Is Pacquiao on the decline?

By Boxing News - 05/09/2011 - Comments

Image: Is Pacquiao on the decline?By Dan Ambrose: WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (54-3-2, 38 KO’s) put in one of his poorer performances last Saturday night in beating a less than willing Shane Mosley (46-7-1, 39 KO’s) in a fight that brought out the boo birds that made their noise heard for much of the fight. The bad performance from Pacquiao was quickly explained away, with parts of the blame being put on Mosley’s lack of interest in initiating. But Pacquiao blamed his legs, which he says were cramped for much of the fight.

Fighters that get old often have leg problems and it’s hard to know whether Pacquiao’s cramping legs are a product of conditioning or his age. Pacquiao is 32, and while that may be young for some fighters like Bernard Hopkins, it’s fairly old for a small fighter like Pacquiao. The smaller fighters are often shot by the time they reach 31 and 32, especially when they’ve been involved in as many wars as Pacquiao has in the past. The question here is whether Bob Arum’s number #1 cash cow Manny Pacquiao numbered? It could be.

We may not know until it’s too late if Arum continues to carefully match Pacquiao against guys that are old are half-beaten by the time they’ve entered the ring. Careful match-making can cover up a lot. However, it might also turn away a lot of would be fans of the Filipino star. In an ideal world, Pacquiao would be matched up with the very best welterweights until he retires from the sport in two or three years. But we may not see that if Arum continues to match Pacquiao against in house fighters or ones that are pushing 40 like Mosley. With soft match-making, we could see Pacquiao’s decline masked so that it’s not nearly as apparent as it would be if Pacquiao were getting put in with guys that actually have a chance of beating him like Victor Ortiz, Sergio Martinez, Andre Berto, and Timothy Bradley.



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