Pacquiao vs. Mayweather Will Be Dull, Like Brandon Rios vs. Richard Abril

Manny Pacquiao's fight, should it ever happen, with Floyd Mayweather will be dull. There is a huge elephant in the room and no one is going to be bold enough to keep it real and admit it, so I guess it's my duty to keep it real once again for all of us and expose it.

On Saturday I covered the Top Rank fight in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay headlined by Brandon Rios vs. Richard Abril.

Yes we all know it was supposed to initially be Rios vs. Yuriorkis Gamboa that night, but the fact that Brandon Rios is so entertaining and never dull in any of his fights convinced me and a number of boxing journalists and fight fans to continue on with the planned fight weekend in Vegas.

We all thought for the most part that Rios is always exciting. We already booked our non-refundable trips and if anything, we got the surely entertaining Mike Alvarado vs. Mauricio Herrera fight as well on the card which proved to be the fight of the night in a highly crowd-pleasing 10-round war where both fighters gave it their all and stood toe to toe for almost all 10 rounds.

Then of course you add the greatest Mexican legend of our time, Juan Manuel Marquez, fighting as well and being broadcast on the jumbo tron at Mandalay Bay. It turned out to be a one-sided mismatch with Marquez shutting out the virtually unknown Ukrainian contender in front of a hyped Mexico City crowd with significantly hotter Tecate girls than the ones representing at the Mandalay Bay.

But back to the Mandalay Bay's main event of Rios vs. Abril. This fight was supposed to be a one-sided easy beat down for the beat down specialist Brandon "Bam Bam" Rios but it turned out to be quite the opposite.

With the exception to the first round where Rios landed a big right hand that almost knocked down Abril and sent him backward into the ropes, the entire remaining 11 rounds Abril pretty much dictated and out-boxed the powerful slugger.

Rios kept coming forward in a carbon copy straight line manner unleashing an identical series of punches whenever he could for much of the rounds. Abril was literally holding on to one of Rios' arms so much that even for half of the entire round, Brandon only had one hand free and able to throw any punches with.

Referee Vic Drakulich, who usually is for the most part a decent referee, failed to ever deduct points from Abril for excessively holding, even warning him numerous times and breaking up the holding even more times. Had Drakulich started to deduct points for holding  then it would have been better for Rios to be more effective in the fight and for justifying the outcome result which was a highly controversial split decision in favor of Rios.

Abril fought a very smart fight which was his own fight by running away, holding and opening up whenever he saw the openings, which landed much cleaner than Rios' punches. However what was a smart fight for Abril was a lousy, boring fight for all of us in attendance.

I told the journalists around me from about Round 4 on, where it was clear that Abril was out-boxing and controlling the entire fight, watch, wait and see they will award Rios the winner no matter what, for the politics of this fight have been determined and they already have Juan Manuel Marquez slated to fight Rios at the Dallas Cowboy stadium in July. Again this was just my own personal honest opinion.

As soon as the judges' cards were announced, all of the journalists sitting around me started patting me on the back and saying, "Damn I can't believe you called it. You were totally right."

But back to how this relates to the inevitable biggest fight of our lifetime which is of course is Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr, and the major elephant in the room. This fight, Rios vs. Abril, to me is how I see Pacquiao vs. Mayweather playing out, should it ever happen.

Basically you'll have Pacquiao coming forward at Mayweather all night long with Mayweather backing up, holding or if he is bold enough and out of character enough that night he will open up more than usual and counter Manny coming in all night.

Pacquiao, with the exception of his most recent fights, is overall an exciting fighter to watch and that is why he is where he is today, for he entertains the masses. But when he faces a fighter with the superior technical boxing and defensive skills of Mayweather, it will make for a rather boring fight, especially when you consider all the insane mythological hype that surrounds this matchup.

Pacquiao vs. Mayweather will be one boring fight just like how Rios vs. Abril surprisingly turned out to be a major snooze fest.

Of course I am not suggesting that neither Rios is on Pacquiao's level nor Abril is on Mayweather's, 'cause that goes without saying that Manny and Floyd are simply on a different level.

But Pacquiao looks exciting and entertaining when he faces an opponent that makes him look good, and by that I mean an opponent who is willing to attack him and go after him and slug it out.

Whenever Pacquiao fights a fighter who waits to counter him, tries to outbox him, covers up his tight guard or runs away, then those are the most boring Pacquiao fights of his career. Some quick examples of this are the Pacquiao vs. Clottey fight, Pacquiao vs. Barrera II, and yes even at times the Marquez fights.

If you noticed, basically the most exciting moments of the Pacquiao vs. Marquez fights were when Marquez decided to trade and stand toe to toe with him, but the rounds where he waited to counter were not nearly as entertaining.

Mayweather is the best counter puncher in the game right now. He is also by far the most skilled technical boxer still fighting. One thing that is most characteristic of Mayweather is he does not let his hands go, but he conserves his energy and fights a very smart, precise game plan.

Basically Mayweather only throws a punch if he sees a clear opened target for him to land on and again he does not waste any punches at all and that is why throughout his career he has such a lower punch output than Pacquiao does.

So going by their fight styles and fight history when Pacquiao and Mayweather finally meet up in that square ring (if they ever do) it will be a rather boring fight and it definitely will be a far disappointing matchup mostly due to how the two fight styles clash.

Rios vs. Abril is a perfect example, a poor man's Pacquiao vs. Mayweather, if you will.

The real question is will the judges side with far more aggressive fighter pressing the action, Pacquiao, or the one dictating and landing the cleaner punches, Mayweather?

In Rios vs. Abril we saw the aggressive, fighter who pressed the action win a highly controversial split decision against the fighter who was controlling the fight, out-boxing and landing the cleaner shots.

So does that mean Pacquiao could win by being the aggressor, pressing the fight chasing Mayweather all night even though Floyd will probably land the cleaner more accurate shots? Will the media and fans be split and debating the decision for generations?

I, for one, feel Pacquiao can now win a highly controversial decision against Mayweather if the fight goes down much like how Rios vs. Abril went down. Based on their history and fight styles it seems pretty likely that is how it will go down.

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