So now we are only a day away from another Manny Pacquiao fight and the whole world is buzzing. While I still think it’s very unbecoming of a fighter, who is generally considered as the top pound-for-pound fighter in the world, to be fighting an opponent who hasn’t won a fight in two years, I’ve come to accept that Pacquiao is done taking risks and may not face another legitimate challenger for the remainder of his career. There is much more at stake in this fight with Shane Mosley than there has been in any of Pacquiao’s recent fights, such as the opportunity to not only again outdo Floyd Mayweather Jr. in stopping another one of his leftovers, but to finally beat him in pay-per-view buyrates as well.
CBS has done a masterful job promoting the Showtime event, and while Fight Camp 360 has been utterly bad ahead of this fight, it’s been on free TV and is generating tons of interest for the big one tomorrow night. Pacquiao-Mosley might be the event that takes the balance of power for the sport of boxing away from HBO and right into the hands of Showtime, something ESPN’s Dan Rafael will be tasked to defend if the rumors are true of the possibility of him becoming HBO’s matchmaker.
Onto the best of the rest for this weekend’s mega-event:
Shane Mosley has had quite an interesting road to this fight, hasn’t he? Two years ago, he was turned down by Freddie Roach after Pacquiao knocked out Ricky Hatton, citing monetary reasons and the fact that Mosley was a fresher fighter than Oscar De La Hoya. Mosley offered to zombify himself by fighting at 140, but Roach still declined. Fast forward to current day, Roach has had no reservations whatsoever or any concern for Mosley at this point, making it oh so obvious that Team Pacquiao wanted nothing to do with Mosley back then.
An Interesting observation I saw while re-watching Mayweather-Mosley this week was that in the build-up to the fight, many thought Mayweather’s defensive style would play right into Mosley’s aggressive hands and make a competitive fight. Outside of the second round, when Mosley landed the big right hand, Mosley was being walked down by a defensive-minded fighter. This weekend he is going to fight the most offensive oriented fighter he’s fought in years.
Bob Arum sure can flip an opinion in a heartbeat, can’t he? Following Mosley-Mora, Arum said that there would be no way people would have interest in Pacquiao-Mosley because of Mosley’s decline, but once Mosley left Golden Boy, the fight couldn’t be made fast enough. Same thing is happening with the near free agent Juan Manuel Marquez, who has been desperate for a third fight with Pacquiao. An offer to Marquez has apparently already been made for the Fall, God help us.
Potshot Picks
Manny Pacquiao vs. Shane Mosley The general prediction is that Mosley will be dangerous early and fade late, folding to Pacquiao’s speed. I don’t necessarily see it that way. The more aggressive Pacquiao gets, the more likely Mosley will land something that will hurt the champion. Mosley will be working the body to slow Pacquiao down, whereas Pacquiao will be timing Mosley’s flicker-jab with right hooks and smothering him with punches. The fact that Mosley has been picked to fight Pacquiao now as opposed to two years ago is all the indication we’ll need for this one. Pacquiao by decision.
Wilfredo Vasquez Jr. vs. Jorge Arce WV2 is an emerging talent and a win over Mexican action hero Arce will establish him as one of Puerto Rico’s best fighters. Arce is still running strong, but one-sided beatings like the one he took from Vic Darchinyan, and the boxing clinic he failed against Cristian Mijares, is an indicator of anything, he’s very long in the tooth. Expect the younger, bigger and faster Vasquez to toy with Arce en route to a late round stoppage.
