My Layman’s Analysis of Pacquiao and Mayweather…

Punches: Pacquiao is known for his flurry of hard punches with his southpaw jaw-breaker quickly following his right punches. Mayweather is more calculative in his punches but are sneaky and could come from anywhere.

Defense: Mayweather puts a lot of attention in his defenses and never lets his arms down. Pacquiao, on the other hand, is often seen opening his defenses to throw those nasty punches which makes sense — How can you throw a lot of punches if your fists and arms are both in a defensive position.

Footwork: Both are fast on their feet.

Reach: Definitely, Mayweather has a reach advantage which could keep Pacquiao at bay and at a distance making it difficult for Pacquiao to hit Mayweather.

Pacquiao, in my own opinion, could even the odds by copying Frazier’s strategy when Frazier fought Ali. Ali had a reach advantage but was not able to put Frazier at bay. Frazier closed the gap by always advancing towards Ali enabling him to connect punches at will and making it difficult for Ali to use a fully-torqued extended punches. A longer reach can be a handicap if you cannot fully extend your arms to punch resulting to less powerful punches. It’s like playing golf where you cannot fully extend your follow-up swing resulting to poor distance.

… Just my thoughts…. 🙂

Photo Courtesy of Larry Brown Sports