Pacquiao will have a hard time catching Mayweather, says Lomachenko

By Rob Smith - 09/24/2014 - Comments

WBO featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko (2-1, 1 KOs) thinks that WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 KOs) will have a really tough time trying to catch up to WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr (47-0, 26 KOs) to land his power shots if Mayweather moves around the ring like he did against Marcos Maidana earlier this month in their rematch on September 13th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Mayweather used movement for 12 rounds to elude Maidana’s fierce attacks, and while Maidana did an excellent job of cutting off the ring, he wasn’t quick enough to catch Mayweather enough to be competitive.

“If Mayweather fights like he fought in his last fight Maidana for Manny Pacquiao it would be very difficult for him to catch Mayweather,” Lomachenko said to esnewsreporting.com.

Pacquiao very likely would have major problems trying to catch up to Mayweather because Pacquiao doesn’t move around the ring as well as Maidana, and he tends to get leg cramps when he moves a lot. Pacquiao needs a stationary target like Brandon Rios types for him to do well.

When he’s forced to deal with movement, Pacquiao struggles badly. In Pacquiao’s one fight where he had to deal with movement against Tim Bradley in their first fight, Pacquiao ended up getting out-boxed. He couldn’t deal with Bradley’s movement at all, and he spent much of the time looking frustrated with Bradley. Against Mayweather, it would likely be much worse because Mayweather moves better around the ring than Bradley does, and he’s taller with a longer reach.

Pacquiao is going to have a lot of problems against Chris Algieri on November 22nd. Algieri is like a taller version of Bradley, but with far better movement and defensive skills. Algieri fights smarter than Bradley, and he won’t make the same bumbling mistake Bradley did in his second fight with Pacquiao by electing to slug with him for 12 rounds.

Lomachenko will be defending his WBO featherweight title on November 22nd against Chonlatarn Piriyapinyo (52-1, 33 KOs) on the undercard of Pacquiao vs. Algieri at the Cotai Arena, Venetian Resort, Macao, Macao S.A.R., China.