UK middleweight Billy Joe Saunders (21-0, 11KO’s) took his mind away from his next outing on May 9th at Wembley Arena in London against the dreaded TBA opponent, by giving ‘SecondsOut Boxing’ his pick for the looming clash of planets that will take place the week before his next contest.
Floyd Mayweather Jr(47-0, 26KO’s) and Manny Pacquiao(57-5-2, 38KO’s) will meet at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada following a build-up that has taken up the lion’s share of a decade. Now the bout is officially on -something the never gets boring to state- most observers both well-versed and not have been giving their picks and predictions, and the majority have sided with Mayweather for the win. Billy Joe feels otherwise.
“People are writing Pacman out of it because of the Marquez fight, the Timothy Bradley fight, but he came back and beat Timothy Bradley. The Marquez fight listen, it’s like I say, if you give someone ten chances, they might get lucky once. And he did, he got lucky. But I think the speed of hand and feet work, I’m gonna go for Pacquiao.”
Pacquiao shared forty-two rounds with one of the most intelligent and accurate counter-combination punchers in the sport and only got burned like that one time. Sure, it’s not a good look getting left face-down on the canvas, but he was trying to finish the fight in his favour when he got caught jumping in by a perfectly-timed hammer of a right hand. It’s boxing. It happens.
Despite Mayweather’s undefeated record and outright unwillingness to take any punishment at all if he can help it, Billy Joe feels Pacquiao has the assets, and more importantly the style to give a cerebral, deliberate fighter like Mayweather a lot of problems.
“They go for Mayweather because it’s Mayweather, but you’re in there with a different opposition. You’re in there with someone who’s here, there and everywhere. He hasn’t got that one punch to knock him out cold. So therefore, he’s gotta try counteract his speed. How’s he gonna do that? What he does best; move away, slip the jab, come back, one-two’s, counter. He’s gonna work a lot on that right hand. He’s gonna right hand all the time Mayweather. But I think Pacquiao’s gonna pull it off; speed, variety and fleet of foot, angles. It’s gonna do the job.”
Mayweather’s right hand is perceived to be the sunlight to Pacquiao’s vampire, a weapon certain to succeed. Pacquiao has shown his susceptibility to that punch not only against Marquez but most recently against Chris Algieri in November, a man who luckily did not present the requisite power to deter Pacquiao’s hunt.
The question is whether Mayweather is lacking in that department to the same degree. If he is, how will he keep Pacquiao off him when he brings such an erratic and unpredictable attack? Normally Mayweather’s accuracy, and his knack for catching his opponents cleanly when the least suspect it, more than compensates for his lack of one-punch KO ability. It could be enough on May 2nd too.
