Algieri sees Mayweather as too skillful for Pacquiao

By Boxing News - 04/01/2015 - Comments

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By Chris Williams: Former WBO light welterweight champion Chris Algieri is picking Floyd Mayweather Jr (47-0, 26 KOs) to beat Manny Pacquiao on May 2nd. Algieri was recently beaten by Pacquiao last November in a one-sided fight. But Algieri still feels that Mayweather is the far better fighter than the 36-year-old Pacquiao, and he sees him being able to take advantage of Pacquiao’s tendency to make a lot of mistakes in his fight.

Algieri notes that the things that makes Pacquiao so good – his aggressiveness and constant attacking – are things that are going to lead to Mayweather having a field day in counter-punching Pacquiao silly at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Algieri says Mayweather doesn’t make mistakes, and he’s going to have plenty of opportunities to land his counter shots against an aggressive Pacquiao, who will fight Mayweather like he does all his opponents by jumping in at him from different angles.

“I don’t think it’s Floyd’s defense that will be the difference, but his counterpunching,” Algieri said via ESPN. “I think that’s where the problems come from. I think if he Floyd tried to stand in front of him and shoulder-roll defense then he’s going to get hit. Pacquiao’s punches come from very strange angles. It’s not so much that you can’t see them, it’s more of you just don’t expect them to be coming from that angle and still be able to generate power. Because sometimes you’re in a position where you know a guy can’t hit hard with that hand so there’s less of a danger. Pacquiao’s not that guy. He’s dangerous from positions where you wouldn’t think he would be. So, if Floyd tries to stand there and kind of pick shots off, Pacquiao’s speed and punching variation will present a lot of problems, but I don’t think it’s going to get to that. I think Floyd’s ability to counterpuncher from the outside is going to be the difference.”

Algieri does give Pacquiao a chance of winning the fight if and if Mayweather grows old overnight. Algieri says he spotted some deterioration in Mayweather’s game in his last two fights against Marcos Maidana, and he feels that Pacquiao could have a good chance of winning the fight if Mayweather loses more from his game. The question is will Mayweather age enough from last September for Pacquiao to beat him? That’s only eight months.

I’m not sure that Mayweather will lose anything from his game in that short of a time frame, and the Mayweather that defeated Maidana last September, will have a good chance of beating Pacquiao. He might even pitch a shutout. He totally dominated Maidana the last time out to the point where he arguably won ever round of the fight. Fighting a guy smaller, weaker and with a shorter reach than Maidana, I think it might be really easy for Mayweather on May 2nd. Maidana’s a lot bigger and stronger than Pacquiao, and Mayweather was able to handle Maidana with ease last September.

“Stylistically, I still see Floyd winning this fight,” Algieri said. “It’s about the way the styles match-up. This is boxing and it’s about styles. For me, Floyd’s style is the perfect fit to beat Pacquiao. Floyd doesn’t make mistakes, Pacquiao still does. Even in the fight with me, opportunities were there. He makes up for that at certain times with his explosiveness and tenacity, punching power and speed. But those things I don’t see overwhelming Floyd. He has an eye for seeing the perfect time for counters. His [Mayweather] is super tight, as well all know. Floyd isn’t necessarily going to be trading with Pacquiao kind of like Marquez if he was in there. Marquez was also there to be hit, and he got hit quite a bit every time he fought Pacquiao. There was no fight where he came out unscathed. He got dropped multiple times, cuts, broken noses, and wobbled throughout all the fights. I don’t see Floyd standing there to trade and get hit by him. I see Floyd using his superior length coupled with his speed to counter punch effectively from the outside. I believe Mayweather is the bigger man coupled with speed and punching power.”

Mayweather definitely won’t be fighting Pacquiao in the same manner that Marquez did. In the four Marquez-Pacquiao fights, Marquez was always standing directly in front of Pacquiao looking to make him pay for each punch he threw. Marquez frequently waited for Pacquiao to get his shots off first before he came with something in return. Marquez was rarely first with his punches.

Mayweather isn’t that kind of fighter. He likes to be first with his shots, and he doesn’t wait for his opponent to throw something before he responds with shots of his own. To be sure, Mayweather will respond with counter shots after his opponents throw a punch, but he’s limited to waiting for them to throw something first like Marquez is. Mayweather will make sure that he catches Pacquiao with hard punches each time he charges him like a little bull with his head lowered.

If Pacquiao does that against Mayweather on May 2nd, then Mayweather is going to hit him with perfectly timed shots while he’s coming forward, and that’s going to make Mayweather’s power even more devastating than it already is. It would be surprised if Mayweather scores some knockdowns and maybe even knocks Pacquiao clean out if he fights him like that. Pacquiao is going to need to show that he can learn from the fight by backing off and boxing Mayweather for him to avoid getting hurt in this fight.

The Mayweather-Pacquiao fight will give boxing fans a chance to see how smart Pacquiao is as a fighter. If he’s intelligent, he’ll not rush forward in the attack mode like he always does. Mayweather is going to punish Pacquiao each time he tries that trick. The only question is will Pacquiao learn from the punishment that he gets from Mayweather, or will he be slow on the uptake and keep fighting with the same reckless style the entire fight.



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