FanPost

If you were Freddie Roach...

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I recently had a very enjoyable conversation on this site about what tactics we thought Mayweather should/is likely to use against Pacquiao. After mulling this over quite a lot I came to a far more challenging question; how should Pacquiao approach Mayweather. Getting past Mayweather's stellar defense is a very difficult thing for any fighter to do and I don't think even the great Pacquiao offense can do it enough but if you were Freddie Roach, and you had to think up the game plan for beating Floyd, what would you do?

Working out a full game plan is certainly beyond me but I have had some thoughts.

Footwork

To plod against Mayweather is to lose to Mayweather. If Pacquiao doesn't use good footwork then Mayweather will be able to set the distance exactly how he wants, enabling him to hit, tie up or run away whenever he likes and as much as he likes. Pacquiao needs to keep his feet fast at all times if he wants to get close to Mayweather and land some shots.

Outwork Him

As far as I can tell the best way to come close to beating Mayweather is to be seen to be outworking him by a significant amount. It almost worked for Castillo and part of what made De La Hoya succesful in the early part of his fight with Mayweather was that he was doing more and had Floyd on the ropes. Manny needs to be throwing big amounts of punches at the right moments to look more impressive and more dangerous than his opponent.

Floyd Will Not Knock Him Out

I would bet my farm and granny on this. Unless Pacquiao gets stupidly reckless and undisciplined, and gets caught by a perfect punch he isn't going down. His chin is great at 147 and Mayweather doesn't hit as hard as Cotto.

Body

Floyd's going to go there, so should Manny. It's uncommon for Floyd to get hit much at all and even less common for him to take a great deal of body shots. Pacquiao is no soft hitter and if he can get to Floyd effectively I reckon the body is the best place to aim those punches. This is simply because it will obvously tire Mayweather and face him with an adversity which he hasn't experienced for a long time, if ever.

These really are just some points which I think Pacquiao would do well to pay at least a little attention to but I'm no more than a guy on the internet so, what do I know?

What I'm most interested in are your ideas for how Pacman can overcome one of the greatest defensive fighters of all time. Let's hear them.

Photo by Ethan Miller / Getty Images

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