By Jason Kim: Former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield believes that Manny Pacquiao will come off better compared to Floyd Mayweather Jr. if he gets beaten by Mayweather in their proposed fight in May 2011. In an article at Detnews.com, the 48-year-old Holyfield said “Of course it benefits Pacquiao more because if he loses [to Mayweather] nobody will think anything because he’s a nice guy. But because Mayweather made things harder by bragging, if he loses, it kind of puts him back real far and maybe make people think he’s not as great as he says he is.”
I don’t think Holyfield sees the real reason why Pacquiao will come off better than Mayweather if he loses compared to if Mayweather loses the fight. The reason, I think, Pacquiao will come off better is that he’s the smaller guy at 5’6″, and because of his lack of size, Pacquiao has kind of a built in excuse if he loses to Mayweather. Pacquiao’s boxing fans will always be able to point to his small size as the excuse and say that he would probably beat Mayweather if he was two inches taller and with longer arms. And if Mayweather loses the fight, boxing fans will probably ridicule him because he loss to a smaller fighter and one with arguably a lot less boxing ability than him.
It was only a couple of years ago when Pacquiao was still looking rather primitive with his running style of fighting where he would punch with both hands at the same time while moving forward. His trainer Freddie Roach has taught Pacquiao a great deal in the past couple of years and weened him of a lot of his amateurish tendencies, but he’s still probably far below Mayweahther in terms of boxing ability. This is why Mayweather would likely get teased without end if Pacquiao beats him. You can’t say the same for Pacquiao if he loses.
He’ll probably end up looking even better to some if he at least gives Mayweather a tough fight in losing. Even if Pacquiao uses a weight draining catchweight to fight Mayweather, he’ll still likely end up coming off better if he loses compared to if Mayweather ends up the loser.
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