By Dave Lahr: Overlooked in all this crying over Floyd Mayweather’s viral video is the fact that the man has mad skills, and a crude fighter like Manny Pacquiao is made to order for the man. I don’t care either way about Mayweather’s sideline stuff out of the ring, but in the ring I see him mastering Pacquiao like a teacher will beginning student.
Pacquiao is just too basic, crude and limited in my view to beat a talented fighter like Mayweather. I know it hurts, but that’s pretty how it is. Mayweather has boxing skills like a younger version of Sugar Ray Robinson, and you can hate him all you want for his personal views, but you put him in the boxing ring with a limited guy Pacquiao, he’s going to embarrass the guy. Seriously, the way that Mayweather dominated Ricky Hatton and Shane Mosley would be nothing compared to what he would do against a fighter like Pacquiao.
The reason why is because of all the opportunities that Pacquiao would be presenting to him. Hatton, as average as he was, at least had the presence of mind to slow his work rate so that he didn’t give Mayweather quite so many counter punching opportunities to capitalize on. Pacquiao wouldn’t do that. He would just keep mindlessly bum rushing Mayweather over and over again like bull that doesn’t see straight. And Mayweather would just pick apart like a skilled matador and lance him with arrow like shots to the head. Freddie Roach wouldn’t have clue one to figure out a method to compensate for Mayweather’s skills. Roach would either say “Stay away, jump in and jump out” or he’s say something “Stay on him, and overwhelm him with punches.”
Neither of those strategies would work. They would work in reverse. Mayweather would time Pacquiao and hit him with blistering shots as he jumped in trying to land his little flurries, and if Pacquiao tried to overwhelm Mayweather with shots, it would be easily neutralized by Mayweather moving away and tagging Pacquiao while changing spots. I give Pacquiao credit for beating the guys that have been fed to him the last couple of years, but I see that as good match making more than great talent from Pacquiao. It helps when you’re opponents have been beaten into the ground before you’ve even faced them.
Get them on the rebound after a terrible beating and they’re much easier to manage. But Mayweather hasn’t just been beaten and he’s not a plodder or a stationary fighter that will just stand there and let Pacquiao jump around and change angles. Mayweather will move, land shots, avoid Pacquiao’s shorter punches because of the Filipino’s limited reach and batter his face to a pulp. They would have to some insane catch weight to weaken Mayweather enough for Pacquiao to beat him. My guess is that would have to be in the 130 region because Mayweather would still likely have too much skills even if he were weakened with a catch weight handicap for Pacquiao.
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