How's this fight play out lads? I think Honey at his best ( Curry fight), has a good chance of taking it.
I was never a supporter of Pac being a great Welterweight, imo he was a very good, but highly flawed one that wasn't any kind of h2h force there in all-time terms. Not so much in terms of his skills, which were arguably at their best circa his later 130 days-jump up to 140/147 early period, but simply physicality and stylistic appropriateness against very good natural welterweights. This is a very tough stylistic matchup for him, imo, as I think most very good Welterweights are going to be. I remember this not being that popular back then as there was a lot of excitement about his weight jumping prowess (and rightfully so, it was truly great) and I got accused of just being a negative *****, but I stand by it. Honeyghan circa late 83-89 had a lot of natural talent; he was a big welter with a big punch, bigger than Manny's at the weight, and had very fast hands and feet himself - he also had a pretty wide skillset, albeit a sometimes sloppy/not fully controlled one. A big part of the reason he could upset weight-issues Curry is that he was so quick on the draw that Curry couldn't avoid his right hand at all. My main issues with him were that for whatever reason, he never did quite manage to refine his skills that extra step in the way someone like Pac actually did (though Pac was starting from a lower base if you watch those lower weight years). Instead Honeyghan went the other way and seemed to become convinced that he was more of a destroying swarmer and puncher than he actually was, so the setup for his leads and combinations got worse when it should have been peaking. Secondly, he was also a bit of a bully and never recovered from the Starling clinic. I actually see quite a lot in common with them as fighters, only Pac was the rare example of the type that went on to excel, improve and get the most out of his career and ability, whereas honeyghan was a more typical example of what often happens to intuitive whirlwind types that rely a lot on their athleticism, but are also quite skilled in an unorthodox way...high peak (than many tbf), failure to smooth out the rough edges, then a pronounced decline. The two fights where Pac established himself, Ledwaba (who was good and skillful and seemed on the cusp of more exposure himself) and Barrera are fights of the same ilk as Honeyghan vs Curry, where the young, very athletic challenger uses hand/foot speed, an awkward, unpredictable rhythm and a strong offence to constantly beat to the punch the technically more refined established champ, visibly demoralising them. I look at Pac's record of wins around 147 and see a lot of smaller, slower (Hatton, Bradley, Marquez) guys ,washed up name fighters (ODLH, Mosley) and pretty average fighters (Rios, Algieri, Vargas) that would have made the athletic, imposing Rosi-Vaca Honeyghan mostly look great outspeeding, outpunching and physically overwhelming them, plus no natural welter remotely as crafty and gifted technicall as Starling in sight to derail things. The last Pac fight I saw was his final one against Bradley, so there's some there i've got to catch up on, tbf, but he was alreadly looking well in decline by that third fight. Manny's not going to be able to just comfortably outspeed and bounce in and out on Honeyghan beating him to the punch like he could Clottey, Cotto, Rios, or the slow cheat Margarito (who I find difficult to assess now, considering what happened prior to the Mosley bout)...Lloyd has the height and reach on him and actually has the attributes to exploit it. I think this would be a brutal fight with no comfort zone safe from powershots for Manny in terms of speed or range. He'll be hitting Lloyd too, so it might well simply come down to more primal, basic attributes...who's bigger, stronger, harder hitting, more durable? with a guy like Honeyghan who had a questionable mindset in terms of consistent determination and being able to stay on top of his game for long once he'd climbed to the top of the mountain, it might also depend on the timing of the fight...is Honeyghan the overlooked challenger facing an an already established Pac? imo that's a dangerous situation for Manny...but Manny moving up from 140 to take on a Honeyghan that has been champ for 3-4 defences already and already has a big marque win to get there? Could well be Honeyghan won't be maintaining top sharpness by then and underestimate a clearly smaller man, leading to confidence going circa 5/6/7 when it turns out he can still really fight at the weight and take a punch well. He's obviously not the greater fighter overall, and i wouldn't take him pfp of course, but I'd bet on Honeyghan here. The excellent natural Welter speed and strength, very fast in-out movement of his own, a deadly right hand lead that he can pit against Manny's fast straight left, the ability to fire right back with his own heavy, fast combinations...this is not the right style to be fighting as a smaller man, nor is Manny's own nearly the ideal one this far up in weight to bring to the table to defuse a very dangerous, if somewhat frontrunning, offensive force. I'd be truly impressed if Manny won this one straight up, and if he did, I'd expect him to take enough punishment to likely be finished himself.
Good post. I agree with it entirely, I think some forget how good Honeyghan was in the brief time he reigned. Unfortunately tho yes after winning the title he seemed to be his own worst enemy But if this were Honeyghan just challenging Manny then that is one serious threat to pac Man.
