By Mortz C. Ortigoza*
In this coming Sunday,
commercial and criminal activities in the Philippines will be in a stand still.
From joggers to muggers
all these people will be in the confine of their houses glued at the boob tube
and radios because their boxing icon and senator Manny Pacquiao, 40,
will be trading leathers with elite American boxer Keith Thurman, 30, for the World
Boxing Association’s Super World Welterweight Title at MGM Grand in Las Vegas,
Nevada.
In this pre - fight
analysis I will delve on the strengths and weaknesses of both pugs and my
unsolicited advises how they neutralize each other to win the diadem.
I based mostly my
analysis on how a young rugged Australian’s Jeff Horn relentlessly dawned on the
older Pacquiao like a windmill and saw him struggle to avoid those flurry of
blows and lost the fight at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Australia.
I studied too how Thurman
chalked up victories against two of the very best Welterweight boxers during
their matches in the whirling dervish Joe Frazier liked Shawn Porter and the
hard but accurate hitting Danny Garcia.
Although Thurman knocked down
Josesito Lopez (36-7-0 with 42 percent K.O ratio) in the early rounds, in that
latest rumble Keith was lethargic because of his two years’ absence in the ring because he recuperated on a right elbow injury and got married.
THURMAN’S
- He is a 29-0-0 cagey fighter. He, with a two
inches reach advantage to Manny, is liked a remote controlled toy car who comes
forward, backward, and side ward to his opponents while snapping his stiff left
jabs and looping right straight punches to openings he could exploit.
- He is a cerebral fighter. Cerebral, to those
who skipped their school classes, means an intelligent boxer, who like Floyd
Mayweather, give premium to the brain than his brawn to win.
- He punches with quick strong left and right
hooks that gave him 73 percent technical knocked out (TKO) and knocked out
(K.O) ratio since he joined in November 2007 the Hurt Industry as professional.
This K.Os and T.K.Os streaked stopped when he collided with seasoned tough
chinned pugs in Robert Guerrero, Porter, to Danny Garcia.
PACQUIAO’S
- He can hit from awkward angles that could pose
a problem with Thurman.
- Feint his right jab then throw his left power
punch. It’s efficacy however depreciated, thanks but no thanks to Father Time,
from the halcyon days of unhampered knocking out the likes of Emmanuel Lucero, Ricky
Hatton, David Diaz, and Miguel Cotto in 2009 he could hardly K.O an opponent
thereafter. Forget the TKO of Lucas Martin Matthysse in 2018. I suspected it as
a farce to boost the stocks of Pacquiao for a bigger money fights with a
rematch to Floyd Mayweather, Jr. or a rumble with Errol Spence.
Despite his age and a
battle scarred records 61-7-2, considered an old timer in the trade, Pacquiao’s
stamina nevertheless was exceptional. Horn suffered a beating with his looping
left punches in the ninth round when the Aussie absconded from them as he faded
out.
THURMAN’S WEAKNESSES
When he jabs with his
left hand has tendency to lower his right guard that Pacquiao can counter with
his left.
His right liver was
vulnerable, just like to those scammed victims of Kapa, Rigen, and Jogle, to a
left hook just like what Luis Collazo in 2015 had done to him in the fifth round.
Thurman to survive that
devastating blow hugged and darted away from Collazo, who smelt blood, was
ready to give him the coup d’ grace.
Garcia in 2017 fight
wanted to emulate Collazo by targeting that liver too. But Thurman, who change strategy, fought
in a distance in the second half of the rounds. Thurman’s ring genius
outpointed Garcia, who subjugated Nate Campbell, Eric
Morales, Amir Khan, and Lamont Peterson, lost the battle.
If the Greek mythology almost
invincible warrior’s Achilles has a target paper's heel that caused his death from
an enemy’s arrow, Josesito Lopez, a second rate pug, discovered that the other
Achilles Heel of Thurman was on his chin when he landed a left hook and
followed it by a right straight at the seventh round.
Thurman, who made a
comeback in that tune up fight after an injury, explained at a television interview that
he miscalculated in avoiding the long reach of Lopez.
He said Pacquiao cannot
do that to him. “He is like a T.rex," he told Porter when the latter asked him
on that seventh round debacle with Lopez. A Tyrannosaurus rex, to those who
dropped out in Grade 6, was one of the largest meat-eating dinosaurs that
ever lived. Its problem however it had both short arms in the Philippines we called maiksi ang mga kamay. The opposite of "mahaba ang mga kamay, an idiom that also referred to many members of the Philippine Congress.
“Pacquiao has to jump
to reach me,” he continued on the five feet five inches' height Pacquiao. Thurman is
five feet seven inches.
PACQUIAO’S WEAKNESSES
The power punches of
Manny had been snapped by Father Time. Aussie Horn, an underdog, had been hit
by the power left of Manny for countless of times but he kept rampaging and
hitting through his British styled punches to the lateral moving but
befuddled Manny.
Has the tendency to back track
to the ropes and shelled himself with his elbows and gloves there. Horn
exploited that gap between his raised elbows with upper cuts that landed on his
lower chin and sides of his lower torso.
After Horn stopped
chasing Manny, the latter stopped and gazed while he lowered his left guard. A
no-no if one faces an unpredictable but snapping hand right crosser like Floyd
Mayweather. Had Thurman practice this technique?
WHAT THURMAN SHOULD DO
Use the left feint then
followed by a strong left straight, yes Virginia left straight not right cross,
to the face of Manny just like what Thurman had done to Garcia.
Just like in Horn’s
fight, the shell of Pacquiao had a hole just like a suction for Thurman’s jaw
breaking upper cut and rib breaking hooks.
After he threw the right
cross to Manny he dives to his left and slides to avoid Pacquiao’s
counter-left.
Use his left jabs to
deter Manny to reach him.
Since he promised to
knocked out and retire Pacquiao in round two just like what Manny, he cited,
had done to Oscar dela Hoya, I will be seeing Thurman put Pacquiao on his toes
three minutes in a round chasing and hitting him with hooks, uppercuts, and crosses.
He did that to Garcia
with effectivity in the first half of the rounds that in one of them he jarred
Garcia with a punch.
When Manny looped his
right punch, Thurman counter it with his strong left punch at his face reminiscent of his first fights to Eric Morales and Juan Manuel Marquez where
Pacquiao head snapped every time it absorbed those hard punches.
WHAT PACQUIAO SHOULD DO
Watch the left feint of
Thurman that he followed with his right straight cross. But before the right
cross can be launched answered the feint with a quick counter punch.
Because of Thurman’s
tendency to lower his left glove from his face hit him with a looping right
punch.
Thurman telegraphs his right ax-liked punch. Manny can preempt it by sneaking his left power
punch at the face of the former.
When Thurman bobbled and
bowed low, Manny should hit him with 1-2-3-4 combination at the sides of his
body just like what Garcia did to Thurman.
When cornered by Thurman,
he ties him and unleashes his sneaking short hooks to the head of the American.
MY FEARLESS
Because of his youth, athleticism, hard punched, ring intelligence, I see Thurman in a unanimous
decision. I will not be surprised also if the charismatic speaking American will
knock - out the declining boxer from the Philippine Senate.
(*The
author was one of the very few Philippines boxing writers to predict in radio
and television's interviews and in his blog that Pacquiao would be outclassed and vanquished by the marquee Floyd Mayweather. Oh, he did not only talk the walk he even walks
the walk and won the bet because of the phrase: Put your money where your mouth
is)
READ MY OTHER ARTICLE
The House Speaker and I on Ali
(You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too attotomortzmarcelo@gmail.com)
No comments:
Post a Comment