{"id":51590,"date":"2015-03-14T18:59:33","date_gmt":"2015-03-14T23:59:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=51590"},"modified":"2015-03-14T18:59:33","modified_gmt":"2015-03-14T23:59:33","slug":"manny-pacquiao-floyd-mayweather-jr-fire-and-ice-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=51590","title":{"rendered":"Manny Pacquiao \u2013 Floyd Mayweather, JR. \u2013 Fire and Ice Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PBF<\/a>By Roy Bennett<\/strong><\/p>\n

ICE: The case for Floyd Mayweather, JR.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

America loves a winner. Or it used to. Nowadays people are hard to please. All winners are not created equal in the eyes of an increasingly well informed and critical public.<\/p>\n

Ask Lance Armstrong.<\/p>\n

Floyd Mayweather’s troubles outside the ring are well documented. Suffice to say the law metes out the necessary punishment to those that color outside certain lines.<\/p>\n

Do the crime and you do the time.<\/p>\n

Mayweather has done both.<\/p>\n

Perhaps this is why, despite his stellar Hall of Fame level championship career, he remains a polarizing figure amongst fans. Seemingly loved and hated in equal measure.<\/p>\n

But regardless on which side of the fence you sit there is no denying one thing.<\/p>\n

Floyd Mayweather, JR. is a boxing savant. Born to do it.<\/p>\n

Raised in a family where his father and two uncles were all professional boxers, his life course was predetermined as soon as he could walk.<\/p>\n

Nurtured in this tradition of boxing excellence, Mayweather went 84-6 as an amateur winning the National Golden Gloves title three times in four years, and a Bronze Medal in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta along the way.<\/p>\n

Subsequent to entering the professional ranks and punching for pay he has gone on an almost nineteen year unbeaten streak, winning world titles in five divisions.<\/p>\n

Lets face it.<\/p>\n

The hit song “All I do is Win,” byDJ Khaled could’ve been made just for Floyd Mayweather, JR.<\/p>\n

Because thus far in his 47 pro fight career that’s all he’s done.<\/p>\n

Win.<\/p>\n

Untold riches have followed his success. He has the means to enjoy the finest things money can buy, and has no qualms about sometimes ostentatiously displaying his wealth.<\/p>\n

But this is no “born with a silver spoon in his mouth” rich kid from a privileged family in the suburbs.<\/p>\n

The Grand Rapids, Michigan native had a tough upbringing in a dysfunctional family.
\nHis father was sent to jail for drug trafficking. His mother was a drug addict. He was sent to live with his grandmother. These experiences must have shaped his psychology toward life in general. And they did.<\/p>\n

Living so close to the edge made him hungry and drove him to succeed in a sport that has rescued many a young man from the ravages of the street. And at some point in his young life he must have sworn never to settle for second best in anything going forward.<\/p>\n

I remember watching an interview with Sam Watson, who looks after and advises fighters for HBO, where he told an interesting story about the welterweight champion. Watson said he was at a nightclub one night with Mayweather and a large entourage of people. It was around 2:00am.The club was packed, everybody was having a good time. Floyd doesn’t drink or smoke. Then Mayweather suddenly says,\u201dWe’re leaving”.<\/p>\n

To do what?<\/p>\n

Watson smiles at the retelling.<\/p>\n

“Floyd wanted to go running and do some gym work. He didn’t even have a fight scheduled.”<\/p>\n

After he was done they all went back to the club.<\/p>\n

Hard work. Dedication.<\/p>\n

Many boxing insiders have said you won’t find a harder working boxer anywhere. They say nobody trains as hard as Mayweather does.<\/p>\n

He holds himself to exacting standards in the gym. Always in shape. All year round. He personifies the term “professional.”<\/p>\n

The Brawl in Montreal\u2026.<\/p>\n

Mayweather versus Pacquiao reminds me in several ways of the highly anticipated clash between Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran, in Montreal back in 1980.<\/p>\n

Like Mayweather, Leonard was unbeaten, the defending (WBC) welterweight title holder, an African American superstar, a former Olympic (Gold) medalist, and the betting favorite going in.<\/p>\n

