By Dar Mead
The May 7th Manny Pacquiao vs. Sugar Shane Mosley showdown on Showtime has the makings of one of the biggest upsets in the history of boxing.
If you think about everything that is going on surrounding this fight it is the perfect time for Shane Mosley to catch Manny Pacquiao and pull off the biggest win of his career.
News that Amir Khan fired his strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza came out a week ago and now it’s being rumored that Manny Pacquiao may not be using Alexa Ariza again — this is not a good sign.
Alex Ariza took Manny Pacquiao to new heights ever since he took over as Pacman’s conditioning trainer in 2008. Ariza was highly critical of Manny Pacquiao being unfocused and traveling around while training for the Antonio Margarito fight and felt Manny was being lazy and not taking the training seriously. Pacquiao and his team claim they didn’t like some of the new training techniques Ariza was using and Manny felt sluggish, but it could be that Ariza had the nerve to show disappointment in Pacquiao and when stars develop a big head or ego they don’t like when someone working for them criticizes them and usually that person will get the boot.
Freddie Roach made mention of this in the past, that people around Manny are scared to open their mouth and criticize him for fear they may lose their job if they rub Manny Pacquiao the wrong way. If Ariza was fired it would be a great example of that, he was getting very mouthy and opinionated, he even insulted Amir Khan’s father calling him a cab driver and thief who shouldn’t manage his sons boxing career, you don’t insult someones father, Alex must realize blood his thicker than water.
At this moment, I wasn’t too impressed with Manny Pacquiao’s performance against Antonio Margarito. It was clear as day Manny wasn’t in his best condition for the Margarito fight because he was getting hit with slow punches from Margarito. Manny was clearly more focused on his political career during training for that fight. If a distracted Pacquiao was being tagged by a very slow Margarito, what more will Shane Mosley do if Pacquiao doesn’t take this fight seriously?
For the Mosley fight, Manny needs to get in the type of condition when he first fought Oscar De La Hoya. And Manny must box Mosley the way he boxed Oscar, in and out, he threw fast flurries got out quick and used his fast feet to side step Oscar rarely getting hit.
If Manny doesn’t train hard or obey Freddie Roach, he may have to learn the hard way when he fights a hungry older Shane Mosley who has nothing to lose and wants to prove people wrong. Shane Mosley doesn’t have any stress because everyone is counting him out and expecting Manny to win easily. If Manny Pacquiao shows up with even more distractions and fights the way he did against Antonio Margarito, he might be in for one of the hardest fights of his life, and this time he might not come out on top.
This fight on May 7, 2011 could be Mike Tyson vs. James “Buster” Douglas all over again.
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