By Chris Williams: Former WBA lightweight champion Brandon Rios (31-1-1, 23 KO’s) is convinced that the weakness for Filipino Manny Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KO’s) is his chin after Manny was brutally knocked out last December by Juan Manuel Marquez in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Pacquiao is not going to be fighting in the U.S for his next fight with Rios. Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum have decided to have the fight staged at Cotai Arena, Venetian Resort, Macao, Macao S.A.R., China.
This was done for tax purposes, as well as to open up the huge, possibly lucrative Chinese market for Arum and Pacquiao to sell the fights on pay per view to Chinese fans.
When asked what is Pacquiao’s weakness, Rios said to ESPN “Right now, I’d say it’s his chin. Let’s see if he can take a great shot now. Another one is him coming in too much.”
Pacquiao doesn’t have any other choice but to come in, because that’s his style of fighting. His trainer Freddie Roach has Pacquiao fighting using an in and out type of attack, and that approach leads to Pacquiao getting nailed when he does come forward.
If Roach want to change Pacquiao’s style by having stand in the pocket, then he won’t be as quite vulnerable to walking into shots. But at this point, I don’t think it would be wise at all for Pacquiao to be standing in front of any fighter, especially one with good power like Rios. That’s a knockout waiting to happen for Pacquiao.
Arum appears to have picked out Rios because he’s the type of opponent that Pacquiao matches up well against. Arum obviously put this fight together I order to see Pacquiao get beaten again. Arum can’t have his number 1 stable fighter getting beaten over and over, because it could hurt his revenue stream both in the U.S and in China. But at the same time, I think Arum made a huge mistake of picking Rios for Pacquiao to fight.
The timing of this fight is bad to say the least for Pacquiao. Rios would have been perfect in 2009 when Pacquiao was at the top of his game, but now after Pacuqiao is coming off of a knockout loss to Marquez. Pacquiao is about to hit 35 in December, and he’s really starting to show his age now. I think Arum might be kicking himself after this fight for having put Pacquiao in with the dangerous Rios.
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