By Chris Williams: Not surprisingly, Bobby Pacquiao, the brother of WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao, thinks that Manny will beat Floyd Mayweather Jr. if and when they fight in November. In an article by Michael Marley at Examiner.com, Bobby Pacquiao says “Manny will find a way to beat Mayweather, this I believe. He will find a way just like he did with Ricky Hatton and with Oscar De La Hoya. Manny always finds a way, he always make the adjustments he needs when he needs to make them.”
I hate to be the bearer of bad news for Bobby, but there’s a world’s difference between and old, weight drained De La Hoya, Hatton and Mayweather. I’m surprised Bobby even bothered to mention De La Hoya and Hatton as examples to reason why Pacquiao should be able to beat Mayweather. I think those two fighters are a good argument for why Mayweather WOULD beat Pacquiao, not the other way.
De La Hoya was an old 36 by the time Pacquiao fought him and no longer considered the best fighter in his division. Had Pacquiao really wanted to accomplish something and open eyes, he would have taken on and beaten Sergio Martinez instead. That would really shown boxing fans something, because has been considered by many to be the best fighter in the light middleweight division for some time.
And if Pacquiao wanted to accomplish something by beating the best light welterweight in the division, Pacquiao would have done well to fight Devon Alexander, Timothy Bradley or at the very least Marcos Maidana. Those have been the killer fighters for the past two years, and not Hatton. He was already destroyed by Mayweather long before Pacquiao stopped Hatton last year in two rounds in May 2009. Of course, Hatton and De La Hoya were more popular than guys like Alfredo Angulo, Martinez, James Kirkland, Alexander, Maidana and Bradley, but they weren’t the best fighters in their divisions.
Bobby Pacquiao says “Mayweather is very, very, very fast, we know this. it’s not like Manny will have to suddenly start studying Mayweather. We know Mayweather, we know what he does. We’ve been watching Mayweather fight for a long time. But Manny’s speed, the movement of his hands and his feet, is underrated by many. How do you think he overcame Oscar and Ricky? My brother just steamrollered them, really.”
Well, it helps when you have a fighter like Hatton who decides to blindly go right after Pacquiao, forget all about defense and lead with his chin. Hatton made it entirely too easy for Pacquiao by ignoring the advice of his new trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr. That’s Hatton’s fault that he tried to bum rush Pacquiao. He certainly paid the proice for it, though, by getting stopped in the 2nd round and knocked completely out. You can see it had a big impression on Hatton, because he hasn’t fought since then. Too bad Hatton didn’t regroup, learn from his mistakes and keep fighting.
With Oscar, he was a shell of his former self by the time that Pacquiao fought him. By that point in De La Hoya’s career, he had lost three out of his last six fights in the past five years, and probably should have lost four out of his last six fights because his 12 round decision win over Felix Sturm in June 2004 was incredibly controversial with few people believing that De La Hoya won.
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