Pacman vs. 135

By Arben Paloka

It is not very often that we witness a display of greatness such as the one we saw on Saturday night when Manny Pacquiao stopped David Diaz in the ninth round of his first fight at lightweight. To make matters clear, Pacquiao was favored to win this fight, but many experts viewed David Diaz as a legitimate threat to stop the Pacquiao hype train. While Pacquiao’s victory did not shock many, it was the fashion in which he performed that had everyone impressed.

Sure, there are already talks about Pacquiao moving up to 140lbs and challenging Ricky Hatton, but while he is here, why don’t we compare him against the elite at 135lbs?

Since reaching boxing super stardom, Pacquiao has faced top flight opposition while being carefully matched. Twelve of his previous thirteen fights have been against Mexican fighters. Some were considered to be on the downside of their careers while still being on the top of their division (Barrera, Morales, and Marquez). Only one of them can be considered a truly slick fighter (Marquez), while the rest are prone to brawling. Pacquiao has been able to come out on top against these fighters due to his combination of power and speed as well as his ferocious fighting spirit, but it is evident that certain style types are avoided.

So now we examine the styles at the lightweight division. At the top of the division is four fighters; Nate Campbell, Joel Casamayor, Juan Diaz and Michael Katsidis. Each provide a different style and perspective, and when meshed with Pacquiao, provide for interesting match-ups.

Nate Campbell possesses a terrific combination of defense and offense. He has shown the ability to box his way to a decision as well as turn a fight into a brawl. He poses the greatest threat to Pacquiao due to the fact that no matter what Pacquiao throws at him, Campbell will have some kind of a response. Campbell’s greatest strength has been his ability to fight on the inside. In his most recent outing, he mauled Juan Diaz and forced him to smother his punches, which come at a high rate.

While always holding his own on the inside, Pacquiao has shown a tendency to lose his footing when he leaps in with a flurry. Campbell can certainly exploit this. But Pacquiao’s technical ability is vastly underrated, and his offensive output can put Campbell on the defensive. While he has looked good defensively, Campbell does not create enough offense as a result of his defense. This fight would basically start out as two fighters looking to knock each other’s block off, and the first fighter to make his opponent tire will emerge the victor. Pacquiao closes his fights in the same fashion that he starts while Campbell does not.

Joel Casamayor provides an interesting style match up, but not necessarily an entertaining one. Had this been the Casamayor of old, a firefight would be expected. Unfortunately, we are just talking about an old Casamayor. As talented as he is, Casamayor’s game has turned very John Ruiz-like in his technique and resorts to holding to wear out his opponents. What makes this interesting is that this writer cannot recall Pacquiao having to consistently wrestle out of a clinch for over four years. What gives Pacquiao the edge is that while Casamayor leans in and throws one or two punches that initiate the clinch, Pacquiao throws three punches while popping in and out of his opponent’s punching (Or in this case, clinching) range. That gives Pacquiao the edge.

Juan Diaz’ style is probably the only in the sport that can compare to Pacquiao’s. He’s an aggressive puncher and never takes a step backwards. He is better defensively than he is given credit for, and his only weakness showed in his loss against Nate Campbell where he was molested with body punching, clinching, and superior positioning on the inside. Neither of those Pacquiao does well, but his left hand would be the critical factor in this match up.

Pacquiao’s advantage is that Diaz has avoided southpaws like the plague; never having faced one since he was a seventeen year old amateur. Diaz’ straight forward and squared up attack seems very susceptible to Pacquiao’s bullet like left hand.

While being one of the likeable personalities around, Michael Katsidis is vastly overrated as a boxer. He has never beaten a top fighter yet his fans suffer from the dreaded Gatti syndrome. Gatti syndrome is named after Arturo Gatti, Boxing’s former blood and guts hero, and occurs when fans have unrealistic expectations of success without any history of performing well against top opposition.

Katsidis does not match up to Pacquiao. His only advantage is power, but has not shown ability to finish at the elite level. Casamayor was able to withstand Katsidis’ punch output and put him away early. Pacquiao sends him packing in eight.

The lightweight division provides some very interesting style clashes that can prospectively be made. But as I stated earlier, Pacquiao has been matched very well, and as his popularity grows more and more, he will continue to be matched well.

His next big fight will most likely not even occur at the lightweight limit of 135lbs. Ricky Hatton, whose countrymen’s loyalty rival that of Pacquiao’s Pinoy brethren, is right around the corner at 140lbs for a super-fight. We hope this writer did not waste his time writing this piece, because we would be missing out on some intense action at 135lbs.

We can hope, can’t we?