The parallels between Pacquiao and Duran are also remarkably similar.<\/p>\n

Duran was the smaller fighter who had moved up in weight to challenge a physically bigger champion. He’d won and held the world lightweight title in an iron fist for several years.
\nHe was a high energy, aggressive fighter with knockout power, who came from an impoverished background in Panama.<\/p>\n

Like Pacquiao, Duran was considered a national hero by his fellow countrymen and
\nwas also the betting underdog going in.<\/p>\n

There was genuine smoldering dislike between both fighters that would combust when the first bell rang on fight night.<\/p>\n

Duran was 29 years old with a record of 71-1 going in with his only loss having been avenged twice by KO.<\/p>\n

Leonard was only 24 years of age and had a record of 27-0.<\/p>\n

In one of the greatest fights I have ever seen Duran dragged Leonard into a fifteen round war
\nof attrition.<\/p>\n

Leonard waged war willingly but it proved to be a bad mistake.<\/p>\n

Duran was ferocity incarnate, and Leonard had to fight every second of every round to stave off Duran’s relentless pressure or risk being overwhelmed.<\/p>\n

Might Pacquiao be able to do the same thing to Mayweather?<\/p>\n

Not without a killer instinct he won’t.<\/p>\n

No. I’m serious.<\/p>\n

When was the last time we saw Pacquiao go for the jugular?<\/p>\n

A dangerous habit emerged after the Antonio Margarito fight.<\/p>\n

Manny Pacquiao started to hold back and “take it easy” on his opponents.<\/p>\n

He went on record as saying he held back against Margarito and Brandon Rios.<\/p>\n

In his fight with Shane Mosley he touched gloves so many times during the bout I got the feeling Pacquiao had a kind of unspoken agreement going on with his opponent along the lines of, “If you don’t try to win I won’t hit you too hard.”<\/p>\n

He also eased up against Tim Bradley in the second half of their first fight and lost a controversial points decision.<\/p>\n

Then came the stunning KO defeat against Juan Manuel Marquez.<\/p>\n

Since then he’s cruised past Rios, beat Bradley on points in a rematch, in which he didn’t look particularly impressive, and beat up the woefully overmatched Chris Algieri to win a lopsided decision.<\/p>\n

But he couldn’t keep the former kick boxer down for the full count.<\/p>\n

Pacquiao taking his foot off the gas and letting guys hang around signifies a change in fighting attitude that has negatively influenced several of his performances and resulted in a dearth of knockout wins. Age might also have something to do with it. Pacquiao is 36. Considered old for a lighter weight fighter.<\/p>\n

In contrast Mayweather’s boxing style is not predicated on ripping guys to pieces or robbing them of their consciousness with a single well placed blow.<\/p>\n

As a result he doesn’t have to be super aggressive to clearly beat another fighter.<\/p>\n

At this stage of his career, at 38, he can completely outclass an opponent and in the process neutralize his best weapons to render him ineffective.<\/p>\n

Canelo Alvarez can tell you all about that aspect of Floyd Mayweather’s game.<\/p>\n

His technical virtuosity, quickness of hand and foot, ring generalship, and defensive mastery make him an incredibly difficult puzzle to solve.<\/p>\n

And he punches harder than people give him credit for.<\/p>\n

So far nobody has managed to figure out how to decipher the enigma that is Floyd Mayweather, JR.<\/p>\n

On May 2nd, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, I don’t see that fact changing.<\/p>\n

Read Part I of: Manny Pacquiao \u2013 Floyd Mayweather, JR. \u2013 Fire and Ice<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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By Roy Bennett ICE: The case for Floyd Mayweather, JR. America loves a winner. Or it used to. Nowadays people are hard to please. All winners are not created equal in the eyes of an increasingly well informed and critical public. Ask Lance Armstrong. Floyd Mayweather’s troubles outside the ring are well documented. Suffice to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[12393,10504],"class_list":["post-51590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boxing-news","tag-jr-fire-and-ice-part-ii","tag-manny-pacquiao-floyd-mayweather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51590"}],"version-history":[{"count":-4,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51590\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}