Pacquiao Improves on Mayweather's Peformance vs Mosley

Now, we heard the fans booing like it was Mayweather vs Baldomir, and even a few fans left like they did in that stinker. I doubt, though, that we'll see Pacquiao cry at the post-fight press conference. Just a hunch.

Don't be fooled, though: Manny Pacquiao dominated Shane Mosley, and did so to a greater degree than did Floyd Mayweather, Jr.

First, the scores:

Mayweather vs Mosley
119-109 FM (11-1 rounds)
119-109 FM (11-1 rounds)
118-110 FM (10-2 rounds)

Pacquiao vs Mosley
120-107 MP (12-0 rounds plus a knockdown)
120-108 MP (12-0 rounds)
119-108 MP (11-1 rounds plus a knockdown)

As shown, Pacquiao scored better against Mosley than did Floyd Mayweather. Mayweather lost four times as many rounds on the judges cards against Mosley than did Pacquiao.

Second, Manny Pacquiao dropped Shane Mosley and nearly stopped the Sugar Man in the third round. Pacquiao also hurt Mosley on several other occasions. Though Mayweather came fairly close to stopping Mosley later in the bout on an accumulation of punishment, he never dropped Mosley and did not show the one-punch power Pacquiao did in this bout. That's another check in Pacquiao's column.

Finally, Pacquiao was never seriously hurt by Mosley and certainly never close to being stopped by Shane Mosley as was Floyd Mayweather. Check three.

Shane Mosley fought a "spoiler" kind of fight, especially after the third round knockdown. It made him seem more competitive, but he won one round on three judges' cards. Total. He fought to survive, to stay away from Pacquiao opening up on him by refusing to initiate his own offense. This, honestly, was Clottey-like in the second half of the bout.

So, Pacquiao outdid Mayweather in his bout with Mosley. We know that. But, did Pacquiao show holes that Mayweather could exploit?

Not necessarily. Floyd is not as big, not as strong and does not hit as hard as Mosley does. Pacquiao seemed very respectful of Mosley's power, perhaps too much so. Would he have the same regard for Mayweather's power? Probably not, though he would have to be careful of Floyd's counters.

At the end of the day, though, Pacquiao dominated the match. And that is because Mosley did not want to open up on offense. Mosley, that is, was essentially shut out. And that's ok, if you want to lose as Mosley and Clottey did against Pacquiao. You may survive.

However, if you actually want to try to defeat Pacquiao, you have to attempt to go on offense. And if you do that, if you go for that, then the third round can happen. If Floyd tries to open-up and win rounds against Pacquiao, he can get knocked out. That's probably the easiest way to say it. If he doesn't open up, then Pacquiao banks rounds. Just as I and Al Bernstein have said about a possible PBF-Pac match-up.

What this means, then, is that even if you can slow down Pacquiao's output -- as Mosley did tonight -- you still might get shut out on the scorecards. As Mosley basically did. That might be a good way to make your opponent look bad, but it's not a winning strategy. Not for Mosley, not for Mayweather, not for anyone.

Pacquiao was fighting himself tonight. He was "supposed" to get a KO. He didn't, and he didn't get to do what he normally does. But he still dominated the fight, and did so against a fast, much larger man who was able to knock Mayorga out at 154 lbs.

Think what you want. Just remember the facts.

 

It's the formatting because of heavy server load. I'll fix it when the traffic slows down on ESB.

I wrote it in paragraphs, it just got auto-formatted that way.

 

Pacquiao outperformed Mayweather, as pointed out in the first post.

Mosley threw more against Floyd because he wasn't afraid of what happened in the third round tonight. He only threw 260 punches tonight, and not 452 as he did against Mayweather, because if he threw that many he gets KO'd by Manny.

Shane fought the best he could. He reined in his output. There's a reason for that, and why he didn't have to do that against Floyd.

Shane was in survival mode from Round 4 on. That never happened vs Floyd, certainly not as it did tonight.

 

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, even if you can't argue the facts. That's ok.

Mayweather isn't anywhere close to the strength level of Mosley. Mosley is absurdly strong. That's known. And he hits harder than Mayweather does. Ask Mayorga, or plenty of others.

As to what would Floyd do, he might make Manny look bad as Mosley did tonight and get shut out as Mosley did. If not, there's a great chance Manny knocks him out. That would be Floyd's choice.

Floyd only wins if can seriously hurt Pacquiao. Do you think Floyd hits harder than Margarito and Clottey? I doubt that. Maybe he can hit Pac enough to hurt Pac. Not sure about that, either.

If Mayweather doesn't hurt Pac, Pac wins on points. As he did tonight. Again, I've said this for awhile. Bernstein recently echoed those thoughts.

Tonight, we saw Pac's output lowered, as many fans said would be key to beating him.

How'd that work tonight?

 

1st post of the thread is fixed for spacing.