RING INTELLIGENCE
There was a time when Pacquiao fought one way and one way only. He still does today. The difference is that now he has enough ring savvy to set traps, vary his pace, and create situations to render an opponent painfully vulnerable to the fiery hell that comes next.
He has realized the value of studying tapes of a particular opponent, and this has served him well in the heat of battle.
Mayweather is simply the guy that comes to mind when boxing people of note talk about ring intelligence. The reason why he gets overrated by some in mythical matchups is that he has shown in fights the ability to deal with anything thrown his way, and it all starts in his razor-sharp boxing mind. Read more in Boxing ? Manny Pacquiao Could Remain Active in Boxing Until 2012
EXPERIENCE
Being a US Olympian Mayweather has an extensive amateur background and coupled with his early start in boxing it would not be an exaggeration to say his 41 pro fights as of today do not reflect the true amount of experience under his belt.
In boxing, some people who get knocked out are never the same again. Some however just use these kinds of losses to improve and motivate themselves to greater heights. Pacquiao has seen it all atop the boxing ring. From being knocked out early in his career to rising like the proverbial phoenix to achieve earth-shaking history in the ring, the Filipino warrior?s career brings the whole spectrum to the table.
CORNER
Freddie Roach is the hottest trainer in boxing today. Some trainers may do some things better than him, but the things that he does best are exactly what made Manny Pacquiao the fighter that he is today.
The trust between them is of the type seen only in foxholes among soldiers under heavy artillery, and Pacquiao has publicly vowed to remain with Roach until he finally hangs them up.
Mayweather has Uncle Roger as head trainer, but with the possibility of jail time looming ahead for him father Floyd Senior may resume training duties he started since Junior?s early years. Floyd?s own abilities as a strategist par excellence however, render the issue of who will man his corner moot and academic.
HEART
On the surface, one does not see much proof of Floyd?s heart. His fighting style inopportunely masks the courage in him required to rise to the top of a very cruel sport. His anti-hero persona makes people forget how bravely he fought on against Carlos Hernandez with a broken right hand and still won.
While some people may question how he has charted his career amid accusations of gutless ducking, inside the ring his will has yet to bend. The fact that he is undefeated just magnifies his will to remain that way. This is a man who has never tasted the agony of defeat in the pro ranks and has no intention of ever doing so.
If Floyd fights for his coveted place among the sport?s all-time greats despite pronouncements of money over legacy, Pacquiao champions a whole nation and then some. Floyd risking that ?0″ would seem but a trifling preoccupation, a petty whim even, when one aims to satisfy the thirst of about a hundred million delirious individuals give or take a few more nations all lusting for the thrill of a vicious knockout victory.
Thrust into this kind of pressure that would break most, Pacquiao not only thrived but has enjoyed every moment.
In retrospect, perhaps this is really not such a surprise. When one has to leave family and friends to sail for a boxing gym in his early teens with nothing to fall back on, heart and warrior spirit suddenly become such inadequate words.
When one has to sew his boxing trunks with his own hands, work construction and sell cigarettes and bread just to be able to afford training in a third-world boxing gym that has old worn-out bicycle tires as anchor for sit-ups while being severely undernourished, and start his career without the benefit of amateur seasoning against hardened men of grown age, and still make it to the very top of the sport, is there any place more comfortable, any situation more coveted, than atop the ring to finally prove himself with his two fists?
Manny Pacquiao did not get to be a boxer by being born in a gym, or into a boxing family. He had to claw his way to a gym and forge himself in fires of hell more suited to grown men than teens, just to earn his boxing gloves.
Calling what he has inside merely heart would be an insult.
(To be concluded with the analysis)
Read the first part here.
