By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA
Many boxing aficionados predicted that Filipino
boxing icon Manny Pacquiao’s haymakers would dominate Welterweight
pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather, Jr. on May 2 (U.S dateline) mega tussle
of the century.
Since a boxer is as good as his last six fights,
let’s dissect if Pacquiao whirling dervish southpaw attack has still the superiority or pop to
deck out Mayweather.
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When Pacquiao fought the “Walking Punching
Bag” Brandon Rios and the “Run Away Bride”, er, Boxer Cris
Algieri compobox bared Pacquiao unleashes a total punch rates of 790 for Rios
and 669 for Algieri in the entire 12 Rounds.
In these two lopsided match ups, Pacquiao looks
superb as based on his total punches just like during those exploding
years where he TKO’d (technical knocked out) and KO’d (knocked out) the bigger
but dehydrated or struggling in weight Oscar dela Hoya, Antonio Margarito, and
Miguel Cotto.
When Manny however fought Juan Manuel Marquez in
2011 and 2012, he unleashes only a total punch of 578
and 256 (before he was knocked out cold at the 6th
Round) or an average punches of 48 and 42 per round on their 2011 and 2013
tussles, respectively.
Why the bone lazy punches from the Filipino to the
Mexican compared to his bunches of punches on Rios and Algieri?
My Answer: Because aside from
their being a ploughing punching bag and Runaway Bride, er, Pug, Marquez superb
counter punching skills deterred Pacquiao to whimsically shoot his punches.
He became tentative if not cautious because he
became vulnerable to the 1-2 or 1-2-3 of the Mexican every time he dropped a
jab or a straight.
The Mexican fought intelligently by exploiting the
weaknesses of the predictable style of the Filipino
(Pacquiao’s right jabs then plunge his chin or set his legs for
inertia to trigger his left power punch) by just turning clockwise to avoid the
Filipino’s left power punch.
The last time I saw Pacquiao set his predictable
left power punch by feinting first two supposed right jabs were in the 6th round
of their 2013 match. Marquez made him pay for that blunder as Pacquiao allowed
an opening of his chin as a knocked out target of the Mexican looping right
punch.
Thanks to his chopping of woods or thanks to
controversial conditioning coach Angel "Momo"Heredia?
Pssst, I heard Mayweather, for the first time, chops woods too!
