By Chris Williams: Miguel Diaz, the cutman for Manny Pacquio, doesn’t see any problem with Pacquiao’s brutal 6th round knockout loss to Juan Manuel Marquez last year in December. Diaz thinks the KO loss was less harmful for Pacquiao than if he were to take punishment for 12 rounds continuously.
Diaz said to hustleboss.com “It’s not like when you get hit with a punch over and over and over again…I know he’s going to come back. I don’t think that fight will take anything from Manny.”
I don’t know if I agree with that. I know if a fighter gets stunned and the fight is stopped without them being knocked unconscious, then they’re better off in the situation than going through a brutal 12 round beating from someone. But when you get knocked completely out cold the way Pacquiao was against Marquez, I think there’s a danger of aftershocks that Pacquiao could experience when he steps inside the ring again.
Pacquiao’s not going to be getting any soft touches by his promoter Bob Arum because he’s putting him in tough right away when he gets back in the ring in September. Arum wants him to fight Marquez again, and that means Pacquiao is going to be getting hit with some lethal shots in this fight.
What Diaz isn’t saying is that Pacquiao has been hit over and over again in many of his fights. With his brawling style of fighting, Pacquiao has taken a ton of punishment over the years, and all those shots tend accumulate.
Pacquiao has also done a lot of sparring over the years in the Wildcard gym owned by his trainer Freddie Roach, who believes in having Pacquiao do a lot of sparring. The sparring has a wearing effect on fighters as well, which is why some fighters choose to do as little sparring as possible due to their belief that it shortens careers.
If Pacquiao is going to come back from this KO loss, he’s going to need to fight a lot more defensively so he doesn’t get poleaxed again. Diaz also thinks Pacquiao needs to focus more on his defensive skills.
How Pacquiao can do that is unclear because his entire style is centered on his slugging it out with his opponents. If he’s forced to hit and run, he’ll be less successful, and it’s doubtful that his cramping legs will enable him to fight in this manner.
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