By Ramon Aranda, Examiner.comTonight at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, Manny Pacquiao is set to take on Antonio Margarito for the vacant WBC 154-pound title.
It's being said that there is a storm on its way to the arena, courtesy of "The Tijuana Tornado", who enjoys a 5-inch height advantage and as of Friday afternoon's weigh-in, a 6-pound weight advantage over Pacquiao. In boxing, size disadvantages are nothing new to Pacquiao (51-3-2, 38 KOs) who has come in as the smaller man in bouts against Miguel Cotto, Ricky Hatton and Oscar De la Hoya. In those bouts, it was believed that Pacquiao would have a tough time not only taking his opponent's punches but also inflicting enough damage to hurt them.
As we found out quite emphatically, Manny was not only able to withstand the shots from his bigger foes, but it was in fact Pacquaio who dealt the bigger punishment, knocking all three fighters out - Cotto and De la Hoya via TKO and Hatton via brutal one-punch knockout.Still there has to be a limit as to just how far up Pacquiao can go before he finds himself in over his head. Will Margarito (38-6, 27 KOs) prove to be that opponent?
Before we can answer that we must first analyze Margarito as a fighter. We all know that the hand-wrap scandal is hovering over his career like a dark cloud, but that issue aside, how will Margarito fair against a smaller, yet faster and more agile opponent? Shane Mosley, who knocked Margarito into next week when he blitzed him in 2009, was a quick-fisted and used his speed to outland and beat Margarito to the punch. That Mosley also was able to move in and out against the slow, prodding Margarito also kept him out of harm's way for most of the fight. His previous loss was handed to him by Paul Williams, a fighter who also had a slight speed advantage and simply was too busy to allow Margarito to sit on his punches and throw harder blows.
Though Margarito is a power puncher by nature, when he's busy chasing his opponent or on the defense, his workrate suffers and has shown he can be out-worked.
Speed, foot movement and workrate is Pacquiao's bread and butter.
The Pacman tends to overwhelm his adversaries with a volley of punches, while his constant movement makes him difficult to keep up with and connect with flush shots.
While Margarito certainly has the goods to hurt Pacquiao, he'll have to cut off the ring and force Pacquiao to trade at close quarters. It's a small window of opportunity but a window Pacquiao typically closes.
Look for Pacquiao to fire one-twos up the middle throughout the night with plenty of success while making Margarito walk him down. Unlike Cotto who tired out after easily outworking and moving away from Margarito, Pacquiao will keep up the pace. Paccquiao may not have the one-punch KO power to truly hurt a legit junior middleweight but speed kills and that will be the biggest factor in the fight.
Though a TKO is possible, I'd look for Pacquiao to put a systematic beatdown on Margarito that gets more one-sided late in the fight. Margarito's constant pressure will keep things entertaining but in the end, I like Pacquiao to take home a comfortable decision win.
Enjoy the fight!
Source: examiner.com
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