Gus Johnson: Any MMA Fighter Would Kill Manny Pacquiao in the Cage

Gus Johnson is the Showtime correspondent who has commentated for Strikeforce events, as well Manny Pacquiao’s recent fight with Shane Mosley.

Johnson is not confident in any boxer being able to make the transition to MMA, not even pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao.

MMAFighting.com reports that in a radio interview with Dan Patrick, Johnson expressed no faith in “The Punching Pride of the Philippines” being able to hang with any professional MMA fighter in the cage.

"He'd get killed," Johnson said. "No question. Tapped out, easily. In a minute." 

James Toney soundly getting defeated by Randy Couture in a fight under UFC rules last year may have had something to do with Johnson’s line of thinking.

In more recent news, Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz has come under fire for accepting a boxing match with Jeff Lacy for this fall.  

Could a skilled MMA striker make the necessary adjustments to be effective in the ring?  Many critics do not seem to think so.  

Additionally, Johnson also clarified that he is still set to call Strikeforce events in the future, so fight fans might as well get used to his personally now, if they haven't already. 

While it is highly unlikely to ever happen, could “The Pacman” be a real force in the Octagon if he seriously trained some jiu jitsu and Muay Thai to go with his elite boxing skills?

Despite the argument being more hypothetical than anything else, it certainly does open the door for a number of pretty interesting discussions.