By The Prince
I will break down Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao’s attributes unbiasedly and give my prediction on how an outcome between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao will be using each fighters strengths and weaknesses.
Manny Pacquiao
Strengths – Tenacity, High volume work rate with endurance, good speed of hand and foot, unorthodox footwork, high punch resistance, decent punching power, accurate combination punches, strong will to win and high pain threshold — will fight through pain if hurt.
Weaknesses – Lack of head movement, doesn’t know how to fight backing up, gets overaggressive with his punches and leaves himself wide open after exchanges, doesn’t know how to avoid the right hand or sharp jabs, not a good inside fighter.
Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Strengths – High ring IQ and knows how to adapt to any style, fast hands and feet, great defense, great timing and counter punch accuracy, great footwork, great stamina, great chin, doesn’t waste punches, patient and composed doesn’t let the boo’s get to him if fight gets boring.
Weaknesses – Brittle hands which is the main reason his punch output is low, tendency to get caught with an overhand right or counter hook when jabbing to the body, susceptible to jabs while in the Philly shell defense, has trouble with southpaws.
Floyd Mayweather vs Manny Pacquiao and what each fighter needs to do to win
In order for Floyd Mayweather to win:
For Floyd Mayweather to win he needs to weather Pacman’s early blitz and figure out Pacquiao’s rhythm. Floyd must avoid getting into exchanges with Manny because one thing that Manny has over his opponents are his short hard counters in exchanges — Manny likes to counter when guys become aggressive and attack him, he hurts them this way. If Manny gets in close clinch and tie him up to wear him down and avoided hits. Never stay on the ropes with Manny because he can sneaky punches threw the guard and never gets tired of throwing heavy punches. Floyd has to use his jab and footwork against Manny, he has to throw with hard counters once in a while to gain Pacquiao’s respect and keep him at a distance. Floyd must avoid throwing those jabs to the body because Pacquiao has a heavy righthook called “The Manila Ice”.
Two YouTube video clips of Floyd Mayweather getting hit with counter right hands from southpaws:
Floyd Versus Demarcus “Chop Chop” Corely
Floyd Versus Zab Judah
In order for Manny Pacquiao to win:
Manny needs to fight the same way he fought Oscar De La Hoya, get in get out, or throw unpredictable punches like his lead left and right hook combo. Make sure to step to Mayweather’s side after throwing punches to avoid a counter. Manny needs to use affective aggression and not get wild with his shots. Manny knows how to close the distance with his footwork against men with longer reach, he has to close the distance and keep his workrate high against Floyd maybe catching Floyd with a sneaky shot that he doesn’t see. Go to Floyd’s body early to take his legs away and mix up the attack from body to head punches, keep Floyd guessing.
Manny must fight the same way he fought Oscar De La Hoya
My prediction for Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao:
This is a tough one to predict. I can’t make a solid prediction because somedays I see Mayweather schooling Manny and somedays after re-watching tapes of Manny Pacquiao I can see Manny winning. Both guys have the style that can beat each other and this is why people are clamoring for this fight.
If Floyd can keep his distance and make it a very tactical fight and get on his bike while countering off of the back foot he can beat Manny Pacquiao on points, I don’t see him hurting Manny, I think Floyd has to be really careful in this fight because if he breaks his hands, he will be dead meat against Manny especially if Manny knows you are hurt, he is like a lion attacking his prey.
If Manny Pacquiao brings the heat and attacks Floyd with heavy power combos to his arms, shoulders, body etc, gets in and gets out, and keeps Floyd guessing he could eventually catch Floyd in the later rounds getting a stoppage and all that punishment to the arms and body will make Floyds arms and legs heavy which will break his defense giving Manny an easier time to sneak punches in.
The only answer I can really give is…the boxer who use his strategy effectively wins.
*Please refrain from leaving any Racist, Profane or Derogatory comments*
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