After the convincing defeat by Mayweather of Mosley, the next that the world want to see is the clash of Pacquiao and Mayweather.
After the fight with Mosley, Mayweather was interviewed by Larry Merchant, Mayweather has tried to mimic Pacquiao of what to say, when he said that his victory, he owed it to God. Can you believe that?
Was it not a reconciliatory gesture and as if there was a message that he wanted to relay that he is not that difficult anymore to deal with? He sounded too forgiving by dragging the name of God.
Does it meant that he is not that rigid in his stance anymore and he is now ready to give in his demands to Pacquiao that blood testing should not be taken 14 days before the scheduled fight as what Pacquiao counter suggested?
That’s the only obstacle that have been seen so far. If this so, it is not remote distant that the clash head on of the two best boxers of the planet will push through.
It could be an interesting and exciting match up between two people of contrasting style. In his fight with Pacquiao, for sure Mayweather will employ his usual bankable strategy the hit and run and the counter punching that he is best at, to win this fight.
Mayweather will not do of what he has done to Mosley as an aggressor, it would spell disaster for Mayweather to fight toe to toe with Pacquiao.
The blueprint that he is going to initiate that he should win on points in every round in the judges score card even if how boring it shall be. He would maintain his side to side movement throwing a lot of jabs while backtracking, weaving and at the same time, evading to be caught by the damaging effects of Pacquiao’s punches. He will not surely do what a Cotto nor a Clottey has done when they fought Pacquiao.
He picked Marquez as his opponent to show to the world that of what Pacquiao has failed to do with Marquez , he was able to do it with ease. Whatever his intention was to say the least, it can be quite misleading.
The truth to the matter is that his willingness to squander a huge amount of $600,000 for his two pounds extra baggage was intentional to be assured of winning the fight with Marquez.
The effect that it has brought to Marquez physical conditioning due to his abrupt jump from lightweight to welterweight had put Marquez in the disadvantage position and also contributed to its costly toll in his fight with Mayweather.
Putting some weight about ten pounds or more and expect to retain his effectiveness without being sluggish is wishful optimism.
Definitely, the Mayweather-Marquez fight cannot be compared to Pacquiao-Marquez bout which the latter fought at their natural weights. Besides, when it come to style, Mayweather and Marquez are both good counter punchers at their own right but lest to say that Mayweather is much better than Marquez in this department.
No wonder when both engaged each other Mayweather was at a very clear advantage. It was perhaps in this situationer that most boxing analysts chose Mayweather to prevail against Pacquiao if ever they fight. There are some truth to their assessment though, if we compare Pacquiao of four years ago, when he fought Marquez.
It was evident that Pacquiao being an offensive fighter, has difficulty to thwart off the counter punching style of Marquez that almost cost his defeat in the judges scorecard.
Pacquiao seemed to get off balance if he throws a punch and immediately a counter punch is thrown at him by Marquez. The style seemed to be the antidote of Pacquiao’s offensive style. That was Pacquiao four years ago.
However, the Pacquiao of yesterday is incomparable to the Pacquiao of today. There was a tremendous improvement of Pacquiao’s ability as a fighter in a four year span since he last fought Marquez.
His right hand power has fully developed into bankable firepower the same as his left hand, he has already demonstrated that to Hatton sending him to dreamland.
He is much quicker than he was at the lower weights and he can throw a barrage of punches at weird angles and the opponent seemed not to know where it came from.
He is now so skillful that he can now handle counter punchers with ease. It is clearly evident in his fight with Cotto and Clottey, who are both good counter punchers.
There was also some doubts of Pacquiao’s chin and taking a punch from legitimate welterweight fighters, and Pacquiao proved them wrong when he engaged with them into a rope a dope ala Ali style in the ring in his clash with Cotto and Clottey.
What is amazing with Pacquiao, he is always an improved version whenever he fights a new opponent and his learning curve never stops.
If we compare Mayweather’s background against Pacquiao as a fighter, Mayweather has the upper hand to wit:
Mayweather was an Olympic bronze medalist, Pacquiao has never been a contender even in the national level . Mayweather has a good amateur fight record with only 5 losses, Pacquiao has none to speak of except those prizefight tournaments he participated for a living.
Mayweather comes from a well known boxing family who trains him of what he is now, Pacquiao comes from a poor family and boxing serve as his hope and inspiration to be bailed out from poverty.
Mayweather trains with all the amenities provided in their family gym, Pacquiao has to contend with the banana stalk in his backyard as his punching bag and a pair of slippers as his jogging shoes.
Mayweather has a physical conditioning coach to put him in shape while Pacquiao has none and that cost him dearly in his early two defeats in his professional fight. Mayweather is a trash talker, Pacquiao remains humble as he is with few words.
Mayweather opt to fight good small guys, Pacquiao has fought good big guys which Mayweather has avoided to fight. Mayweather ducks a fighter if his chance of winning is nil, Pacquiao fights whatever laid on his table.
On the other hand if we compare Pacquiao’s skill against Mayweather as a fighter, in the contrary Pacquiao has the upper hand to wit:
Pacquaio by nature is a warrior, his explosiveness in the ring is too much for Mayweather to handle. Mayweather has difficulty in handling southpaw, Pacquiao can create him problems more than Mayweather can imagine.
Pacquiao is much quicker than Mayweather, and Pacquiao demonstrated this in his fights with Cotto and Clottey where at the later rounds his speed has not diminished. In his recent exploits Pacquiao fought good younger fighters compared to Mayweather good older fighters.
Mayweather has not fought a fighter like Pacquiao whose both hands are firepower. Mayweather defensive style cannot help him if he will be hit in succession by a bulk of hard punches of both hands by Pacquiao. His hit and run strategy can not help him either, he can easily be cut by Pacquiao who always be in the offensive until he is subdued.
Pacquiao has the chin to absorb punches but for Mayweather a big right hand from Mosley has almost put him down. If it was Pacquiao in Mosley’s shoes Mayweather might have gone to dreamland as what Pacquiao did to Hatton.
