THE Pacquiao of old relied too much on that patented left straight preceded by a right hook.
Lateral movement was minimal, and defense was practically inutile.
The pound-for-pound king of today parades myriad offensive arsenal, as well as superior, if not uncanny footwork coupled with some nifty head movement.
Of course, that left hand still has fight-ending power, which many suspect has only generated more torque as the Pacman moved up in weight class.
PREVIEW. On the other hand, Victor Ortiz still fights in measured angles and hardly possesses the ring generalship of Pacquiao.
If Floyd Jr. intends to use this fight as a preview for his reckoning with Pacquiao down the line, he could be mistaken.
Ortiz is a raw, albeit stronger version of the current undisputed welterweight king.
He sorely lacks the skills, as well the championship experience, but he does bring power and ferocity into the equation.
In the end, he could be just perfect fodder for the sharp-shooting, counter-punching ?Pretty Boy?.
Still I wonder.
Floyd Jr. has fought only twice in the last four years. He did quite well against the smaller Marquez, but I just cannot get my mind off that seminal second round against Shane Mosely.
To recall, Floyd?s knees buckled like he?d had three martinis for lunch after he got whacked by two big rights hands from the ?Sugar? man. He hung on for dear life, but was clearly aided by Mosely?s stamina woes as the latter ineffably did not have enough gas in his tank to finish the job.
In his last outing, Ortiz looked viciously strong in overwhelming Andre Berto. At the welterweight division, this kid looks like he could go 15 rounds.
Plus, do not forget that Ortiz holds the singular distinction of having knocked down all of his opponents, win or lose.
If he lands just one of those wild but lethal lefts, Mayweather?s experiment might just come back to bite him.
GERRY?S RESPONSE. Reacting to my column ?Banging the Drums for Gerry?, the three-time world champion sent this Last Rounder an SMS jesting that reading my article made him want to train again.
Yes champ, who knows it might just be the little push that?s needed. Don?t look now, but at around the same time my article came out, Fernando Montiel scored a third round knockout over Alvaro Perez.
