one thing yall havent really talked about when discussing pac against some of these welterwieghts is that what happens when he gets hit by them? Dlh and hatton were too overwhelmed to get off anything serious. But surely, pacquiao will get hit by these guys at 147. roach will focus more on defense now as he has been been improving and you'll probably see more pac fights go the distance more often because he wont be trading full fledged welterwieghts. just something to think about
i think pac has a solid chin, hatton got inside pretty easy against manny, and manny siad afterwards he felt hatton's power....manny will do fine...... I would be more concerned about the "shock and awe" of manny in the first couple of rounds....marquez was shocked shitless, so was oscar, and hatton was destroyed.....this tends to be the pattern of pac opponents.... I would be more concerned about how they will hold up and not pac.
I say Pac beats Cotto,Collazo, quintana, maybe Berto. maybe Clottey but that would be a tough fight. the only PPL I think beat Pac at WW are Mosley and Mayweather.
you cant dismiss the prospect them landing on pac. pacquiao was hurt by marquez. a guy like say mosley has a rock solid chin, and hits harder then pacquaio, what happens if they trade. and with dlh, it took several rds from pac to finally hurt him.but if you remember he was bouncing in and out. think thats what he will do more of, you see pacquiao use alot more movement against guys at 147.
i agree the old manny would just love to trade....i think roach would not do that, and i myself would pick only mosley, and paul williams to win against manny, for the reason you have said.... I think floyd/pac is 50/50...... i really do believe countering pac and timing is the way to get at him, charging forward or trading is a death wish, i think even at 147, if manny knew a guy wanted to trade with him, i think manny would 9 times out of 10 get the best of him.
now it seems like pac is more tactical. he was going in and out against dlh, because he knew he didnt want to taste any of dlh's power, but dlh couldnt get off anyway, pac was just to fast. he never stood still. guys like morales and marquez traded with pac and had some sucesss. so some guys at 147 might elect to go toe to toe but that wont be pac objective. becuase at these higher wieghts. pac's spedd will give these guys more of a problem then his power. but of course, the blend of both is what gets the job done.
sure, pac has become more tactical, deliberate and calculating in his boxing especially in these higher weights. he has to since he's already fighting guys naturally bigger than him and who hit harder compared to those he fought at the lower weights.. but certainly his speed and power is still there to hurt them. his workrate now is somewhat lower as he chooses his punches more carefully now. but his accuracy and timing on the other hand has gone to another level. pac is now very wary of defending against counters and his D has improved as a result. he has also developed into a pretty good counter-puncher as shown in his recent fights. from a one-dimensional slugger in his early days at the lower weights, pac has slowly metamorphosed into a more refined boxer-puncher in these higher weight classes.
