By Chris Williams: When Manny Pacquiao enters the ring on May 2nd at what could be a completely empty MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada to face Floyd Mayweather Jr., Pacquiao is going to be the much smaller fighter in terms of height and reach.
Mayweather, 5’8”, will be coming into the fight with a two inch height and a whopping six inch reach advantage over the 5’6” Pacquiao. For some reason Pacquiao doesn’t see this as being a disadvantage for him.
Pacquiao believes that because he was able to beat taller fighters in the past like the 5’11” Antonio Margarito, 5’10” Chris Algieri and the 5’10” Oscar De La Hoya, then he’ll be able to beat Mayweather as well.
“I’m not thinking about bigger or taller. I’m used to it,” Pacquiao said to the media on Monday. “I’ve been fighting with taller guys like [Antonio] Margarito. He’s 5’11”. [Oscar] De La Hoya, [Chris] Algieri; I’m used to it. The legacy achieved in boxing is already there,” Pacquiao said.
If Pacquiao isn’t concerned with Mayweather being the bigger guy in this fight then he should be concerned because Mayweather knows how to use his size advantage. There’s a huge difference between Mayweather and a slow, plodding fighter like Margarito. There’s a huge difference between Mayweather and the weight drained and starved De La Hoya that fought Pacquiao. De La Hoya only has himself to blame for not using his greater clout to get Pacquiao to move up in weight to 154 when they fought each other in 2008 rather than them moving down in weight to 147.
Yes, Pacquiao has beaten taller fighters before but he’s not beaten anyone close to having the same kind of talent that Mayweather possesses. It was just wrong that De La Hoya agreed to weight drain himself by going down to 147 to fight Pacquiao rather than insisting that Pacquiao come up to 154. That was a really dumb move by De La Hoya to agree to that.
Algieri is just some slow guy with little power who really had no business in the ring with Pacquiao. There are arguably better fighters for Pacquiao to fight than Algieri, hyet they sided with Algieri to use him and it was a dull mismatch with Pacquiao beating Algieri easily.
Pacquiao is going to need to try and solve Mayweather’s height advantage somehow because if he can’t do it then it’s going to be an easy fight for Mayweather on May 2nd when he gets Pacquiao inside the MGM Grand in LS Vegas, Nevada. Mayweather knows how to use his size, and he’s going to have an easy time with Pacquiao unless he shows that he’s a better fighter than the guy that defeated Margarito, Algieri and De La Hoya.
Pacquiao’s lack of height and reach is going to cause him to fight with more desperation than in his other fights against shorter guys. He’s going to need to jump in and jump out a lot for him to have a chance of winning the fight. It’s not a smart thing for a fighter to go on the attack against a talented fighter like Mayweather.
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