(Photo credit: Stephanie Trapp/Mayweather Promotions) By Chris Williams: WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman sees the mega-fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao being a situation where Mayweather can win it anyway he wants against the Filipino star. In other words, Mayweather can decide how he wants to win – whether it be by a competitive bout or one-sided with him not being touched.
Thurman believes that it’ll be Mayweather who will decide how close he wants the fight. If he goes into the bout wanting to completely shutout Pacquiao, then he’ll do it easily.
Pacquiao is just notch on Mayweather’s incredible resume. He’ll be win No.48 for Mayweather as he marches forward heading towards the 50-0 mark.
Thurman does think there’s a lot of things that the 36-year-old Pacquiao can do in the fight to make it an interesting fight. Thurman has all kinds of advice for Pacquiao to follow, but unfortunately pretty much all of the advice is predicated on a fight in which Mayweather is fighting with his back against the ropes like he did in his first bout with Marcos Maidana.
If Mayweather doesn’t fight like that, which Thurman thinks he won’t, then Pacquiao isn’t going to have much of any chance at winning the fight. Pacquiao’s chance in the fight rests on whether Mayweather fights off the ropes or not.
“How does Floyd want to win? If Floyd wants to win hands-down, he’s going to win hands down,” Thurman said via esnewsporting.com. “If Floyd wants to make it controversial, he’ll make it controversial. If Floyd wants to not get touched, he won’t get touched. He’s not going to be on the ropes. He’s not going to give Manny Pacquiao a shot. Manny’s going to have to work for everything come May 2nd.”
I hate to say it but I think Thurman is totally correct with his views on the fight. Mayweather will be in total command on May 2nd in fighting a shorter fighter with a reckless fighting style.
Pacquiao doesn’t have the skills to be competitive with Mayweather unless Mayweather wants him to. This means that unless Mayweather gives Pacquiao a big handicap like the ones that Mayweather gave Maidana and Miguel Cotto, Pacquiao is going to get totally embarrassed in this fight.
“What I’d really like to see from Manny Pacquiao is come awkward overhand right hooks and left uppercuts because sometimes when you get Floyd on the ropes he likes to duck down to his right, if he ducks down to his right, Manny can come with an uppercut. I think it’s going to be in Manny Pacquiao’s favor to throw as many feints as possible when Floyd is on the ropes.”’
This is based on if Mayweather gives Pacquiao a huge handicap by retreating to the ropes so that Pacquiao can have a chance in the fight. Thurman doesn’t believe for a second that Mayweather is going to fight with his back against the ropes, because he’s not going to want to take any chances with Pacquiao.
Mayweather can’t take chances in this fight, because there will be too much of a risk that he could find himself in the same situation as Juan Manuel Marquez when he was arguably robbed by the judges in his first three fights with Pacquiao. That’s why I don’t see Mayweather taking his foot off the gas pedal by him staying on the move, and keeping the action in the center of the ring rather than the ropes.
I really don’t think Pacquiao has a chance even if Mayweather stays against the ropes the entire fight like he did against Maidana in their first fight. Mayweather will pick Pacquiao apart if he stays against the ropes and likely knock him out cold by catching Pacquiao in the face as he’s doing one of his charges forward.
Pacquiao squares himself to his opponents all the time when he’s on the attack, making himself an easy target for punches. Even though Pacquiao likes to move his head from side to side, he’s still very easy to hit because he doesn’t move his head very much. He moves it a little it’s easy to catch him with shots, especially now that he’s slowed down a lot due to age.
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