By Edward Chaykovsky
Virgil Hunter, who trains such fighters as Andre Ward and Amir Khan, is picking WBC/WBA welterweight & junior middleweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. to defeat Manny Pacquiao, holder of the WBO welterweight title, if the two boxers ever step in the ring.
Earlier, Hunter explained how Mayweather, who turns 38-years-old in February, continues to reinvent his style as his body gets older. He feels Pacquiao, 36-years-old, is exactly the same boxer with little to no change in his fighting style.
There are ongoing discussions to make a Mayweather-Pacquiao pay-per-view showdown for May 2nd.
"I see Mayweather winning the fight. The reason I say that is because Manny for some reason really hasn’t reinvented himself yet. He’s still fighting with the same intensity and the same training philosophy, it’s a really high energy fighting style. He hasn’t really come into his own from what I can see, where he’s learned to relax the style and maximize the style to make his style more efficient," Hunter told On The Ropes Boxing Radio.
"Don’t get me wrong, he’s a lethal fighter, he’s a deadly fighter, but in a fight of that magnitude where focus is gonna be in such demand, the focus part of it. The way he fights and the energy he gives up, he could very well wear down mentally in the middle rounds, which will also cause him to wear down physically."
