THE MAN TO BEAT MANNY PACQUIAO

By Reni M. Valenzuela

A star is a superstar until someone who shines brighter comes along.

If you can find a warrior who believes in strength beyond his own, a
natural welterweight who bears a record deserving to compete with Manny
Pacquiao and one who has the offense of an Erik Morales, the defense of a
Joshua Clottey (when he fought Pacquiao) and the counter punching skill
of a Juan Manuel Marquez, then that’s the man who can beat a Manny
Pacquiao at the top of his game today.

Beyond power, size and youthfulness or experience, faith in the right place
and boxing abilities such as those rolled into one need to be found in any
legitimate challenger for Pacquiao who wishes to dethrone this era’s best
pound-for-pound technician with hard chin and tremendous punching
explosiveness.

The Pacman is beatable in his prime such as this moment. And Mosley can
well do the job on Saturday if he has what it takes not to succumb to the
strengths of Pacquiao to pull an upset. But, oddly, his training camp has
gone berserk mastering too much on the “flaws.”

It’s too late now for Sugar Shane to adjust from what he was shaped and
molded to do against Pacquiao on fight night as he may have undergone an
indoctrination, coaching and preparation by Naazim Richardson customized
to surrender much of the rounds by points to lose the bout one-sidedly or
yield a single round by surprise to a crushing knockout left “boom” from a
thunderbolt southpaw champion.

And that would be no “sneak up” outcome, if at all.

renimvalenzuela@yahoo.com