Let's talk about defense

Calm down - I am not here to claim that Pacquiao's defense is better than Mayweather's. Even my supreme degree of trolling skills couldn't formulate an argument to support that. This is merely a demonstration of the fact that, perhaps, Pacquiao's defense isn't as bad as some of you make it out to be and - you might want to sit down before you read this last part - it may actually be pretty good.

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: hit

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times by Mosley,

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power punches.

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: hit

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times by Mosley,

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power punches.

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: hit

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times by DLH,

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power punches.

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: hit

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times by DLH,

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power punches.

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: hit

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times by Hatton,

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power punches.

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: hit

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times by Hatton,

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power punches.

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: hit

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times by Marquez,

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power punches.

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: check back in November. :hey


I didn't include Pac-JMM II in these stats because that fight took place 3 weight classes below where Mayweather-JMM did and where Pac-JMM III will. I think it's beyond obvious that the next fight will be a more apt comparison than the last one. The 3 other common fights took place within 1 weight class of each other. Now, I don't think Pacquiao can hope to hold JMM to anywhere close to a 12% connect rate, but I do think he can find a way to take less than 69 punches. And after all, that's really what it's all about, right? As said by the defensive master himself, "Ain't nothin' cool about gettin' punched in the face."

 

I disagree with ODLH being clearly better and I included connect rates for people who wanted to argue about the length of the fights. Oscar injured his shoulder against Mayweather. He actually threw more punches (per round) against Pacquiao.

 

I agree with you 100%. He is one of the greatest defensive fighters of all time. But, again in his own words, "numbers don't lie." Many of Floyd's biggest fans have claimed Pacquiao has NO defense. But if the results of having arguably the BEST defense of all time and NO defense whatsoever are so similar...the value of defensive skill has to be next to nothing. It's no wonder a "one-dimensional" fighter had such an easy time inserting himself into ATG discussions - all those other dimensions are clearly a waste of time and energy.

 

In numerous opportunities, Oscar has made no excuses about his conditioning for his performance against Pacquiao. While Oscar has always been classy (as a fighter) he is not beyond making excuses. He blamed Freddie Roach's game plan for his loss to Floyd. Nacho also said Oscar was in fine condition and he thought he should've been able to win the fight. The only thing offensively compromised by the weight was Oscar's power - which should've given Pacquiao even less motivation to avoid punches than Floyd, and yet he did so at the exact same rate.

 

Glen Johnson at 42 years old dropped down to a weight class at which he hadn't fought in over 10 years and won his fight by TKO. Oscar also won his previous fight at a catchweight of 150.

Again, not a single person in Oscar's camp has said that his weight or conditioning affected his performance at all. And, again, he threw more punches in his fight against Pacquiao than he did against Floyd, in spite of the fact that Pacquiao was throwing significantly more back at him.