd round, said “I will attack until Mayweather is gone.” Pacquiao might attack Mayweather, but he also might get countered over and over again and made to look amateurish. Mayweather has just reduced two of boxing’s best fighters – Juan Manuel Marquez and Mosley – to punching bags in back to back fights.
Pacquiao went life and death with Marquez in 2008, barely beating him by a 12 round split decision. I thought Marquez won the fight by a couple of rounds. I think Pacquiao is going to get royally pounded by Mayweather all night long if the fight gets made. Pacquiao will have a really hard time with Mayweather because of his bigger size, better movement and superior defense. This could turn out to be a really ugly fight by the end of it.
Mayweather isn’t going to be throwing leaping left hooks like Ricky Hatton did against Pacquiao and he’s not going to be standing there just covering up like Joshua Clottey did recently for 12 rounds. Pacquiao’s only chance of winning the fight is if Mayweather stays in one place and allows Pacquiao to pound on him. It’s doubtful that Mayweather will fight the same kind of fight that Cotto, Hatton and Clottey did against Pacquiao. He’s too smart for that.
We saw how Cotto was able to elude Pacquiao for much of the fight when he was boxing on the outside and moving. If Cotto can do that against Pacquiao, then there’s an excellent chance that Mayweather will do even better. Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s trainer, thinks that Mayweather has lost his ability to move and has become flat footed. I think he’s wrong. Mayweather can still move if need be. He hasn’t had to move in his last two fights because he wasn’t facing big punchers.
Against Pacquiao, Mayweather will have to stay busy to keep out of range of Pacquiao’s fast attacks and heavy shots. Pacquiao hasn’t faced a fighter with the boxing skills of Mayweather. The closest that Pacquiao has come to facing a skilled fighter like Mayweather is his two fights against Marquez. In both bouts, Pacquiao struggled badly against Marquez. Mayweather, as we saw, is a much superior fighter than Marquez. I think Mayweather is going to totally route Pacquiao when they do eventually fight in October or November.
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