Manny Pacquiao: Why Pacquiao Is Destined to Disappoint Again

Manny Pacquiao is set for a second-straight lackluster performance against Timothy Bradley.

In Pac-Man’s last fight against Juan Manuel Marquez, he escaped with a victory via a majority decision.   

Marquez was clearly upset with the ruling, as noted by Kamal Wallace of CNN.com, and felt that he deserved a fairer result. 

Whether or not the decision was just, Pacquiao was clearly not at his best. Since the fight, trainer Freddie Roach has confirmed that Pacuqiao’s wife, Jinkee, served the fighter with divorce papers the night before the bout, according to Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times.

Pacquiao has reportedly eliminated distractions such as gambling and partying from his life and made a renewed commitment to religion, as noted in Pugmire’s article. 

The World Boxing Organization Welterweight champion will be much more focused heading into this fight, but that does not mean he will put on a dominant performance.

He may even win the fight, just as he did against Marquez, but he will still disappoint his fans.

Two factors will ensure this.

First, Pac-Man is not the fighter he used to be. He became popular because of his aggressive style that led to vicious punches. From 2006 to 2009, he won all 10 of his fights and seven of them ended in either a knockout or a technical knockout.

From 2010 to the present, he is still undefeated, but has not knocked out a single one of his four opponents.

The other reason Pacquiao will have an underwhelming fight is that Bradley is an extremely talented defensive fighter.

He has world-class conditioning and is astonishingly quick. Bradley makes it frustratingly difficult for his opponents to land punches cleanly.

Pacquiao may not be able to pack a lot of power in his punches any more, but neither can Bradley. Just 12 of Desert Storm’s 28 victories came via a knockout.

Both these fighters will plan on going all 12 rounds, and if this happens, it will be a huge help to Bradley. A decision is likely the only way the challenger will be able to win.

Fans of Pacquiao’s will be expecting a blowout victory against an inexperienced opponent like Bradley, who has not fought any big-name boxers and has been in less than half the amount of professional fights that Pacquiao has appeared in.

This is not going to happen, and even if Pacquiao wins by a decision—which is what will likely happen—it will still be a disappointing result.