Malignaggi: Mayweather has too many weapons for Pacquiao

By Boxing News - 03/04/2015 - Comments

mayweather6778By Chris Williams: The going belief by a lot of boxing fans is that Manny Pacquiao, as good as he is, he lacks the ability to adapt like Floyd Mayweather Jr does, and he doesn’t have the same weaponry that the American superstar possesses.

This is something that former two division world champion Paulie Malignaggi also believes about Pacquiao. Malignaggi thinks that Pacquiao can’t adapt the same way that Mayweather can, and he doesn’t see Pacquiao as having enough weapons in his arsenal to compete with Mayweather.

It’s going to be difficult for Pacquiao to make any kind of adjustments because he fights the same way every time he gets in the ring. I’ve never seen Pacquiao fight any different than the way he always does. He’s got the same style where he feints and then comes forward with a jab before looking to throw a quick flurry of shots. It’s so predictable. That’s why Juan Manuel Marquez was able to get the better of Pacquiao in their four fights.

Marquez was able to accurately predict what Pacquiao would do on offense, and this made it easy for him to pick Pacquiao off with shots while he was coming forward. Marquez was also able to land counter shots each time Pacquiao would land a shot.

YouTube video

“I think Floyd has too many weapons for Manny. At the end of the day you can talk about ‘can Manny make this adjustment or that adjustment, and how motivated Manny is, but Manny Pacquiao is who he is, and he’s not going to change in the next two or three months,” Malignaggi said via Thaboxingvoice.com. “I just don’t think he’s varied enough to give Floyd much trouble.”

Malignaggi is right about Mayweather having too many weapons for Pacquiao to deal with. Mayweather is capable of landing shots from every angle. It doesn’t matter if he’s off balance, at close quarters or after he’s been hit. Mayweather is always able to come back with a shot that catches his opponents off guard.

For Pacquiao to be able to nullify what Mayweather does, he’s going to need to stay one step ahead of him every second of every round by constantly adapting to what Mayweather is doing. The problem that Pacquiao has is he’s not the type of fighter who thinks on his feet.

Pacquiao needs to be given instructions by his trainer Freddie Roach after every round so that he knows what to do in the next round, and even then, it’s not a sure thing that Pacquiao will follow the instructions to the letter.

It doesn’t help Pacquiao getting instructions after the rounds are over, because he needs to be able to adapt during the actual round. Some trainers are able to shout instructions during the actual rounds, but Roach isn’t one of them. His voice is too low, and he’s not able to bark the advice that Pacquiao needs for him to be able to adapt enough to nullify the things Mayweather is doing in the ring.

It’s unfortunate, but Pacquiao is going to be out there all by himself on an island on May 2nd against Mayweather. Unless Roach covers every possible thing that Mayweather can do in this fight so that Pacquiao doesn’t need to be given instruction in between rounds, I see Pacquiao having major problems against Mayweather.

“I hope that it is a great fight, but I don’t predict that it will be, I think Floyd wins it pretty handily, but we’ll see, we’ll see what happens,” Malignaggi said.

I have a feeling that this will be an easy fight for Mayweather. Malignaggi is right. I hope it’s a good fight, but I think Mayweather is going to end up clowning Pacquiao if he can’t make the correct changes to stop what he’s doing in the fight.



Comments are closed.