We know all about his hand and foot speed, and respectable punching power, but how skilled do you consider him? When I say skilled, I mean the essence of boxing talent, creating angles, knowing where to throw punches, counter punching, ect... ...would you consider him a highly skilled fighter, or is he more of a "don't try this at home" kind of fighter like say, Naseem Hamed?
He's unortodox and does alot of things in the ring that aren't necessarily textbook, but things he has tailored to work for him. He does have classic boxing fundamentals, but tweaked for his benefit.
Yeah hes very skilled. Hes always thinking in there. I have to agree top 5 in the sport along with with JMM, Floyd, Hopkins, and Nonito.
He's probably the best or second-best combination puncher in the sport today. His counter-punching ability is pretty good, and for all his "hittable" rep, he's tough to track with his waspish movement and upper-body movement, it's more the fact that he opens up so much on offense and takes risks that gets him hit more. In short, he's not the best, but he's very good from a skills standpoint.
This has nothing to do with the thread, but I'm watching Pacquiao-Morales I, and damn...Pac pretty much got his ass kicked. Not as close a fight as I remember...
His counter punching ability is overlooked because of his offensive prowess. So is his defense. Mosley and Pac had a common opponent in Cotto. Cotto actually hit Mosley more than he hit Pac yet we don't hear people here talking how Mosley is easy to hit. But we do hear people say that Pac is easy to hit in the Cotto fight.
I was watching it on ON DEMAND the other day and it was a hell of a fight. Pac was trailing most of the time but made it a fight. Just couldn't hurt Morales badly enough. Morales paid for it though in the rematches.
I don't know about that. I never thought Mosley had better defense than Manny. Mosley has no head movement. Pac is def skilled. He is just not textbook. Like for example when he throws straight punches. Floyd Mayweather Sr thought it was stupid for Pac to throw straight punches the way he does. What he doesn't know is that martial artists throw these type of punches. He might be in the top 5 most skilled boxers in the sport.
Great point...and speaking of his overlooked cp ability and Cotto... [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui-7QZLuDD0[/ame]
I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed that. Manny does throw textbook straights and then he throws what looks like a karate punch. It uses different mechanics than a regular straight and is just as effective. I guess it helps to have a martial arts background to know that.