By Geno McGahee
With the recent signing with Al Haymon, there are now many huge options for the Pacman. Manny Pacquiao, 60-7-2, 39 KO’s, seemed to be gone from the elite boxing scene after a loss to Jeff Horn, but he is now back and ready to give boxing one more go and he could not have picked a tougher division. His recent win, a knockout, over Lucas Matthysse has brought back the hope that the old Pacman may give the boxing fans one more great run.
Al Haymon’s welterweights include Keith Thurman, Shawn Porter, Errol Spence, JR., and Danny Garcia. He has already secured a fight with the bad boy of boxing, Adrien Broner, a faded star, but a dangerous one. Pacquiao beat up an old Matthysse, but how will he deal with a fighter in his prime, Broner, but there is the mental part of the game and that is where Manny had a huge edge on the man known as “The Problem.”
Out of the crop of potential fighters that Manny could fight, picking Broner makes the most sense. He clams up when the punches are coming in and can be outpointed by sheer work rate. This was proven by Mikey Garcia and Shawn Porter. This is something that Broner needs to overcome to get the upset win, but the most likely result here is a UD for the Filipino superstar. The question would be, what’s next?
The next opponent should be Danny Garcia. He’s smaller and tires late in fights. It would be another chance for Pacquiao to shine and win, but after that, the road gets much tougher. Perhaps all roads to lead to a Floyd Mayweather, JR., rematch, but it’s a hard sell, even if Manny can do better and even win. Their first fight was 100 dollar pay per view and the undercard stunk and the main event was even worse. How will they create the demand for a potential stinker?
Remarkably, a fight between Pacquiao and Floyd now could be much better. Judging by Floyd’s work in the Conor McGregor fight, it’s fair to say that he’s not the same fighter he was when he fought PacMan. Manny showed he had something left against Matthysse. If Manny can take advantage of the slower reflexes of PBF, he might be able to get some things really done. It’s compelling, but I don’t see a lot of people putting down 100 bucks to see it.
The focus is on and should be on Broner. If Broner comes in motivated and decides to open up, he can defeat Pacquiao and shake things up. At one time, Broner was considered the next big thing in boxing. He has the tools to regain his footing. He just has to stay focused and apply himself. The fight is incredibly interesting because anything can happen and could launch the new Pacquiao run or finally put him out of the game.
