IF styles make fights, then Manny Pacquiao’s unique “fighting style” will make their March 13 fight a one-sided affair.
That is if what former undisputed heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield said will hold true.
Holyfield, who started his career when Pacquiao was just six years old, told fightfannation.com that Pacquiao’s unorthodox style could lead to Mayweather’s first loss.
“Even though he looks like he isn’t moving, he’s going to hit and weave and he’s going to punch from so many different angles, that he may be the only person that will be able to hurt Mayweather if he catches him with shots because he doesn’t throw his punches straight,” said Holyfield, who at 46 fought and lost to Nikolay Valuev for the WBA heavyweight title last year.
Holyfield may be more qualified to talk about the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight than other experts since he was there the last time the undefeated American lost.
Mayweather is 40-0 with 25 KOs in the pros and the last time he lost was as an amateur in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics—a match Holyfield saw.
“It was the last fight that he (Mayweather) lost and it was (against) a left-handed guy. And the only way he beat Floyd is Floyd is a spot fighter, he fights in spots so what he did was he made Floyd fight more than Floyd wanted to fight,” said Holyfield.
Mayweather Jr. is known as one of the best defensive fighters in the sport but isn’t quite as active on the offensive end.
“From every angle you can get hit, he (Pacquiao) throws it, and you can’t block all the angles. By him being left handed and he has enough speed, and he is more active than Floyd so he will throw more punches. He may not be quicker one punch per se, but he throws so many punches. And Floyd loves to go on defense and he only likes to throw two shots when he’s on defense and this guy likes to throw five shots so he’s going to get hit with something so I think this is the fight that’s going to make or break Floyd,” said Holyfield.
It was the volume of punches that Pacquiao’s victims David Diaz Jr., Miguel Cotto and Oscar dela Hoya cited as the main reason for their defeats.
After losing his 135-pound belt to Pacquiao last year, Diaz joked he thought Freddie Roach was also in the ring hitting him, while Cotto said, “I didn’t know from where the punches were coming.”
