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During the second round of his last fight, Floyd Mayweather was caught with two big shots from Shane Mosley. Both clearly rattled Mayweather, and even appeared to buckle the legs of the five weight champion.
After this early success, Shane Mosley went on to barely land a glove on Mayweather, who dominated every round from then on.
Where Mosley faltered and landed single big shots on Mayweather though, would a different fighter have been able to capitalize on landing clean on the man they call Money?
Where Mosley in recent welterweight appearances has been someone who grinds down his opponents rather than putting together big combinations, Manny Pacquiao has remained as aggressive as ever, and has had little trouble with any of his recent opponents.
The one weakness Floyd Mayweather has had throughout his career is that he takes a couple of rounds to figure out his opponent. Where most fighters study tape of their opponent for weeks before they meet them in the ring, Mayweather says he goes in blind and figures out his opponent when he gets in there. For the first couple of rounds, until he has his opponents timing down, Mayweather is hittable, which is exactly what we saw against Mosley.
After the initial feeling out process for Mayweather though where he often sacrifices a couple of rounds, he usually dominates the rest of the fight, again as we saw against Mosley. Against someone more aggressive and open to combinations than Mosley though, such as Pacquiao, Mayweather might have struggled to regain upright. Related Slideshows:
Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach certainly thinks this is the case, and believes he saw some weaknesses in Mayweather’s game that he could exploit with Pacquiao.
Asked about the fight on a recent radio interview on 790TheZone, Freddie Roach said:
“He got caught a few times early in the fight, but if Pacquiao catches him – he will finish him. He doesn’t have that movement like he once did. He’s a lot more flat-footed with the weight and the age. The way he fought the other night was very good for the fans. He didn’t run, he came to fight and its unfortunate that Mosley didn’t have more in the tank – but Pacquiao will.”
Pacquiao himself echoed Roach’s sentiments when talking to my Examiner cohort Micheal Marley recently, stating that he could destroy Mayweather where Mosley hurt him.
Obviously there are other issues to hand, such as whether Pacquiao would be able to land on the always elusive Mayweather in the first place. With his longer reach and nigh on impregnable defense, Mayweather might well be able to keep Pacquiao at a distance all night long. Similarly if Mayweather’s movement isn’t as good as it once was, he might not be able to avoid having to trade with Pacquiao at some point. As his fight against Joshua Clottey proved, Pacquiao is happy to keep swinging even if not much is getting through, and he doesn’t get tired.
