By Alexey Sukachev
Trainer Teddy Atlas sat down with BoxingScene.com to discuss two of the biggest fights in 2011. Floyd Mayweather Jr. returns after a 16 month layoff to challenge Victor Ortiz for the WBC welterweight title on September 17th, and Manny Pacquiao will finally settle his rivalry with Juan Manuel Marquez when they meet for a third time on November 12. Both fights take place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
- Floyd Mayweather fights Victor Ortiz, and Manny Pacquiao battles Juan Manuel Marquez to end a beautiful trilogy. Give us your insight of these fights, give us your predictions.
- I think the tougher fight will be for Pacquiao. I think Mayweather will handle Ortiz. If Andre Berto could have him on the floor, than Mayweather will have a good chance to get him out with his speed, with his intelligence, with his counterpunching ability. His inactivity, you know, he was inactive for quite a time, and that makes you worry a bit. But that aside, I like Mayweather to handle Ortiz, to be smarter than Ortiz, to be better in all areas, making this fight.
The perception of the Pacquiao fight is different to me. Maybe, Marquez is getting old after all this tear-and-wear, maybe he is starting to get too slow, maybe he gets caught too easy. But one thing is no “maybe” – how he’s gonna act. And he’s gonna act like a damn warrior, like a champion, like a fighter. I think no matter what, he is forty years old or he is in ninety years old, in the middle of the winter or in the middle of the summer, Marquez will always give Pacquiao a tough fight. His style, his talent will make it a tough, a very tough fight for Pacquiao.