By Chris Williams: Marcos Maidana is giving Brandon Rios (31-1-1, 23 KO’s) an excellent shot of beating Filipino fighter Manny Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KO’s) in their fight this month on November 23rd in Macao, China. Maidana likes the youth factor that Rios has on his side in this fight, and he also has doubts about whether Pacquiao will be the same fighter he once was after the way that he was brutally knocked out by Juan Manuel Marquez last December.
Pacquiao has been out of the ring since that fight, but Maidana still questions whether he’ll be the same fighter he once was when he starts getting nailed by Rios.
Maidana told Hustleboss this about whether Pacquiao’s knockout loss to Marquez could affect him against Rios: “You know, possibly. It could definitely hurt him. It was one of those knockouts that it’s very hard to recover from. It could probably be a factor.”
Maidana says it’ll “probably” be something that will factor into this fight. That’s not for Pacquiao if he can’t handle getting hit by Rios’ hard shots, because Pacquiao is already about to turn 35, and having issues with leg cramps in some of his fights. If you also have Pacquiao having problems dealing with Rios’ power then he could be in a situation where he won’t have any way of escaping from Rios. Pacquiao’s legs are the one things that could save him in this fight to keep him from having to eat Rios’ huge power shots to the head. But if Pacquiao is cramping up and forced to stand and fight it out, we could see him quickly finished off by the younger 27-year-old Rios.
This could be ugly for Pacquiao if he’s forced to fight it out in a “last stand” type of scenario because you don’t want him to be taking hard shots to the head for 12 rounds from a slugger like Rios. That’s a recipe for disaster for Pacquiao. Rios is capable of punching with just as much power as Marquez, but with every punch he throws rather than him having to load up to find that kind of power like Marquez.
Maidana acknowledges that Pacquiao will have a big advantage in speed over Rios, but he feels that Rios’ youth will balance out the speed of Pacquiao with his ability to keep coming forward to pressure him. That’ll force Pacquiao to move more and more to keep from getting hit hard by Rios. The more Pacquiao moves the greater the chances are that he’ll develop leg cramps that will force him to become stationary. It won’t be good for Pacquiao if he’s forced to stand still and trade with Rios. I would favor Pacquiao in a battle like that if this fight were to have taken place in 2008-2009, but not at the tail end of 2013. Things have changed with Pacquiao in terms of him getting older.
Pacquiao might be better off going after Rios in an all out charge in the first 5 rounds to see if he can get to him before his legs give out and he becomes stationary. It might be Pacquiao’s best chance of winning. The longer the fight goes the better the chances are that Rios will eventually get to Pacquiao and knock him out with a head shot.
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