Manny Pacquiao. AFP file photo
MANILA, Philippines—Manny Pacquiao intends to overwhelm Floyd Mayweather Jr. with the sheer volume of his punches. Make that hard punches.
The Filipino ring icon bared the simple plan, part of a web of strategies and techniques which he’d use on May 2 against Mayweather, to Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports on Monday (Tuesday in Manila).
“I’m going to throw a lot of punches, a lot of hard punches,” Pacquiao told Iole.
While acknowledging that Mayweather “has a very good speed and footwork, and he has punches,” Pacquiao believes he has the tools to win their welterweight Super Fight at MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
According to the eight-division world champion, the unbeaten Mayweather won’t find it easy to deal with a fighter like him.
“There is nobody out there who has thrown a lot of punches at him, but I’m going to do that,” added Pacquiao, who’s strength emanates from volume punching rather than one-punch bombs.
Of course, one of Pacquiao’s highlight reels is the left hook that knocked out Briton Ricky Hatton cold in 2009.
Other prominent fight clips, however, show him pummeling bigger guys like Antonio Margarito, Oscar De La Hoya and Shane Mosley to either submission or resignation.
In his last fight last November, Pacquiao cut down Chris Algieri to size, scoring six knockdowns en route to a lopsided unanimous decision.
The Mayweather camp, however, was unimpressed, reasoning out that Algieri is more of a kickboxer.
Though Pacquiao considers Mayweather “a very good boxer,” the Filipino is also confident of his skills honed through 64 fights (55-5-2, 38 knockouts) and 19 years in the ring.
The protagonists spent their first day at the gym in the US on Monday. Early in the morning, Pacquiao jogged 10 kilometers, then shadow boxed and did abdominal exercises. Roy Luarca
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