Why Rashad Holloway feels that Pacquiao would stop Mayweather

Behind the scenes revelations: Why Rashad Holloway feels that Pacquiao would stop Mayweather May 5, 12:16 AMLas Vegas Boxing ExaminerChris Robinson Welterweight hopeful Rashad Holloway has had a lot on his mind these days. Sitting and speaking inside of the Bistro Buffet at the Palms Casino, it was hard to decipher what all has been going on in his world but Holloway certainly had a way of keeping the conversation interesting. The 29-year old relocated to Las Vegas from Los Angeles, California earlier this year and despite having much on his plate he has kept a fresh outlook and his confidence is as high as ever. Holloway has teamed up with good friend and trainer Eddie Mustafa Muhammad and has a May 28th fight lined up in Norfolk, Virginia that he has been eyeing. While Holloway speaks daily on how much he misses the scenery and life in L.A. he does point out that living in Vegas has it’s perks, most notably being how easy it is for him to lock himself away and keep focused. Holloway is a student of the fight game and always has his eye on the sport and despite a hectic and trying weekend he was still able to witness the Floyd Mayweather-Shane Mosley encounter at the MGM Grand. While many people came away from the fight praising Mayweather, Holloway wasn’t as impressed. “I thought Mosley was old,” Holloway stated. “His coordination was gone and his legs were gone. They weren’t there. The first things you look at in a fighter when they are old are whether their hands and feet are working together. And you could see that Mosley’s hands would come out before his feet. He was off balance and he would throw one shot, maybe two at best. He would always hold and he was off balance. He couldn’t’ do anything. He couldn’t even throw a solid jab. Part of that was because he was old.” In the fight Mayweather showed a newfound aggression in key spots and was able to rattle Mosley with right hands almost at will over the second half of the contest. Holloway does concede that Floyd fought well and isn’t past giving up his respect to the undefeated fighter. “To be honest Floyd wasn’t really moving,” Holloway noted. “Floyd was pretty much right in front of him. But he was very guarded because of Shane. Floyd is a technician and he is very sharp. You can’t mess around with Floyd and I think that was on his mind too. I thought Floyd did a good job of recovering and coming back and he looked strong. He looked physically strong. He’s not a puncher at all but he’s a game fighter.” In hearing Holloway speak further it’s obvious that he doesn’t have any particular resentment towards Mayweather and is instead simply frustrated that he hasn’t found a way to test himself against the world’s best over the years. “He’s one of the best who ever did it in my eyes but I still don’t see him fighting those upper level fighters,” Holloway said. “He’s fighting guys at the end of their reign. The only guy I have ever seen him fight who was on the top of his game was Diego Corrales. And Corrales wasn’t even on top of his game, let’s be real here. He’s a hell of a fighter but he’s so set on being undefeated that he won’t use those skills against a fighter of his caliber in his prime. I remember when he fought someone else and made four million when he could have made eight million fighting Margarito.” With Mayweather’s convincing win over Mosley the attention has again turned to a potential showdown with WBO welterweight king Manny Pacquiao. Many people are still buzzing over Mayweather’s win and point to his speed, skills and ring generalship as key factors to him upending Pacquiao. Sound enough reasons but Holloway isn’t taking the bait. “Manny by KO all day,” Holloway said resoundingly. “Floyd is a better boxer, way better boxer, but Manny is a better fighter. Styles make fights. Floyd sits back and waits too much. That will play right into Manny’s hands. Manny jumps on you so quick and with so many different angles that you don’t know what to do. He catches you off guard and I pretty much see that happening. Every time Floyd has been hit flush he has been hurt. Chop Chop hurt him bad and he cant’ crack an egg, Zab hurt him, and Shane hurt him. He’s very hittable and Manny’s style is so awkward that he is going to hit him.” Elaborating further Holloway said that it would be ‘goodnight’ if Pacquiao landed with his right hook or left hand and also spoke of Manny’s tremendous finishing ability. Holloway’s words ring with true conviction and all one has to do is take a closer look at his journey in the sport to realize how much insight he has into Pacquiao’s abilities as a fighter. Roughly a few years ago Holloway had a management deal that brought him out to Los Angeles. Holloway trained briefly with Shadeed Suluki before going in a separate direction and soon found