By Edward Chaykovsky
If WBA 'regular' welterweight champion Keith Thurman was handing out advice to Manny Pacquiao - on how to beat Floyd Mayweather Jr. - he would tell him to go in there and press forward at all times with a very high workrate.
Mayweather and Pacquiao will unify their WBO/WBA/WBC welterweight titles in a mega-match unification on May 2nd from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Mayweather is a master counter-puncher and Pacquiao has had a lot of trouble with a much slower counter-puncher in Juan Manuel Marquez. Of course, Marquez had 36 rounds of experience before he stepped in the ring with Pacquiao for their fourth meeting in 2013.
"[Marquez] did have time to adapt, he knew exactly what he was getting in the ring with - where Floyd is vulnerable. If you watch any of his fights, he is vulnerable in the first three rounds, very vulnerable. But he figures people out very quickly. Is he going to be able to do the same thing with Manny or is Manny going to make it a difficult night and its going to take him longer to adjust, and even if he does adjust will it be enough to take the rounds," Thurman said.
"I think if Manny really wants to win, it's high workrate and volume....volume, volume, volume. Take the counter, take it. He's not Marquez. He is not going to knock you out. Floyd has not had a knockout in a very long time. I know he's gone through several different hand problems throughout his career. He's older and I think he likes to preserve his hands to the best of his ability and he throws what I call 'scoring blows' - one that is hard enough to snap the head back and let the judges see [that], but not hard enough where you can't walk through [it] and continue to fight."
