https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcrBfZAyIxo
By Edgar Perez: When you hear word coming out of someone’s camp about one guy knocking out all his sparring partners, that’s called propaganda. Sparring partners that cannot stand up to boxer in training camp are called useless.
The only thing that will determine if one boxer will respect another fighter’s power comes from what happens in the ring between the bells. We are glad to hear that Mayweather is training for power. Nobody believes for one minute that all of the sudden he is going to turn into Mike Tyson.
It only serves as a guarantee that Mayweather understands he will have to hold his ground against Pacquiao or get run right out of the ring. It makes perfect sense. Mayweather’s best chance to win, is to be Mayweather, not someone else. He is not a KO king he is simply the best at negating your best weapon but he can only operate if he has enough room to work. He used to make room with his legs but now he must find multiple ways to create space while putting his skills to work. In this fight against Pacquiao, multiple experts agree that Pacquiao’s volume punching presents a challenge to Mayweather that he has not often looked great against. As talented as Mayweather is, why hasn’t he looked better against high volume punchers?
The very few times that Mayweather has opened up, he has looked as good as anyone on offense. But he is not comfortable being an offensive fighter because in temperament he is a natural counter-puncher. Mayweather is used to waiting for opponents to punch in order to then counter punch them, while Pacquiao is used to punching with punchers. There is a difference between counter-punching and punching with punches, one comes from letting the offense work off of the defense, while the other one is using offense as defense.
Obviously, punching with punchers is a risky proposition as Pacquiao found out. Unfortunately for Mayweather he is going to have to find a way to slow down Pacquiao in this fight, or find himself punching with a puncher. One well placed counter-shot, even if it doesn’t drop him, might be enough to bring back memories for Pacquiao of the fourth Marquez fight, which is perhaps why Mayweather has a renewed interest in punching power. If he can’t use his legs as effectively anymore, then he will use more of his punching to try to discourage Pacquiao from rushing at him. One cannot count on being able to hurt the opponent, but one has to find a way to get respect.
The book is out on both Mayweather and Pacquiao. There are no secrets as to what each man is capable of in the ring. What sets apart the greats are their ability to do what they do, regardless if the opponent knows it is coming. Especially because they fight in very different styles, we will be able to tell whose type of fight it is early on.
When one guy does what he does, and is effective doing it, the other one can’t help but feel the pressure to change up what he is doing. It can really happen to either guy in this fight. It is most critical though, for Mayweather to impose his control over the pace of the fight, so that he not fall behind on the cards. If he were to fall behind, two factors come into play which are much more risky for him, getting hit more often while he is trying to walk Pacquiao down, and being tempted to throw for power one slow punch at a time, instead of throwing for speed or throwing combinations.
Pacquiao on the other hand has a greater margin for error in this fight. He can fall behind and not panic because he has a puncher’s mentality, regardless if some now want to dispute that he has any actual power left. A puncher’s mentality is about landing punches to hurt. A puncher’s mentality doesn’t keep score of the rounds but measures success by the damage he’s dealing.
Pacquiao wants to bring pain on Mayweather in this fight which will probably not show up on the scorecards. Make no mistake, Pacquiao is capable of winning a wide decision if Mayweather can’t keep Pacquiao’s output in check, but Pacquiao wants to do more than just win. He wants to do to Mayweather what Mayweather claims that he also wants to do to Pacquiao, knock him out. Unfortunately this fight will go the distance.
It is safe to anticipate the best Pacquiao that we have seen in years. Whether that will be enough for the victory remains to be seen. For better or for worse, expect to see vintage Mayweather in this fight, because he will not drastically change the formula that got him here, despite what you may hear coming out of his camp. He is committed to ensuring this fight looks as close to all his other fights as possible, with him controlling the action, or inaction. It will be a good fight, perhaps a bit too technical for the blood thirsty. But there will be more action than not, with perhaps a few moments of danger sprinkled in.
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