On Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas former three division world champion Shane Mosley takes on current pound for pound king Manny Pacquiao in a fight that few give him much of a chance of winning.
Aside from the fact that he is the older man at 39 to Pacquiao’s 32, and that he has drawn and lost his last two fights against Sergio Mora and Floyd Mayweather respectively, many feel it will be Mosley’s tactics which will count against him the most.
Throughout the build up to the fight, Mosley’s comments on his tactics to defeat Pacquiao have centered on imposing his will on the champion and using his experience to overcome the use of unorthodox angles and movement by the Filipino.
Speaking to the gathered media at the final presser earlier today at the MGM Grand, Mosley said:
?I can muster all the energy that I had against Margarito. This type of fight reminds me of when I was able to do a lot of damage in the lightweight division. It?s kind of like going back in time.”
“I?m looking to go out there, take charge and beat Manny Pacquiao”
?We?re going to go out there and not take our foot off the gas pedal”
On the face of things however this all sounds like much the same set of tactics that many others have tried and failed with. Miguel Cotto, Ricky Hatton, Antonio Margarito and many others all tried to bully Pacquiao around using strength and power and found that their tactics simply didn’t work.
Since making his meteoric rise in weight over the last few years, Pacquiao has tended to fight bigger, slower opposition, giving him an edge in speed, movement and handspeed that so far none have come close to overcoming.
Mosley has very fast hands, and his movement and defense is better than any of Pacquiao’s recent opposition. So in that respect he has a better foundation than most to work from.
Amir Khan looking into other opponents as deadline for Tim Bradley fight passes
Another asset in Mosley’s corner is Naazim Richardson, undoubtedly one of the most intelligent coaches in the game today. And if anyone can solve the riddle posed by Pacquiao’s blistering pace and unorthodox movement and punches, he could be the one.
Mosley and Richardson will no doubt have watched tapes of Pacquiao’s loss to Erik Morales and his close calls with Juan Manuel Marquez. They will have studied how easy he was to hit at times against Joshua Clottey and how he was hurt against Antonio Margarito. Advertisement
Of course knowing how to beat Pacquiao is the easy part, actually being able to do it is a different matter.
Richardson and his charge will also know that there are areas the close to 40 year old Mosley will need to work on extensively if he is to stand a chance.
His stamina against Floyd Mayweather let him down after the second round, and from the offset he seemed tense and as if he was burning up nervous energy. The pace Pacquiao sets will be even faster and his volume punching will mean if Mosley is going to tire, it will probably happen quickly unless his stamina is much improved.
A way to counteract this could be to play the counterpuncher, so long as he can relax into the role without using up too much energy. Mosley hits harder and has a better chin than Juan Manuel Marquez, if not the technical ability, and the current lightweight king was able to take Pacquiao to a draw and close decision.
Pacquiao and Mayweather trade words, blame each other for fight not happening
Another major concern for Mosley is that he sometimes doesn’t stay busy enough during fights.
Even if Mosley’s hands are faster in terms of single shots it might not count for much if he only throws a third of as many punches.
In Pacquiao’s bout against Antonio Margarito in November of last year he threw a total of 1069 punches, connecting with 474 of them.
In Mosley’s bout with the same opponent he threw 507 and landed just 178, albeit finishing Margarito in the ninth round where Pacquiao won a decision.
Clearly then he isn’t going to beat Pacquiao by getting the better of the exchanges unless he can either land flush and score knockdowns or become by far the more accurate of the two.
Erik Morales chose the latter approach in the first of his three fights with Pacquiao, and came away with the victory, granted with help from a cut.
Achieving the same thing against the Pacquiao of today would be even more difficult, especially given Mosley’s tendency of tying up rather than circling away from opponents.
Then again it wouldn’t be the first time Mosley has pulled off an upset, and it wouldn’t be the first time in recent weeks that a fighter most regarded as over the hill proved everybody wrong.
Earnie Mathiesson, Pitt: “Mosley will be too tired after about the 6th, but before then I can see him troubling Pac, maybe even getting a knockdown”
