Pilosopong Tado wrote:
in a post-fight interview, floyd mayweather sr. candidly said that his son would whoop manny, yet he would advise him not to take that fight.
i remember watching the corley fight several years back, and jim lampley saying sometime during the action that after lil floyd fought a southpaw for the first time as a pro, floyd the decrepit, then serving a sentence, called from prison to tell his handlers never to match him up against a southpaw again. money has since beaten chop chop corley and zab judah -- both of whom were able to land clean shots on his face in the early rounds, with the latter even flooring him in the first or second round of their fight, i forget. obviously, manny is light years ahead of these guys when it comes to overall boxing skill.
i've also noticed that floyd likes pushing forward and being the aggressor when fighting southpaws. this might just be a coincidence, since during the corley fight, floyd was still an up-and-comer trying to earn market patronage, and against judah, he had an opponent who was known to fold under pressure, OR, it could be because his philly defense doesn't function as well against lefties than it does against righties, so he almost abandons it completely when fighting southpaws. this is something he cannot afford to do against manny, for obvious reasons.
i know styles make fights, and manny is particularly susceptible against counter-punchers, but when you list down all his strengths -- he is a fast-handed, light-footed awkward southpaw who likes to apply pressure and throw punches from crazy angles ('a geometrical nightmare' as a famous commentator once put it) -- then its as if you're making a list of floyd's little pet peeves. each is the other's weakness. on paper, even without all the mythical titles attached to it, this makes for a really great matchup. the yin and the yang.
anyway, the point is this:
MANNY PACQUIAO IS THE ULTIMATE SOUTHPAW -- that's why senior doesn't want his son to fight him.
nice observations.