Mayweather and Pacquaio are the only fighters capable of.....

beating the other.

That much is clear.

The only way to beat Floyd is to be a speedy dynamic volume punching powerful southpaw...

The only way to beat Pac is to be an elusive adaptable master boxer with sharp accurate punches and who has great stamina.

These two guys are as good as any fighters ever in the history of the game. Fight fans are taking for granted that we have two of the very Greatest fighting right now.

Who wins and why?

 

Mayweather wins. Pacquiao's game is based on his supreme speed. That is why he has become better in upper divisions: the edge in speed is greater and thus he can dominate the bigger guys who just can't catch his movement and see his punches.

Mayweather however can match Manny's speed and much like Marquez he can counter Manny. If the opponent is fast enough, Pacquiao can be hit. Maywather does not leave too many openings and even though Pac will land his share, he won't catch Floyd with enough authority to change it.

Floyd takes a commanding decision. Every fight Pac has makes the bout seem closer, but I think this is the main problem he faces and the one he can not solve

 

I got PBF but like mentioned before this Pacman looks to be doing things that are not natural. He's freakish. The big question here is what happens when he lands a bomb on Mayweather!

 

pac seems more unbeatable than mayweather at this point in their careers.

although he won every round, i wasn't overly impressed w/ mayweather's win over marquez. i expected him to go in there and destroy the much smaller guy, but he was tentative at times and wasn't as aggressive as i thought he'd be.

pac on the other hand appears to be improving every time he steps in the ring and based on the other night's performance, i'm now leaning pacquiao to win. who knows though, i might change my mind when it gets close to happening.

 

Mayweather has a good chin...it'll take more than "a bomb" to really gauge how the fight is going to go.

 

Pac would knock Mayweather out IMHO.

For the first time in his life, Mayweather would be faced by a guy who is noticably faster, of hand and foot, than he is. If he thought Judah was quick, Floyd would find himself utterly flummoxed by the sheer natural speed of Pacquiao. This speed advantage, coupled with the tremendous power in those straight left shots, would see Mayweather befuddled like he has never been before.

Manny would wear him down and stop him inside ten rounds.

MTF

 

Baldwin my friend....IF this fight comes off...you and I...$100 bet! :bears:

 

Based on actual evidence, I'm not sure how you can say that about PBF. Unlike Pacquiao, PBF has not faced or beaten the best guys in his own division. So while I'd love to participate in your thread, I simply cannot because its premise is false.

 

its the best defense (mayweather) vs the best attack (pacquiao) and i cant see even tho how good mayweather is at adapting his style to beat any opponent's style how he can not get hurt and punished by pacquiao's constant barage of punches! Pacquiao will be all guns blazing vs mayweather and it might end up with the pretty boy not looking too pretty anymore! :warning:

 

Uncatchable Fox vs Inescapable Hound for real in this one. :kidcool:

 

Can Manny avoid those straight rights to keep a consistent workrate up against Floyd? Thats the key, I think he can avoid/take those right hands and keep the pressure on Floyd to win a UD.

 

So did Cotto (@147), Clottey, DHL, Hatton and they all were badly hurt against Pacman, Most of them were stopped! So if Pacman manages to hurt PBF you can expect to see PBF run for his life for the rest of the fight. 1 bomb can change PBF thinking right away.

 

Considering that Chavez was arguably slightly on the down slope and in a weight class he had no success in when he faced Whitaker, you could easily make a case for this being the best match up the sport has seen since Leonard-Duran. It has to happen or boxing fucking sucks as a sport and should just close down.

I'll be honest - I have no idea who'll win this. If I had a tenner in my hand and was standing at the bookies counter with a queue behind me I'd probably plump for Floyd, mainly because the universe is a cruel & mysterious personage and there's so rarely a happy ending.

 

Well, Floyd has shown the ability to limit the output of volume punchers. Even volume punchers like Manny stop throwing when they are missing with the majority of their punches. The key thing will be Mayweather's amazing defense. Angles and volumes punching can always be negated by footwork, reflexes and sharp counter punching.

I thought Pac-Mayweather was a pick-em fight until I watched Floyd toy with Marquez and make him look like a guy with 3 pro fights. Floyd's counters are just hard enough to make his opponents think twice about flailing punches. His early knock down of Marquez made Marquez think instead of throw. That was the key to Floyd's easy win.

Great fight if it ever happens. I think Floyd wins a decision by a 4 or 5 round gap.

 

on paper ODH/Trinidad was better. it's a hard sell for PBF to be part of a, "best matchup."

 

good point

 

oh, you got fooled by that JMM fight? i guess someone had to be.

 

ODH-Trinidad was big....but Trinidad wasn't a superstar as yet (only hardcore fans had even heard of him).

mayweather and Pacquiao are both stars.

It's basically Leonard-Duran again...