himself on the footsteps of the Wild Card Boxing Club with hopes of checking things out. Holloway liked the feel of the facility and would settle into the gym with his typical laid back swagger. Shortly thereafter the Cincinnati native would find himself crossing paths with Pacquiao but it took some time for their camaraderie to flourish. “I came at a different time than him to the gym and we didn’t really know each other,” Holloway pointed out. “We would see each other and speak and we kept it moving but to make a long story short it wasn’t until they told Manny that he was sparring me that he really paid attention to me. His people had been watching me and one day Freddie Roach looked at me and said ‘This is your new sparring partner’. This was for the De La Hoya fight and we became real tight after that.” In training and sparring with Pacquiao the ambitious Holloway was able to see first hand how dedicated the General Santos City fighter truly was. More than anything, what stood out to Holloway was Pacquiao’s tremendous ability to constantly push himself in the gym. “His work rate is unbelievable, unreal,” Holloway said. “I have sat there and seen Manny go 30-something rounds and not even get tired. And I’m not talking about doing rounds where he just throws 70 or 80 punches or a light round, every round he goes balls to the walls and throws over 100 punches. Everything has mean intentions. He takes that 30-second break, which half the time he doesn’t want to take, and then he gets back in the ring.” That type of ethic is impressive and it sounds like quite the handful to deal with in sparring. Taking a minute to uphold his own abilities, Holloway stated that his action with Pacquiao was typically full throttle and always nip and tuck. The two men didn’t waste any time getting to know each other in the ring and Holloway spoke on some of their finer moments. “The first day,” Holloway recalled. “The first day I surprised him a lot. The second day he came full force. We went at it. I remember I once caught Manny with a right hand and in return he caught me with a left hand. That left hand was tremendous. It was crazy. Manny actually stunned me and for a second was kind of stunned. I kind of shook it off and we really went at it. I remember Mark Whalberg had come to the gym and he was watching us spar. He came to me after it was over and he said ‘Man, I’m looking forward to seeing you on HBO soon. You’re a hell of a fighter’.” During his time at the gym Holloway has sparred a wide range of talent including the likes of Alfredo Angulo, Peter Manfredo, former champion Roman Karmazin, Amir Khan, Vanes Martirosyan, Kingsley Ikeke and many others. While many of Holloway’s sparring mates were bigger and physically imposing men he revealed what exactly sets Pacquiao apart. “The thing with Manny is that they are trying to say he is on all of these steroids and everything else but he is very explosive,” Holloway said. “He’s not a strong guy. If you are on steroids you are strong but Manny isn’t. Physically not at all but he’s explosive. He punches through the target; he works on that a lot. He’s not heavy-handed at all and he isn’t going to wear you down with power but he’s explosive. When he punches you he punches you through the target and it hurts you, that’s it.” Coming full circle on a Pacquiao-Mayweather encounter, Holloway simply doesn’t see Floyd being able to weather the early storm. Pacquiao is on a roll as of late and the fact that he has primed himself for long, intense battles is what Holloway feels will spell doom for Floyd. “I see him being knocked out in about six rounds,” Holloway reiterated. “It’s going to take Manny a couple rounds of getting used to him I think. The only way I would see Floyd winning that fight is if he would stop Manny. The longer they are in that fight the more dangerous it is for Floyd. I’m looking forward to that fight though.” Holloway isn’t alone with his anticipation as the fight would likely be remembered as one of the biggest of all time if it were to ever go down. Still, there is the very real possibility that the contest may never come to fruition due to the two men disagreeing over Mayweather’s proposed Olympic style drug testing that would come hand in hand with the contest. Signing off, Holloway can see reasoning behind each man’s motives and goes in depth about his stance on the issue. “Maybe it’s good for the sport, maybe so. I’m not trying to be biased towards it at all but I’m like this; This guy has never been caught breaking the rules and I don’t really agree with it and I think it’s a headache. But in this day and age with all of these drugs out there now and the way they can’t detect certain things and they way they hide things I don’t knock it really. At first I thought that I don’t think should be made to do it but I don’t think it’s a bad thing.”