By Anthony Lee: Floyd Mayweather is arguably the best defensive fighter in boxing right now. But should a fight between him and Manny Pacquiao ever occur, there are several reasons as to why Pacquiao might give him fits in the ring.

1. STANCE. Manny Pacquiao is left-handed. Mayweather’s defense is tailored to fight orthodox fighters, not southpaws. Mayweather keeps his left hand low to protect the front of his body, and his right hand high to protect the right side of his head from orthodox left hooks. The only area he has exposed during this time is the left side of his body. But right-handed fighters generally have better left hooks than right hooks. This is simply because of the nature of their stance. Their right hand is held further back than their left, so when they lunge forward to throw a right hook, they have to extend further and expose much of themselves in the process. But Manny Pacquiao is a southpaw. He keeps his right hand in front of him, closer to his opponent, and throws better right hooks than left hooks. Mayweather has never fought someone who could throw excellent right hooks (in part because he has not fought any elite southpaw fighters), and because of this, he will find his defense severely compromised against Pacquiao.

2. FOOTWORK. Just take a look at Mayweather’s last fight against Shane Mosley. Mayweather often found himself fighting flat-footed, and he looked awkward moving around the ring (at least compared to when he was younger). If he were fighting a prime Mosley, he could not have gotten away with that display. But if you take a look at Pacquiao’s last fight against Margarito, you can see that Pacquiao was always on his toes, which enabled him to both throw punches and
dodge punches with better momentum. If Mayweather continues to fight flat-footed, Pacquiao would dance circles around him.

3. PUNCHES IN BUNCHES. People who are familiar with boxing know that there is a kind of rock-paper-scissors when it comes to boxing styles. Generally, a brawler has an advantage versus a swarmer, a boxer has an advantage versus a brawler, and a swarmer has an advantage versus a boxer. Mayweather has fought upper-echelon boxers (e.g. Oscar De La Hoya), brawlers (e.g. Hatton), and
boxer-punchers (e.g. Shane Mosley), but he has never fought someone who could (a) throw such a high volume of punches as Pacquiao, and (b) throw those punches quickly, accurately, and from so many awkward angles.

4. ENDURANCE. Shane Mosley did an excellent job against Mayweather for the first couple of rounds, but he was old, tight, and eventually ran out of gas. Manny Pacquiao, on the other hand, is younger than Mosley, faster than Mosley, throws more punches than Mosley, throws more accurate punches than Mosley, has better footwork than Mosley, and has legendary endurance. What Mosley did to Mayweather
in the first two rounds, is what Pacquiao could do to Mayweather for the entire fight. Unlike Mosley, Pacquiao is extremely well-conditioned and does not tire easily.