THE MOSLEY PUNCH THAT PACQUIAO SHOULD BE MOST CONCERNED ABOUT

Tagbilaran City, Bohol – Barely three weeks to go before the much publicized and highly criticized faceoff between all-time boxing greats Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao (52-3-2, 38 KOs) of the Philippines and “Sugar” Shane Mosley (46-6-1, 39 KOs) of the United States, both camps are now in deep training, trying to perfect the strategies they have prepared that they think will give them the best chance of coming out victorious in this WBO welterweight title showdown. This bout takes place on the 7th of May at the historic MGM Grand Hotel and Casino of Las Vegas, Nevada. In this piece, we are going to cite a particular element of Mosley’s vast boxing arsenal that Team Pacquiao needs to be most worried about.

Throughout Mosley’s illustrious professional boxing career, the 39-year-old California native has fought only a handful of southpaws. To be exact, Mosley has practically traded mitts against two lefties by the name of Luiz Collazo and Ronald “Winky” Wright… three if we’d consider a three-round No Contest against the unheralded Raul Marquez several years back. Of course, he might have faced one or two or more southpaws way earlier in his pugilistic career, but who cares? Those bouts are insignificant as far as this scheduled clash with Pacquiao is concerned. Hence and rightfully so, we shall only consider Mosley’s bouts with Collazo and Wright in this discussion.
Boxing pundits will definitely see this as a major chink in Mosley’s armor, noting the fact that Pacquiao isn’t even your typical southpaw. Not having enough experience fighting against a lefty stance is one thing, but having to face someone with a stance as unconventional and as unusual as Pacquiao’s is another. On the flipside, this could very well cause Pacquiao’s camp to overlook the likelihood of one of Mosley’s most powerful weapons to cause more damage than they normally would against an orthodox fighter.

Esteemed boxing scribe Dennis ‘D Source’ Guillermo noted Mosley’s overhand right as a punch that “can surprise anyone.” We couldn’t agree more with Guillermo’s assessment. That dreaded overhand right was particularly effective against Antonio “The Tijuana Tornado” Margarito and most recently, in round two of the bout against “Pretty Boy” Floyd Mayweather, Jr, when Mosley clearly hurt his undefeated foe. That’s given and expected of Mosley come fight night. It might be important to note, nevertheless, that Mosley usually connects this vaunted punch if his opponent is standing in front of him flatfooted. Mayweather almost paid dearly for that. Apart from a few instances against Clottey and Cotto, however, with Pacquiao’s constant bobbing and weaving, there’s no way that the Pinoy is going to stay in front of Mosley and become a sucker for the latter’s overhand rights. Add the fact that Pacquiao is relatively shorter and often ducks low, the chances of him getting tagged with that punch is almost nil. But like Guillermo said, Mosley’s overhand right can definitely surprise Pacquiao… that is if the gloved congressman becomes complacent… only if Pacquiao becomes careless.
There is, however, one other punch that could very well pose a more potent threat to Pacquiao regardless of the Filipino firebomb becoming careless or not – the left hook to the body. In the exact words of HBO’s Jim Lampley while covering the Mosley-Collazo welterweight tussle a couple of years back, “Good left hook to the body by Shane. That was the punch that terrorized the lightweight division years ago.”

Pacquiao is superfast and there’s no freaking way that Mosley is going to catch him just by headhunting. The body is a bigger and less mobile target than the head. With Mosley’s advanced age and diminishing speed, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to predict Mosley’s strategy going into this fight. The grizzled veteran will try his best to close the gap and inflict damage where he has the best chance of connecting – Pacquiao’s breadbasket, specifically the right rib cage. It might also help his cause that Pacquiao is a southpaw, which correspondingly means that the target will be within striking distance most of the time. Pacquiao may have the uncanny ability to suppress or otherwise mask pain… but he certainly could have done a better job, though, when Juan Manuel Marquez tagged him with a vicious left hook just as when the overmatched Margarito landed the same on Pacquaio’s right rib cage. This is not to say that Shane is going to drop Manny with that vicious left hook. Nonetheless, Team Pacquiao still needs to watch out for it. That left hook is Mosley’s best weapon to eke out an upset. Therefore, it is but essential for Team Pacquiao to prepare for that and not leave everything to chance.

Source: PhilBoxing.com