By Chris Williams: Light welterweight contender Marcos Maidana is picking Manny Pacquiao to defeat Shane Mosley tonight in their mega fight in Las Vegas, Nevada. Maidana, the WBA light welterweight interim champion and one of the hardest punchers in the division, sees Pacquiao winning as long as he jumps on Mosley early and turns into a slugfest. If Mosley is able to get off to a quick start, then Maidana thinks that Mosley could ultimately win the fight. Mosley plans on attacking Pacquiao immediately and testing out his chin. He’s seen how vulnerable Pacquiao was in fights against Erik Morales and Juan Manuel Marquez and wants to take advantage of the Filipino fighters’ flaws on defense.

Speaking with examiner.com, Maidana said “If Pacquiao can start destroying Mosley in the early rounds, I think he will stop him later. But if Mosley has a decent start, he is capable of lasting the twelve rounds.”

This is the whole problem with this fight. If Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach has him starting out slow, which is what Roach has been saying he’ll do, then many of the early rounds could in theory end up going to Mosley because Pacquiao can’t box to save his life. He’s really only effective when he’s slugging it out with his opponents and when he’s boxing, Pacquiao is beatable. Of course, Pacquiao can beat the slower guys like Ricky Hatton and Antonio Margarito by boxing them, but not a fast guy with talent like Mosley. To beat him, Pacquiao will have to pressure him and look to out-work him and make him gas out the way that Floyd Mayweather Jr. did last year.