By Chris Willaims: Nonito Donaire (32-2, 21 KO’s) agrees that WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 KO’s) will be much better off if he moves down to 140lbs to campaign as a welterweight. Pacquiao hasn’t knocked out an opponent in 5 years while fighting in the welterweight division, and he’s being forced to go the full distance for each of his wins.
As we saw in his recent win over the Tim Bradley, even the light-hitting Bradley was able to stagger Pacquiao in the welterweight division. What happens when Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum gets around to matching him against a welterweight that can actually punch?
“I think it’s the best decision for him [Pacquiao],” Donaire said. He’ll be faster, he’ll be stronger, and he will knock people out.”
Pacquiao knocked out Ricky Hatton in 2 rounds while fighting in the light welterweight division in their fight in 2009. But in moving up to welterweight, Pacquiao has only knocked out Miguel Cotto and a weight drained Oscar De La Hoya.
Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach was the first to say that he thinks Pacquiao should move down in weight to 140. Roach is certain that by having the 35-year-old Pacquiao move down in weight, the knockouts will suddenly reappear for him and he’ll be looking like the Pacquiao from 5-10 years ago. Of course, we might just find out that it doesn’t matter which weight class Pacquiao fights in, he’s no longer capable of fighting at a sustained pace anymore to get the knockouts. We also might find out that Pacquiao can get hurt by light welterweights just like he’s getting hurt by welterweights.
It’s likely that we won’t see any real difference with Pacquiao if he moves down in weight. The only difference is that he’ll be fighting guys like Ruslan Provodnikov, Raymundo Beltran and Terence Crawford instead of rematch after rematch against Juan Manuel Marquez and Bradley. When a fighter gets old they often start having problems scoring knockouts. The knockouts dry up like water from a well, and they find themselves having to fight the full distance to get their wins. This in turns causes them to take more punishment because their fights aren’t ending quickly like they used to.
Donaire will be fighting next month on May 31st against WBA featherweight champion Simpiwe Vetyeka (26-2, 16 KO’s) at the Cotai Arena, Venetian Resort, Macao, Macao S.A.R.
The 33-year-old Vetyeka has losses to Hozumi Hasegawa and Klaas Mboyane in the past. This might be Donaire’s only real chance of winning a title at featherweight because the other featherweight champions are arguably a lot better than Vetyeka. If Donaire can’t beat this guy then he might as well go on a diet and go back down to the super bantamweight division to resume fighting in that weight class.
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