By Rob Smith: There are more than a few boxing fans who think that WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao has been on the downside of his career since his impressive catchweight assisted win over former WBO welterweight champion Miguel Cotto in 2009. Indeed, Pacquiao has looked like the shell of his former self in four fights since then, beating Joshua Clottey, Antonio Margarito, Shane Mosley and Juan Manuel Marquez. In each progressive fight, Pacquiao looks a little slower and less impressive.
It’s unclear why Pacquiao has slowed down so much since the Cotto fight, but it could be he took a lot of heavy shots in that fight and it wore him down a little. Pacquiao also took a lot of hard jabs from Clottey and some heavy shots from Margarito that obviously didn’t help.
Larry Merchant, a longtime analyst with HBO, said to examiner.com writer Chris Robinson “This is a fight [Pacquiao-Bradley] that could show us whether Pacquiao still has the zeal and the capability to fight on the level he was, say against Cotto. And I think it’s important for him to make a good fight after the Marquez fight and some of the other fights. I think he wants to prove himself as well as others that he’s still the potent force we saw as against De La Hoya and Cotto.”
It may not be possible for Pacquiao to get back to the level he was at in the Cotto fight, because if you look at tape from that old fight you’ll notice that Pacquiao was quick and able to change angles lightning fast. Since then, Pacquiao has been more or less a plodder, a flat-footed fighter that moves around the ring like he’s skating or shuffling. His movements aren’t nearly as quick and he seems to get hit a lot more than he did in the past.
That’s not to say that Pacquiao can’t get by Tim Bradley on June 9th, because he’s still got a big power and speed advantage over Bradley. But it does suggest that unless Pacquiao is able to find his way back to the type of performances he put in before the Cotto fight, we’ll likely see Pacquiao struggle to beat Bradley. He’ll still likely win, because Bradley has well scouted out and it’s clear that he doesn’t have a lot of power, but Pacquiao could take a lot of punishment in winning this fight.