Pacquiao's abilities vs other modern HOF fighters - giving him his due

:rofl

 

long life king pacquiao!

 

All hail King Pacquiao!!!

 

pacquiao was only superior to morales when his team forced morales to drain himself to nothing but dry bones. but other than that i agree with most of the list. imo hearns and hagler are way superior than pacquiao

 

I don't necessarily agree with that list in the opening post, but it's true that Pac's skills get underrated. We normally only associate skills with slicksters, but offensive fighters have some interesting things up their sleeves too. For example, Pac has been countering jabs with his left-straight (not in the pull counter style that Floyd uses, but the same thing at essence). He times it perfectly, and unleashes the left right when he sees the other guy starting to move his hand. You can see it here:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCZrOPrP-3o[/ame]

He also did it a bit against Margarito, but I'll have to rewatch the fight to track down the specific moment.

Aside from this, Pac has also been working on timing people with a short right-hand counter hook. He carefully watches them, waits for them to start moving, and then he pops out a fast hook and steps to the side in the same motion, sometimes ducking. This is, again, not an easy thing to do, and takes finesse rather than unthinking flurries in the ring. Examples:

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Pac's footwork is also underrated. For a great example of him using it properly, people should watch the Hoya fight. Even though Oscar was weight-drained, I think it was still impressive to see the way Pac used the ring to set up his offence against the clearly bigger man. He would throw his left straight and then instantly sidestep -- Hoya would get hit in the face, look to counter, and find that Pac had already moved aside and was ready to attack again. Hit and don't get hit -- classic boxing technique.

There were some people in the classic section who suggested that Pac doesn't actually need to get hit as much as he does...sometimes he just waits for the other guy to unload so he can lure him in and hit him with big shots, to give the crowd a show. I suspect that if Pac only cared about winning fights -- disregarding entertainment entirely -- he would get hit much less, and would move around the ring more, picking people off with that left hand. He would never be a great defensive fighter, of course -- he doesn't have the mentality or the style -- but I think he wouldn't get hit as much as he does.

Does Pac still have flaws and show sloppiness? Sure. I think he needs to work on his jab, and also his head movement -- particularly if he wants to fight Floyd. He sometimes gets a little wild with those flurries, which will be dangerous for him when his speed fades. He looked like he had trouble cutting off the ring against Cotto, late in the fight, and has shown vulnerability to people who counter-punch off the back foot. Either way, his skills are definitely underrated.

 

Anybody who can watch the Cotto and Margarito fights and still think Pacquiao's skillset and abilities are nothing special just doesn't know a lot about the science of boxing.

 

Or are in deep, deep denial out of manlove for another boxer.

 

i wouldnt say pac has greater ability than morales or marquez hell maybe even barrera it was more styles contrast in that fight barrera bein a left hander fighting othodox so he used the jabbin hand more than he should i think what is brilliant thought is how he managed to improve later on in his career where most boxers get stuck in there ways

 

who said Pacquiao forced Morales to come at a lower weight? They agreed to fight at a certain weight division and it is not Pac's fault if Morales had difficulty making the weight.