Kostya tszyu vs Manny Pacqiauo at 140

I cant believe a lot of people thinks Tszyu would dominate Pacquiao. wOw, what else is new with these fantasy fights..people are always picking Pac to lose. :huh
Lets see Barrera will school Pac, 1st Punch De la Hoya lands and Pac will go to sleep, Hatton will be too much for Pac and the list goes on :-(

 

The absolute lack of boxing knowledge of this site.
This is a great fight. The best southpaw killer of all time V the tiny Pacman.

 

Really adds credibility to your argument. :good

 

No, it' not "like he's a bum". For crying out loud, all they're saying is he won't beat a locked-on top 50 (at the very least) all-time great. There's no shame in that. So stop getting sand in your vagina.

'Zu is/was a tremendous fighter at 140, but like someone else has said, it was a historically weak division, and P4P/H2H wise he isn't the god you're making him out to be. If he was that god -- one that'll have 'Poochiao' crawling on the canvas and Cotto easily put to sleep -- then he wouldn't have quit on his stool against a basic, face-first mauler in Hatton. I didn't wanna' bring that fight up (for obvious reasons) but you've made me with your overrating of him.

 

he kt you are referring to that "quit on his stool" is like referring to the dlh that quit on his stool.

comparing that kt to the kt that ko'd zab are two entirely different fighters.

 

Horrific styles match for Kostya imo.

Pacquiao's chin is granite and Kostya didn't like being forced to fight at a high tempo, which he would almost certainly have to in this. He liked to dicatate the pace of the fight and didn't like being rushed or pressured.

If Pacquiao can take his best shot (and i think he can) i see Kostya being stopped late on via accumulation of punches.

 

One thing i will add ion Kostya's favour is that he liked to have his opponent at middle distance to time his right hand, and Manny is often caught in that middle distance area. When he first moved above Lightweight, Manny was predominantly an outside fighter who relied on his hand and footspeed to jump in range, land his combinations and then get out before taking shots off of bigger men. With the exception of the Margarito fight, he's stood his ground more in his last few fights (possibly because his legs aren't what they once were?) and i think this would play into Kostya's hands.

I definitely think the Pacquiao that fought DLH and Hatton beats Kostya via stoppage, probably the Cotto version aswell. The one that fought Clottey/Marquez/Mosley etc and had the confidence in his chin (or lack of confidence in his legs) would still be favourite imo, but less so. His work-rate has dropped considerably recently and he's started to fight in bursts a bit more. This wouldn't be a great stratergy against Kostya imo. Tzsyu would simply wait untill a burst has finished, wait untill Manny retreats to the appropriate distance and then land a right hand down the pipe. Manny isn't particularly hard to catch. Like i say, i'd still favour recent Manny, but Kostya would stand a much better chance.

 

Which is why I didn’t want to -- and probably shouldn’t have -- bring it up. However, whilst he was clearly removed from his best, I don’t think he was a ghost like Oscar was. My point is that if he was as great as PIPO is proclaiming him to be -- you know, to have a 2008-10 version of Pacquiao crawling on the floor -- he would have found it in his arsenal/skill-set (which would be supremely high for him to be able to annihilate Pac) to not let a far inferior fighter in Hatton stop him the way he did, despite him being overcooked.

 

Tszyu would hurt Pac. You can't continuously dive in face first against a prime Kostya, he'll time you with the right hand damn near every time.

Pac would have some success with his speed but he'd get broken down with his lack of D.

 

kt was done and the ref that night allowed hatton to cheap-shot him as well. the only way to anaylze this fight is to compare the paq/cotto and zab/tszyu fights, as these were both peaks

people that dont really follow boxing suggest that it was just the one over-hand right that took out the then undefeated, prime, ko-artist zab when it was an accumulation of both rights and lefts that started mid-way through the first and followed throughout the entire second.

zab was in serious trouble early and he knew it, especially after kt took zabs uppercut(his best punch) and straight left and walked right through them.

the sheer strength and power was simply too much for him and thats why zab never asked for a rematch.

 

The Zab fight was a little too short, unfortunately. But I remember, despite that shakey start from him, he began putting the hurt on Zab as soon as the first round. At the end of it he made him feel his punches - landing some decent lefts and reminding him he could hit downstairs, too. That, in my opinion, led to a less confident Zab Judah coming out for the second, and one that kept getting caught when pulling back.

 

:deal

Pulling back and giving Kostya the distance to get his shots off is suicide. You need to jump on him, back him up and smother him. His timing was immaculate, few fighters from the modern era have had the timing of Tzsyu.

 

Yup :good

I was thinking of your post when mentioning him pulling back. He gave 'Zu the ideal time and distance required to shoot. I remember him landing two consecutive straights when that knockdown happened. Both because Zab was pulling his head back.

 

It's a credit to Hatton that he had the intelligence to put together such an excellent gameplan. Granted, it wasn't a prime Tzsyu in there but Hatton couldn't have fought a better fight.

Tzsyu tended to struggle with pressure fighters, and Manny CAN pressure fight. He did it quite a bit at 130 and he even did it successfully against a relatively big Welter in Cotto.

 

again, please dont make reference to the vince or hatton fights as one he was unprepared(changed his entire camp following the fight) and two was far from prime.

people forget that sharmba was a damn good jww fighter, arguably as good as prime 140 cotto, and tszyu manhandled him on both occasions; threw him around like a ragdoll.