What is really going on for Pacquiao?

By Boxing News - 07/19/2012 - Comments

Image: What is really going on for Pacquiao?By Babatis Banda: There seems to be a really bad thing going for Manny Pacquiao. His camp is no longer united like it used to, at least from the rumors concerning the conditioning coach Alex Ariza and Manny’s trainer, Freddie Roach. Ariza has also made some very confusing press statements in the recent past.

At least from my view point, these are not extra-ordinary problems, these are far common problems that most athletes will face, the difference however is that these were advanced as Manny’s distractions. These problems were given as the reason Pacquiao performed below par.

Going into the Bradley fight, we were assured that all these problems had been fixed. What really confuses me is that Pacquiao still performed dismally. In fact, Pacquiao’s performance against Tim Bradley was in some ways worse than his performance against Juan Manuel Marquez. Bradley was too raw, he was dead slow and threw wide punches. Worse, Bradley was injured on both legs and Pacquiao could not take down an injured man. There was only one trick that Bradley employed and it worked. Stay away from Manny’s straight left and counter-punch him, full stop!

Marquez proved this fact too. It takes very little thinking nowadays to deal with Pacquiao. Avoid his power left and counter, seems to be the perpetual answer to deal with Pacquiao. Even when his left landed ‘flash’, there is no longer that devastating power anymore. What really propelled Pacquiao in his career was his resilience and devastating power and speed, rather than pure boxing skill. Not anymore, he does not carry that power anymore, he does not throw a thousand punches per round anymore….so what is really up?

The next Pacquiao fight is crucial. He has to re-deem himself against Bradley first, and forget another Marquez….. it proves nothing. Putting Pacquiao into the ring with Floyd Mayweather Jr straight away is a mistake, I am certain Floyd would retire him. Pacquiao needs a confidence booster and beating Bradley would be just enough to do just that. Things might really be getting ugly, meaningful choices are too few and some are just too dangerous. A good one would be Miguel Cotto at 150. If Cotto has learnt his lessons well, he will box rather than brawl, he will keep away from Manny’s left and use his jab and the story lines would be different. All he needs to do is avoid the cuts, counter and move.

Whatever is going on for Pacquiao, it is clear, he is not the same fighter he was and certainly age could have a hand, but not the only hand.



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