Terrible and Pac Deux

El Terible and Pac Deux

Outspoken Mexican boxing great Erik Morales is very confident heading into the rematch with our very own Manny Pacquiao.

“When I backed him up, he didn’t know what to do,” Morales said. “Pacquiao has no problems moving forward, and I don't think he will have enough time to adjust.” He continued.

Strong words, but are the remarks just plain arrogance? Lets take a look at the ABC theory:

A beats B
B beats C
so obviously
A beats C
Now lets see actual matches:
Pacquiao beat Barrera.
Barrera beat Morales twice.
Thus, PacMan should have had little trouble with Morales last March right?
Wrong. The ABC theory is flawed.

For Boxing, styles makes fights.

Morales proved that through effective outboxing,  neutralizing Pac’s slugger stance. Manila Ice melted before it even began.. And unlike the Barrera fight, Morales hardly had any bruises to prove his superior ring generalship versus Manny. And because of that Pacquiao must summon a helluva effort in training to overcome the disadvantage.

What must Pacman do to help his cause?
Well for starters, give up the vices in-between fights and do away with the distractions. The problem is when he goes home he is treated like Elvis and interviews happen here and there. Commercial this, commercial  that, and sitcom appearances come from all directions.  Worse, his opponent is already pondering on strategy while all of these are happening.

Concentrate on building up stamina instead of power shots.
Pac has a knack for trying to finish opponents early, but with a granite chin like Morales, it will never be easy. So instead of focusing strength conditioning, they better concentrate more on the stamina regimen similar to what they did against Barrera 2 years ago. Wearing Morales down will be the key through rapid hard jabs and combinations.

Practice on backpedaling counters.
Landing angled counter hooks and crosses will help Manny overcome this weakness. Pacquiao had a lot of trouble dealing with Morales’ lead straights, causing him to move back every time Terrible attacks with the 1-2. Given Pacquiao’s innate ability to learn fast I guess he can incorporate this style without disrupting the rhythm he became famous for.

I’m no boxing analyst but the things he must work on are pretty obvious. Now that he has Cleto Reyes we’ll see if gloves were an issue last time out.

But one thing is for sure, there is no way Erik Morales can summon a performance better than what he had shown in the previous bout.

The next step is up to PacMan.

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