Mosley looks in incredible shape, Pacquiao looks over-muscled

By Boxing News - 05/06/2011 - Comments

Image: Mosley looks in incredible shape, Pacquiao looks over-muscledBy Chris Williams: 39-year-old Shane Mosley looked to be in the past shape of his career on Friday at the weight-in, coming in at 147 for his big mega-fight with Manny Pacquiao for Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Mosley looks like he could pose as a statue in a museum with his excellent shape. I’ve never looked this good before and seems to have really found the ideal weight for him. One can only imagine how well he’ll fight on Saturday. I’m not sure that he’ll win but he’s definitely in shape to pick up a ‘W’ in this fight. Pacquiao, though, looked too heavy with muscle for his small frame.

Pacquiao weighed in at 145 and looked like a little tank. Yeah, I’m aware that Pacquiao has weighed in the neighborhood of 145 for his last several fights but he’s shown stamina problems in those fights as well. Carrying around all that extra muscle on his frame isn’t helping his stamina any. A lot of the extra muscle seems like useless showy muscle, the kind that bodybuilders carry around.

The extra muscle will be a problem for Pacquiao if this fight goes into the second half. Pacquiao could be wishing he had come into this fight a lot learner without the added bulk that he has to lug around for 12 rounds. Even though it’s technically muscle that Pacquiao has packed on, it’s still weight to slow him down and cause him to tire if he can’t get Mosley out of the there as soon as possible. When you get too muscular like Pacquiao, it slows you down and turns you into a four or five round fighter. I see this as a possibility for this fight. Mosley looks to be the much better conditioned fighter and ready to fight. His superior athleticism and conditioning could be the telling factor for tomorrow’s fight.

Pacquiao needs to lose some of the useless muscle that he’s packed on. It’s too late now but for future fights, he needs to slow down on adding muscle and focus on speed. He’s starting to look like a little beach ball now.



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