By Donnell Young: Let me begin this article with one statement that is straight to the point. Manny Pacquiao is a higher level of fighter than Brandon Rios. Bob Arum has done a wonderful job of matching Manny with an opponent that will make him look like the Manny of old.
The fighter that we all tuned in to see demolish the guy fighting out of the opposite corner. Speaking of which, I am not so sure that Manny is as washed up as so many seem to believe. He was clearly robbed of a decision against Timothy Bradley so Bob Arum could hopefully use Bradley as his next cash cow.
We all know that didn’t happen. Then he was knocked out by Marquez. This was not a surprise to me because they had already fought three times. Anytime you beat a fighter as skilled as Marquez two out of three times, there is no reason to fight him again. At that point, he knows your style and rhythm and will catch you at some point and time, which he did.
Just for the record, there aren’t too many fighters who would have walked through such a flush punch. Back to the topic at hand, in what world is Brandon Rios a threat to Pacquiao? I am not even a diehard Manny fan, but I am a boxing fan who calls it the way I see it.
If you are one of the people that think Rios will be a problem for Pacquiao, I hate to say it, but keep dreaming. Are we talking about the same Brandon Rios that was just out boxed by Mike Alvarado? Not to mention the fact that Alvarado was easily out boxing Rios in their first fight as well before he attempted to slug it out and was knocked out.
No offense to Alvarado, but he is not a heavy hitting welterweight. He is however, a damn good light welterweight that has pretty good boxing skills. Also, he exposed Rios as a slugger that has little ability to adapt to different styles. Rios wants to slug and has to slug in order to be a successful fighter. It doesn’t seem as if he has any grasp of what the sweet science is all about.
At the same time, I’m not so sure that Manny has mastered the sweet science either. This can be largely attributed to the training of Freddie Roach. At this stage of the game, the only excuse Manny can have for lacking defense and a sound fighting style is his trainer. Pac man has decent movement and an awkward fighting style that can give any opponent problems, but he is reckless most of the time.
We can probably credit this to what Roach has been teaching him over the past few years, a style that is heavily geared towards offense. The same can be said about Amir Khan, who Roach led to two losses that should have been easy wins against Lamont Peterson and Danny Garcia respectively, but that is a different story for a different day. These defects are the main reason I am not a huge Pacquiao fan.
Manny always has trouble with good boxers that have good movement. That being said, Rios is the exact opposite of the type of fighter that can give Pacquiao problems. Manny has more than shown the ability to brutalize opponents that have bricks for feet. Any serious boxing aficionado already knows how this fight will play out. Manny will hit Rios with flush power shots when he wants to and will be gone before Rios has a chance to retaliate. Watch Pacquiao’s fights against Margarito and Clottey and you will see no difference in how the Rios fight will end.
If you haven’t seen Rios fight, I will give you a brief description of how he performs in the ring. He comes forward without much head movement and takes punches in order to get in close. Once he gets in close, he is a very effective slugger with good punching power for the 135-140lb divisions. The only problem is that he is fighting Pacquiao at 147. A weight that Pac man is accustomed to while Rios has never fought at such a high weight.
The bottom line is that I don’t believe Manny is washed up and I feel sorry for Brandon Rios for being the one that Pacquiao uses to show the entire boxing world just that. This bout will be a massacre and Rios, along with his trainer, Robert Garcia, will be eating their words at the conclusion of this one.
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