By Rusty Nate: There has been a fair bit of writing and commenting on the whole “boredom” that is Floyd Mayweather Jr vs. Manny Pacquiao recently. It is a subject that has raged for years and having watched Manny avenge the defeat to Tim Bradley and Mayweather comprehensively beat Marcos Maidana for a second time it has re-surfaced and once again the haters and lovers are in full force.
It appears to me personally that this fight will not happen although I do hold out hope that Floyd maybe thinking to himself quietly “what better way to end my career undefeated than by having my last ever fight be against Pacquiao.”
This of course is a long shot. I do not buy into the talk that Mayweather is scared or Pacquiao is scared or the money is a problem or the drugs thing blah blah blah. I believe that Bob Arum is the main reason that this fight has never happened. Mayweather and Top Rank promoter Bob Arum simply do not like each other and do not want to work together, at least Mayweather is honest about that where as Arum seems to change his tune whenever the press is likely to be better for him to do so. Nothing new there then.
Now don’t let the headline fool you all. I am not saying that Chris Algieri is a dangerous fight because he is a great fighter that Pac should be overly worried about. He isn’t the biggest puncher in the world, he doesn’t have a better counter punch ability than Juan Manuel Marquez and he certainly doesn’t have the judges vote as Bradley seems to have (regardless of performance).
What I am trying to say is that Pacquiao vs. Mayweather is still even now the biggest fight in boxing history from a money perspective that has not happened. The thing I find most dangerous about Pacquiao’s next fight is this.
Firstly Bradley did not win the first or second fight with Pacquiao from a fan point of view. He got the vote of the judges in a very very controversial decision. Pacquiao had Bradley in serious trouble several times and just failed to finish the job and in this sport failing to finish a beaten fighter is all it takes to lose a fight sometimes.
Secondly against Marquez, Pacquiao was caught flush on the chin with a very big counter punch. Pacquiao got Ko’d and that can happen to anyone in the world if the timing is right. Until that point Pacquiao was again winning the fight and some even think he was getting close to forcing a stoppage. Personally I am not so sure, but he was certainly not being battered or schooled until that point.
Algieri doesn’t have a big enough punch or the right kind of style to KO Pacquiao. However, he is a good fighter who is incredibly difficult to hit, very tall and rangy for his weight and he makes the most of his style. If Pacquiao is not careful and calculated about his approach to this fight then he could find him self comprehensively OUT BOXED!! And that is the word that is most dangerous for Pacquiao’s future and a potential Mayweather mega fight.
At the moment there are still divided people that believe Pacquiao could cause Mayweather all kinds of problems with his come forward attacking style, hand speed and punching power when he lands cleanly. If Algieri manages to cruise his way to a 12 round decision by avoiding Manny’s combinations and fast punching then all of those dividers in the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao debate suddenly disappear and the fight loses all possible interest. It would almost be better for Pacquiao to be KO’d by a “lucky Punch” than to be completely out boxed by a relatively unknown, yet decent, fighter.
I can understand why Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach maybe didn’t want this fight for Pacquiao. I will be watching with interest.
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