By Geno McGahee
On July 20th, the continued career of Filipino legend, Manny “PacMan” Pacquiao, 61-7-2, 39 KO’s, will take on WBA Welterweight kingpin, Keith “One Time” Thurman, 29-0, 22 KO’s, and what started as an uphill battle for the PacMan has seen him turn into the favorite to win going into the PPV battle.
If you’re only as good as your last fight, Pacquiao should be the favorite. In January, Pacquiao easily dominated Adrien Broner en route to a wide decision win. The fight was impressive but Broner was known to shut down with activity and he fought as advertised. In Thurman’s last fight, he came off a two year layoff to eke by with a majority decision over the mediocrity, Josesito Lopez. If that Thurman shows up and the PacMan that shows up that fought Broner, we may see success in this new chapter of the Filipino legend’s story.
Recently, it’s been noted that the odds are shifting to make Manny the favorite to win the fight and Thurman has stated that he would put money on himself to win early by knockout. Expect the odds to increase in favor of Pacquiao as we get closer to the fight considering their recent outings and marquee value of the name Pacquiao, but if you’re a betting person, it’s a risk worth taking to put some down on Thurman to win. Despite the changing odds, Thurman should be the favorite and should pull this one out, but it won’t be easy.
In 2017, Pacquiao showed that father time could not be avoided in a loss to Jeff Horn. The final decision can be questioned, but the performance by Manny was less than great and if his last two victories, knockout over Lucas Matthysse and win over Broner were more indicative to the fact that he was fighting the right guys rather than a true return to form, Thurman may be his worst nightmare going into the match.
The fight with Danny Garcia may be the fight to focus on as Thurman goes into this one. Thurman looked great in the opening rounds, beating Garcia and stunning him often. Can Manny, at this stage of his career, still take those big punches from a young and hungry guy and if he’s behind on points, can he stop Thurman, his lack of knockouts over the recent years suggest that the answer is no.
The truth of the matter in this fight is that Manny is more of a question mark than Thurman as this point. If that Broner fight shows that he has found the fountain of youth and can still compete on this level with the best in the game, then we should be in for some great future fights in the welterweight division. If Pacquiao is the shell of his former self that many contend, Thurman is the truth machine that will expose it. Whatever the case, this fight is incredibly compelling and shows the staying power of a man that first found Pay Per View stardom in 2006.
