this idiot took way too much punishment in the first half of the fight. thought he could bully pacquiao while he was fresh. should've kept distance wiht his jab and took it slow and worked the body. instead he came out of the first half of the fight down on the cards and a bloody mess awful gameplan. severely underestimed pacquiao.
Thought he could stand the ground and trade with pac Bit of a mistake imo when fighting Manny Soon backed up when got tagged
Hard to jab someone when they keep smashing your face with the right hook. If you actually paid any attention, you could see that Thurman came out with the plan to control the distance. His biggest mistake was his flawed footwork. Look how easily he got squared up and thus knocked down because of it. Thurman often put himself out of position and thus Manny was able to find openings.
What was most surprising to me was how easy Thurman could land his right vs Pac's left. I guess it was their stance since Pac was trying to position himself to land his hook whereas Thurman was positioning to land his right.
Seeing that the world is pretty much on a stay at home orders, I just saw this fight for the first time today. I think Thurman experienced what most fighters experience when they face Pacquiao for the first time. Thurman just had a heck of a time gauging how fast Pacquiao could close the distance. A mistake he also made was that he was backing straight back in defending against Pacquiao's attack. You cant do that vs Pacquiao because his feet are usually much more quicker and faster than his opponent, plus when Pacquiao attacks an opponent who's backing straight back he himself is able to throw shots even off the wrong foot which catches so many fighters off guard. I thought it was a pretty good fight. Pacquiao won the first 5 rounds on my card, but then Thurman I think caught on to Pacquiao's rhythm and movements and on my card was able to take the last 5 out of 7 rounds. Like the great champion he is, Pacquiao was able to rise to the occasion and take the last round that on my scorecard he needed to win the fight. Had Thurman the younger man stepped it up in the last round and won it, I'd have had it scored a draw, but he didn't, it was Pacquiao who rose to the occasion and took the round and the fight on my card. I scored the fight 115-113 Pacquiao. Though Pacquiao score a knockdown of Thurman late in the first round, I though Thurman was winning that round clearly when it happened. I was about to score the round 10-9 Thurman when the knockdown which was a flash knockdown occurred, so instead of giving the round 10-9 Thurman, I turned it into a 10-9 Pacquiao. As far as Thurman's game plan was concerned, I don't see where his plan was bad. I think in this particular fight Pacquiao has to be given the credit for some of the skills he still has, particularly closing the distance on a retreating fighter and firing combinations at odd angles. The one critique I have of Thurman may have won him the fight had he done more of it. Thurman found a home for his right hand which was repeatedly snapping Paquiao's head back when Thurman was landing it, had he thrown more of those it just might have made the difference in the scorecards. On a side note, imo I think this performance by Pacquiao would be a great opportunity for him to go out on top, something that rarely happens to great fighters. I highly doubt that Pacquiao can improve on this performance and he certainly has nothing left to prove.
What you saw was an angry Pacquiao. Thurman was being crazy disrespectful leading up to the official announcement of the fight — mocking him w/ a mock Asian accent, calling him small (repeatedly referred to him as a lightweight) and old, and threatening to retire him. The biggest thing was that Thurman threatened to "crucify" him. Rios, Vargas, and Matthysse threatened to retire him, but they were infrequent single one liners that didn't have a lot of venom behind them. Thurman was talking **** to the moon and back. Broner tried clowning Pacquiao w/ some racist jokes, but strangely enough I think Pacquiao actually liked Broner as a person. As for the fight itself, Pacquiao needed to make a statement by letting Thurman know that 1) he could hurt him and 2) he's faster than him, and 3) he could take his punches. Pacquiao put together some beautiful combinations in the exchanges and was sitting down on almost every shot he threw. Pacquiao started gas badly in the second fight, which was the sole reason Keith was having more success w/ his right hand.
I don't think Pacquiao lets talk bother him so him fighting mad I didn't see that. Thurman was doing all that talking in an attempt to get in Pacquiao's head and Pacquiao knew that. Pacquiao fought how he normally fights, just that simple. Part of it might have been Pacquiao tiring near the end, but not during the whole second half. I think more of it was just Thurman having figured Pacquiao's rhythm and range out. Thurman got off to a good start in that first round but when Pacquiao dropped him toward the end of the round, he started to take the fight to Thurman giving Thurman those odd angles from which Pacquiao often throws his punches. Because of that, Thurman's punch output diminished considerably and he wasn't throwing many shots that had authority behind them. Once he started to figure Pacquiao out that right hand of Thurman was keeping Pacquiao honest and controlled for most of the second half of the fight until Pacquiao stepped it up in the last round probably realizing the fight might be in the balance.
He made the same mistake most people make when facing pac he thought he could simply overpower him from the start. What they fail to realize is that pac especially early is extremely dangerous you must respect him and box him. His angles and speed and power are at their peak at this point. Use movement be patient and rely on boxing ability. Later in the fight Thurman realized this and boxed and moved more but it was too late.
Or if you're the bigger fighter like Floyd was, you can hang on for dear life and get the occasional punch in on the way to a UD.
Log off you bitter fool. Pbf showed you how to properly dictate distance and control range he was the ring general fought his fight lowered pacs workrate and cruised to a wide ud win.