By Chris Williams: Antonio Margarito has spotted some weakness in his opponent Manny Pacquiao, saying in an article at the Orange County Register “Clottey was hurting Pacquiao but he didn’t throw punches. You have to throw punches. You have to keep it up. You can’t wait for him.” Margarito is right. Clottey was doing a number on Pacquiao with the 10 or so shots he was hitting him with in every round. If Clottey had just upped his work rate x 5, he would have likely busted Pacquiao up to the point where he would have gone down or the referee would have stopped it. Margarito hits just as hard as Clottey, but throws many more punches than him.
If Margarito can take Pacquiao’s power for 12 rounds, and keep firing back at 80 to 100 punches per round, it’s going to be awful hard for Pacquiao to take that kind of punishment without getting taken out. Pacquiao looked beaten up by Clottey and he wasn’t even really punching. Margarito is much more dangerous than Clottey on offense and this could be a bad fight for Pacquiao if he can’t get him out of there before his punches start to add up. Margarito’s trainer Robert Garcia sees Margarito’s high volume punch output paying dividends in the later rounds of the fight, saying “It’s a fight where we’ll have our advantages when it comes to the later rounds.”
Margarito will have to be able to take Pacquiao shots for him to get to the later rounds, and that’s the big question mark. It’s not going to be easy, especially if Pacquiao is jumping around and changing angles. However, Margarito doesn’t leave himself open like Ricky Hatton or Miguel Cotto. He’s a lot more disciplined and when he does get hit, it’s because he’s too focused on his offense and not thinking about defending himself.
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