By Vinz Felix: For several months now, Manny Pacquiao (51-3-2, 38 KO’s) and undefeated Floyd Mayweather Jr. (41-0, 25 KO’s) have been trying to negotiate a mega fight for this November and during that same time, the fans for both camps have been voicing out their opinions over various internet forums as to why the brilliant counter-puncher Mayweather Jr. has the dominant corner over Pacquiao’s boxer/slugger fighting style. One of the biggest comparisons they have used is that Mayweather defeated Juan Manuel Marquez (50-5-1, 37 KO’s) in their fight last 19th of September 2009 in a unanimous win after 12 rounds, landing 59% of his 490 thrown punches.

Everyone agrees that Marquez was unable to show any superiority over the faster and better counter-punching Floyd Mayweather Jr. and because Manny struggled to defeat Marquez in both their controversial bouts at the MGM Grand and Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, many people believe that Floyd can easily beat Pacquiao as well. Not necessarily.

One good example why a comparison of “who-beats-who” should not be used in boxing is the Cotto-Margarito-Mosley fights. As we know, Miguel Cotto (35-2, 28 KO’s) beat Shane Mosley (46-6, 39 KO’s) back in 2007, and Cotto on the other hand was defeated by Antonio Margarito (38-6, 27 KO’s) in 2008. Everybody, including boxing historians believed that the older Mosley (37 at the time) would be forced to retirement by a stronger Margarito in their 2009 fight at the Staples Center. This soon became one of the biggest upsets of that year when Sugar Shane showed superb hand speed and undeniable accurate punches to the face of Antonio Margarito resulting in a TKO in the 9th round for Sugar Shane Mosley.

An even greater example is the Ali-Frazier-Foreman triangle. Muhammad Ali (56-5, 37 KO’s) struggled with rival Joe Frazier (32-4-1, 7 KO’s) in all of their three great fights but the hard-hitting knockout artist George Foreman (76-6, 68 KO’s) knocked Frazier out six times before the referee calls it off after just a matter of two rounds! This then lead the public to believe that Ali would lose badly to Foreman in their “Rumble in the Jungle” match in Zaire. Ali used his “Rope-A-Dope” tactic to deteriorate Foreman out in the first 8 rounds of their fight and later on threw unanswered punches to Foreman’s chin which sends him down to the canvas and was counted out by the referee.

These two examples have just proven that we should not base our judgment purely on previous cross-matches as many factors are considered for each match. Each fighter trains specifically for their designated opponent and whoever comes up with the best plan of attack/defense and delivers that blueprint succeeds in the end.