There is a lot of talk surrounding the fact that Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao have several common opponents. What people seem to be forgetting though is that styles make fights, and how one fighter did against another is not a reliable indication of how any other fight will go.
Fans of Floyd look at the performances of the two against Juan Manuel Marquez and say that if Manny struggled with Juan then he will come unstuck against the bigger and faster Mayweather.
Fans of Manny on the other hand look at the victories over Ricky Hatton and Oscar De La Hoya and say that Manny beat them more convincingly and had less trouble with them than Mayweather did. Also Floyd didn’t seem eager to fight the likes of Miguel Cotto, who Manny smashed in his last outing.
While they are both true statements in a way, there are other extenuating circumstances surrounding all of the fights which makes comparisons inaccurate for predicting the outcome of the pound for pound showdown in March.
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Mayweather indisputably had an easier time of beating Marquez than Pacquiao did. At the same time though by the time Mayweather fought the Mexican great he was 36, probably past his best and had jumped two weight classes for the fight. Mayweather then made this even easier by coming in heavy for the fight.
Marquez was arguably Pacquiao’s most difficult win, and some believe he should have been given the decision after the first fight. The counter punching of Marquez is something Floyd will no doubt try to emulate when the two modern greats meet, and if he can handle Pacquiao like Marquez did, along with his reach and size advantages he can give Manny all kinds of problems.
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Both fighters arguably fought Oscar De La Hoya when he was past his best, although the fight against Mayweather was much closer than the beating he took from Manny.
Fans of Manny shouldn’t read too much into that though, the defensive nature of Mayweather will always make for closer fights against durable and technical fighters. Manny because of his more aggressive nature and bigger punch was able to batter Oscar for the majority of the fight, and clearly De La Hoya’s tactics for that fight didn’t work.
Some of the tactics that Mayweather used for the De La Hoya fight will probably be seen when Manny takes him on also. Freddie Roach having trained Oscar before his fight with Mayweather and having come closest to beating him so far of all his opponents.
Oscar did say after the fight against Manny that his punches didn’t hurt, although this could have just been in an effort to hype up Manny’s fight with Miguel Cotto. Whether they hurt or not they did the job and Oscar was worn down fairly quickly.
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Ricky Hatton was the last fighter both have faced, and was beaten by both fairly easily. Mayweather took ten rounds where Manny needed only two, but this was more due to a clash of styles and game planning than anything else.
Freddie Roach spotted an inherent flaw in Hatton’s defense and Manny exploited it. Floyd relied on his tried and tested defensive wizardry to frustrate Hatton and eventually Hatton made mistakes.
The total blowout from Manny also doesn’t allow for much of a comparison, given that Hatton barely threw a punch. There was one moment when he landed cleanly on Manny and seemed to have an effect, but aggressive body punching isn’t something Mayweather is particularly good at anyway.
The win over Hatton from Mayweather is arguably more impressive because at the time Hatton was unbeaten. By the time he faced Pacquiao he was probably on the downslope of his career, and the blowout loss to Pacquiao showed just how far he had fallen. Pacquiao’s win was impressive in its own right of course, and the fact that Hatton was the bigger man means Pacquiao was at a disadvantage from the start and still came away with the win.
So in terms of the fight itself expect Manny to look to De La Hoy and Mayweather to look to Marquez for some of their tactics, although both will no doubt have a few new tricks to try to catch the other out as well. Previous common opponents can show us then what the fight might look like but not how either man will actually do when it comes down to it.