 

Cotto? Gimma break.

hatton had already been stopped by Floyd

Clottey wasn't badly hurt.

De La Hoya..I AGREE! But Oscar never tasted canvas and wasn't seriously wobbled or hurt...he was just battered in one sided fashion and didn't have it in himself to fight back.

I have no doubt hat Floyd can take the FEW punches than Manny would land on him.

 

I'll take Pacquiao in a tough fight and here's why:

Floyd is a master boxer, but regardless of all of the tough talk and aggressive behavior out of the ring, he is a counter-puncher by nature; however, he is a damn good counter-puncher.

He is not a counter-puncher like Bernard Hopkins, where he leans in, clinches and holds after punching. He's a pot-shotting, sharp shooter.

Manny's work rate against a basic defensive fighter like Clottey was not impeded, even when Clottey landed some clean, effective counters (however far and few between they were).

1200 plus freakin punches in 12 rounds, means that there would be too many opportunities for counters, but does Floyd have the toughness to get hit repeatedly by the punches that he's countering one at a time? I think he does have the pride and toughness.

I also believe that will be his undoing. Bernard can slow a fighter down and make him fight his fight, but those are middles and light heavies and their work-rate is not as high as Manny's.

Manny has shown and proven to be adaptable, so has Floyd. Manny has shown to be machine-like with his work rate and going about his business, I don't believe Floyd has shown that; that type of work rate is just not his style. Now, granted, we have not seen Floyd in a spot in which he had to dig down and go outside of his comfort zone and improvise. He may have it in him, he may not.

Even if you cut Manny's output in half, it's still over 600 punches, over 50 a round, which is near the welterweight average. Landing 20%-25% (120-150) of those 600 plus punches is going to have some affect. I believe a damaging affect. I'm sure most of them will be power shots and coming in rapid succession. Floyd will be sure to get hit with more than one at a time, which he rarely does.

Now, I'm not going to sit here and act as if Floyd's just going to let him do it, but what has Floyd shown in the early going that leads you to believe he'll weather the early storm and keep his composure until the later rounds with the same plan in mind? With Manny's herky, Jerky movement, uncannily fast and QUICK footwork, he can close the distance rapidly and at the odd southpaw angles, which is part of his inherent advantages. Floyd's had his early problems with a virtually shot Zab Judah, he got the situation under control later, but Manny AIN'T no Zab Judah! He has a lot more mental toughness.

If Floyd stays in the pocket too long, he'll run the risk of giving away rounds. How many of Floyd's pot-shots is it going to take to make Manny change his strategy? Like Mike Tyson said, "They all have a plan until they get hit". At the very least, Manny punches just as hard as Floyd; Most likely, he does punch harder than Floyd. Manny by late KO or Split decision.

 

im not going to claim i followed boxing when i was two years old when duran fought leonard. but i doubt it was as big at the time publicity wise as mayweather jr and pacquaio will be.

how many times had duran fought on closed circuit back then in big fights prior to the leonard fight?

 

pacquiao is a rhythm fighter. to keep fighters like that off of their rhythm you need a stiff jab. i feel like pacquiao looks unbeatable because his opponents let him get into his "zone" and once he is there, he is unbeatable.

i think if mayweather fights the first couple rounds similar to the marquez fight, he walks away with a clear decision or a late stoppage. however if he is rattled early i think pacquiao would end up stopping him.

my money will be on mayweather though.

 

Nah man, DLH/Tito wasn't remotely as good a match up. The winner of this fight is undisputably a top 20 p4per of all time and if the winner is Pac make that top 10. DLH/Tito wasn't remotely on that level of significance as a match up.

 

Make that Top 5

They are both top 20 all time already.

 

We already have a thread to discuss such things.....opcorn:

 

....but I agree with you in principle: thsi fight is very significant...both are great and the winner can be mentioned alongside the very best in history.

I think it'll be (assuming Floyd beats Mosley), the most significant non-heavyweight fight in history.

 

@147 we seen Cotto take some serious shots from Mosley, Judah, Margarito and never was seriously hurt by a single shot. Cotto has proven to have a good chin @147. Manny was able to hurt and drop Cotto clean for the first time in his career. Even though Hatton was stopped by PBF, Manny stopped him with a single shot.

 

Good post. Though in this particular fight I think the straight right is more likely to be the spell breaker.

That said, watching the way Pac went to the body against Clottey's high guard swung my perceptions going into this one a little. Im not saying Clottey's primitive shop window shutter approach to defense is in Mayweather's league, but just the speed with which Pac covered distance to throw those body shots round the side and through the middle.....I think that ability has definite applications to fucking Floyd's world.

 

One thing I can say is that Roach will devise a master fight plan if Pac ever fights PBF. That you can be sure of! Pac and Roach are firing on all cylinders now.