agree very much with this post, especially the cotto part. he has a good earmuff defense, but he is terribly vulnerable up the middle and to straight punches...and to unexpected punches. and he backpeddles without purposes when in trouble. he doesn't avoid, he doesn't slip, he just backs straight up into the ropes. pac has flaws but his head movement lately has been FANTASTIC and with his speed, he can and does move in and out to avoid any incoming flack
Pac, because of speed. He can dart in and out, circles around, punch and slip, and his offense is basically part of his defense.
Great thank you for answering my question. Now as a fellow southpaw I have something that I can address. That backing out is something that all circling southpaws have to do from time to time. We're constantly circling right, circling right, circling right. Eventually if we are not careful we can circle ourselves out of ring and be trapped against the ropes or in the corner. From time to time we have to circle back to our left to get more ring to work with. Now a smart southpaw wont wait until he is right up against the ropes or the corner to circle back left. For starters that is predictable and a good fighter will knock the **** out of you when he correctly predicts your change of direction. Word of note for orthodox fighters when fighting a southpaw try to get a handle on his pattern and predict when he changes direction. A southpaw has to pick his spots and circle back left when its safe. Now that being said you just cant circle back left. If you do that you are walking into the right hand. The first step is to get distance then circle left to get more ring to work with. This is that straight back step you don't like. Well you know what as a southpaw I don't like having to take it either its when I feel the most at risk. But I have to take it. Its the lesser of 3 evils. The other 2 being running out of ring or circling left while in range of his right. You will see Pac do this a lot. But notice that when he does this is head is always moving and often rolling because he knows that he is at his most vulnerable. You will also notice that he often throws some quick jabs to go along with this. This too has a reason. As an orthodox fighter you should understand that more often than not when a southpaw is backing up he is looking to circle left. If you pressure him he wont be able to circle while out of the range of your right. Thats why he throws the jabs he wants you to keep your ass back while he moves. When Pac was younger he really did over use that step and didn't protect himself well enough when he did it. But what you are looking for is him to not do it at all and that simply isn't possible. Please recognize that this is not a flaw in his defense. Its not like its something he simply correct as there is nothing to correct. He can work hard on limiting the times in a fight that he has to do it though superior ring generalship and footwork, which is what we have seen in his development but no southpaw can completely avoid having to take that backwards step we can only seek to limit it. Now the best southpaw at doing this was Sweet Pea. He did it with his jab. He would create the distance he needed to be safe off of his jab then circle back. Manny clearly isn't tall enough to do that on such a regular basis. Now if you want to look at southpaw who doesn't step back properly and does it way too often you need look no further than Victor "Why Do These Over Hand Rights Keep Hitting Me" Ortiz.
Cotto, Pac like most Pinoys rely on their strong chins for defense. Pac don't mind getting nailed here and there, he goes into exchanges will to trade to get his heavier shot it feeling he can absorb the shot better. Look at the beutiful boxing Cotto displayed early against Margo? that was some impressive ****, great defenssive. Margo was just taking all the shots and applied intense pressure that finally made cotto sucomb. but Cotto showed great defense before his demise, better defence than I have seen from Pac.
yes cotto has shown good defense in the early to the mid parts of margo fight. its just that margo's relentlessness and cotto's slowing down that beat cotto. also cotto can fight on the backfoot if the fights needed it in the mosley, clottey and even the margarito fight. but cotto admitted that he would not use tactics like clinching which is a big part of boxing defense. pac on the other hand will use his speed to come in and out plus his head movement. also in the jmm rematch, alot of people seemed not to noticed how pac was so effective with pulling-up his guard after every punches thrown. that's how he respects his opponent. also pac would not hesitate to clinch and use his lower and upper body strength to stop the momentum of an opponent just like what he did to hatton.
At this point it's clearly Pacquiao in my book. I wouldn't say the guy has alot of moves or overall methodology I could isolate, but all in all Pacquiao has kept himself from getting marked up more and more these days. Even if he's just using his legs; the job is getting done.
Pacquiao has better defense, hands down. His defense has come a long way from what it was. He's always had good head movement but just look at the way he's able to connect & slip punches at the same time against his recent opponents. Pacquiao of 04 wouldn't be able to do that. Cotto on the other hand gets hit with damn near everything.
I agree. Pac's frenetic movement is part of his offensive arsenal but also makes him a defensive nightmare in that it's near impossible to time him and pin him down to sit on a big shot.
Pacquiao but only just by a little margin. You don't see people calling Pacquiao or Cotto defensive gurus. But at least that allows them to give more exciting fights.
Anyone saying Cotto in this thread needs to be taken to the vet and put down. Pacquiao's defence these days is light years ahead of Cotto's amateurish covering up.
I agree! In other words, pac speed makes you miss a lot of punches. it really hard to hit a moving target! of course Cotto will surely hit Pac too BUT pac to slick for Cotto IMO..
Pacquiao by a long way. His defense is overlooked because he uses range and footwork effectively as opposed to defensive maneuvers with novelty value. Cotto is terribly open and applies defensive techniques very sporadically (frustrating as a fan). Cotto will get a few votes though because every now and then he might decide to throw a shoulder roll in, which looks cool (in between getting hammered up the middle with uppercuts and straights).