The Fight of The Century

Manny Pacquiao vs Floyd Mayweather Jr.

This is going to be an exciting, technical fight. And it's definitely going to be the fight of the Century. I can't wait to see these two go at it.

Manny Pacquiao's Boxing Style:
Manny uses a southpaw style of boxing. Which is generally regarded as the stronger style against the traditional style that Floyd uses. Pacquiao is able to easily pivot and square up to get power behind his punches directly onto the traditional style. He's shown it plenty of times his effectiveness to do this against his opponents. He loves to throw different combinations of punches then back off and turn his opponent and go at him again. He has strong hits, and doesn't let up.

Strengths:
The fact that Manny can last 12 rounds and he conditions for it. Unlike Floyd's other opponents, they seem to of not been able to last past 6 rounds. They would get significantly slower as the match went on. Manny can also take a punch pretty good. For that reason, his movement and his punching is going to be a big factor. Everyone else didn't move too much against Floyd, they would the first few rounds and they would throw a lot of punches and end up winning those rounds. Sure Floyd likes to play the pocket off the ropes but Manny is going to still try to make him turn and come off the ropes. Pacquiao definitely gets hit quite a bit too and people tend to land some good hits, but Manny is still always bouncing around and great on his feet the whole match. Floyd is known more for accuracy and speed and to not have the strongest hits, and Pacquiao has faced much harder hitters like Cotto who got some good hits on him. So being able to take punches and still having great energy just means Pacquiao is going to be going strong this whole match. Pacquiao also has strong hits especially when he is jumping in up close and using all of his weight. With his constant movement, he's going to be hard to predict and counter.

Weakness:
 Manny's weakness is that he jumps into a lot of his punches. He doesn't have the longest reach, especially compared to Floyd, and Manny jumps into his opponent and throws furries of punches. And that jumping in and commitment is going to be his weakness in this fight. He sees opening in the standard guard and comes off his southpaw, squares up, and comes in and attacks. The 4th match that he had against Marquez shown that weakness as he got knocked out. Although it took Marquez 4 different matches to finally learn Pacquiao's style and timing and was able to predict and anticipate his jump and was able to catch him and knocked him clean out.

Floyd Mayweather's Boxing Style:
Floyd uses the traditional stance, however his style is different. He keeps his hands up more in his guard than most traditional boxers do. He does do a great job keeping his hands up when he's coming into his opponent. When he gets defensive he boxes a lot like his father in keeping his left hand down to his side and his left shoulder lifted("rolled") up to protect his jaw. He's great in the pocket, and great with learning his opponent and finding the opportunities to strike. As he's learn his opponent and gets out of the pocket, he's great at recognizing, anticipating, moving, and taking advantage of mistakes by his opponent.

I think his father did a great job teaching Floyd when he was younger, and it definitely shows, he has the best intelligence and awareness in the game, and he has the best defense in boxing. He's really taken his father's style and perfected it.

Strengths:
Floyd's defense is the best in the sport and arguably the best boxing has ever seen. His also has arguably the best awareness and instinct in boxing right now. He's great at playing the pocket, countering. He keeps his hands raised higher when in the traditional stance. Great at reacting and counter punching. He throws very accurate and quick punches and scores a lot of points. You can't out score him in a 12 round match for that reason. Like Pacquiao he also comes in with great conditioning to easily last the full match. He's fast and moves a lot in the ring.

Weakness:
He doesn't have the power in his punches. He has great accuracy, but he just lacks the power to knock opponents out. It requires a lot of good hits over many rounds to knock opponents out. He also typically loses the scoring on the first rounds of fights when people come out swinging a lot at him. If a boxer is able to sustain that throughout the match, they will be able to outscore Floyd. I feel that not enough people attack Floyd's body either, they focus too much on trying to get to his jaw and Floyd can take a punch or two to the jaw and he protects it very well and that his bigger weakness is the body so when it comes to the later rounds where Floyd really shines, he doesn't have the energy that he usually has.

The Fight:
Floyd Mayweather Jr. is going to come out and try to feel out Manny Pacquiao and really move around a lot. Trying to not let Pacquiao hit him right away because Pacquiao is going to come out swinging like he always does. Pacquiao is going to try and turn Floyd a lot, but Floyd isn't going to throw sloppy jabs like the rest of his other opponents. And after a few rounds of that going back and forth, Floyd is going to let Pacquiao come to him and get up against the ropes and try to out play Pacquiao with his strong defense and counters. Floyd is going to shoulder roll and do the body shots with his right, and following with the left when Pacquiao tries to gets in close with his Southpaw stance and won't be able to turn Mayweather. Then after some rounds once Floyds feels Pacquiao starts to feel deflated with Floyd playing his strong defense, Mayweather is going to come out and start to take advantage of Pacquiao's tendency to open up a bit before he punches and take advantage of the better timing window now that Pacquiao is tired, and Mayweather is then going to start being able to land clean hits on Pacquiao. Pacquiao is still going to be strong though and keep swinging all match and scoring points on Floyd. Other than a few good counters from Floyd and his good defensive pocket play, Pacquiao is going to dictate the fight.

Prediction:
It's going to go to go the 12 round distance. And Pacquiao is going to manage to come out with the win on the score cards because he is going to win more rounds at the start and isn't going to get a lead that Floyd can't fight back from. Pacquiao is not going to get as tired as all of Floyd's other opponents have shown. Pacquiao will most likely win the first 3-4 rounds, Mayweather will come back and win the next 2 or 3 with his pocket play and good counters, and then they are going to go back and forth from there for the remaining rounds, but Mayweather is not going to be able to express his dominance as much to get a ruling for a win. Manny is still going to be moving and swinging at the later rounds and Pacquiao will come out the winner.