By Chris Williams: If there’s one fighter who has consistently gotten the better of Manny Pacquiao throughout his pro career it is Juan Manuel Marquez. He’s had four fights with Pacquiao and seemingly gotten the better of him in all four fights despite the judges in Las Vegas not giving Marquez the victory in the first three fights.
Marquez thinks Pacquiao is going to have a lot of problems with Floyd Mayweather Jr. on Saturday night in their HBO/Showtime pay-per-view fight from the MGM Grand. Marquez feels that Mayweather’s defense is going to make it tough on Manny to get anything going in this fight with his offense.
Pacquiao needs a guy that is there for him to hit in order to succeed, and Mayweather isn’t that type of a fighter. He’s someone that makes you miss and then pays you back with shots to the head and body.
Mayweather is especially good against sloppy/reckless fighters that leave themselves open by not thinking clearly. Some would say that describes how Pacquiao fights.
“Mayweather has the defense. He has the difficult defense,” Marquez said via Fighthype. “He uses his counter punching very well. He uses his distance. He’s a great fighter. It’s a difficult fight for Manny. He [Mayweather] has a difficult style. Mayweather has great defense. Mayweather has the perfect style to win this fight. If Manny wins, it’s better for me. My heart is for Pacquiao,” Marquez said.
It is definitely a fact that Mayweather has a near impregnable defensive shell. What makes him even better as a fighter is his mobility. If he faces someone who has a lot of power or who throws a lot of shots, Mayweather will use movement to keep his opponent from being able to get off shots. His opponent is reduced that of a loaded cannon with no target to shoot his shots off at. That’s the one thing that tons of boxing fans and writers are failing to realize about the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight.
It doesn’t matter how many punches that Pacquiao is capable of throwing per round in this fight, if he doesn’t have a stationary target to get his punches off, he’s not going to do well. Pacquiao isn’t a body puncher and never has been. This means that if he can’t land his head shots in this fight, then he’s going to be out of luck with no real chance of winning.
“I think Mayweather is better than Pacquiao,” Marquez said.
In explaining how he got the better of Pacquiao in their four fights, Marquez said “I moved my body all the time and I used my speed.”
Mayweather will definitely be using a lot of movement and a lot of speed against Pacquiao. Marquez was moving slowly in circles around Pacquiao, but he would come forward quickly with hard shots. Pacquiao would fire back at him, but Marquez was always the guy that finished the exchanges with the harder shots. It was an exclamation point each time the two of them would exchange. Mayweather is more than capable of doing the same thing that Marquez did against Pacquiao.
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