By Jim Dower: There is a lot of debate between boxing fans about who the better fighter is between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao in terms of their overall skill-set.
While some fans believe that Pacquiao has the better skills, others swear that Mayweather is head and shoulders above the 36-year-old Pacquiao in every department including intelligence in the ring.
Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach doesn’t see it as a contest at all as far as the skills go in this fight. Roach simply believes that Pacquiao is faster, stronger, younger and with the better game plan to win the fight than Mayweather. We can agree right from the start that Pacquiao is slightly younger than the 38-year-old Mayweather, but whether that means that he’ll be the younger fighter this Saturday night on May 2nd is the big question.
“Floyd’s never fought anyone with better speed than [Pacquiao] has, and I believe we have better speed,” Roach told ESPN.com. “I believe we have better power than he has, and we’re using that. I don’t think Floyd’s legs are there anymore, and he can’t run for 12 rounds because we will catch him on the way.”
I don’t think anyone disagrees with Roach about Mayweather’s legs not being the same as they once where a decade or more ago. He’s been fighting as a pro for 19 years, and he’s pushing 40-years-old. It doesn’t make sense for a fighter that old to be still moving around like he did when he was in his 20s. Mayweather clearly has slowed down. What percentage you want to put on that is up to interpretation. My guess is Mayweather has lost 30% of his mobility in his legs. While that’s a significant amount of legs speed for a fighter to lose, I’m not sure that it will be enough to keep him from being mobile on Saturday night when he faces Pacquiao at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. In Mayweather’s last fight against Marcos Maidana last September, we saw that Mayweather was able to move for three minutes of every round for the full 12 rounds of the fight. Roach hasn’t commented on that, but it’s pretty clear that Mayweather is still able to move as much as he has to in order to avoid a pressure fighter.
“We’re ready to go 12 hard rounds and that’s what we train for,” Roach said. “I think we can win a decision. We can outpoint him, no problem.”
Winning a decision against Mayweather is going to require that Mayweather get involved in a lot of exchanges against Pacquiao. I don’t know that’s possible for Pacquiao to win a decision against Mayweather if he uses a lot of movement on Saturday night because Mayweather is so good at picking off desperate fighters that are looking to hit him on the run.
Mayweather has the reach, timing and the pinpoint accuracy to pick Pacquiao off with shots while he’s on the run. I don’t think that’s going to work out for Pacquiao and Roach if Mayweather moves for 12 rounds. They obviously need him to stay still like most of the guys that Pacquiao has fought during the past six years. Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum has pretty much matched him against a certain type of fighter during the last part of his career as he’s aged, and Mayweather is a much different type of guy than what we’ve seen in the ring with Pacquiao.
“I learned a lot from Floyd’s fight with Oscar De La Hoya,” said Roach, who trained De La Hoya for the bout. “I thought [De La Hoya] won the first six rounds and then lost track of the strategy. We learned a lot about how Floyd sets traps, and Manny recognizes how he sets traps. He won’t fall into it ever, and Manny knows exactly what to do in every situation.”
There are too many traps that Mayweather sets for Pacquiao and Roach to be ready for every situation. It’s good that Roach feels that Pacquiao will be ready for every situation but not realistic. I don’t think he will be ready for every situation. It’s not possible to be ready for every situation against a chess player like Mayweather.
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