black panther wrote:The move upto welterweight isn't a factor in this fight; Pacquiao is a very small welterweight.
Ofcourse it is. Pac's been tipping 147 on the scales, fighting at 152+, and packing enough power to flatten Oscar Mosely Cotto Margarito Algieiri for the last 7 years, completely different league from Beltran and the grossly overrated Gamboa.
That's nothing to do with Pacquiao's weight/size as it is with his skillset and power; you said itself yourself it's more that he is in a "different league" (level) to Crawford's previous opposition.
Most modern welterweights come into the ring around 160lbs. That's my take in anycase given so many people have questioned Crawford's ability to step upto welterweight. Just from a physical standpoint he is actually better suited to welterweight than Manny IMO.
black panther wrote:The move upto welterweight isn't a factor in this fight; Pacquiao is a very small welterweight.
Ofcourse it is. Pac's been tipping 147 on the scales, fighting at 152+, and packing enough power to flatten Oscar Mosely Cotto Margarito Algieiri for the last 7 years, completely different league from Beltran and the grossly overrated Gamboa.
That's nothing to do with Pacquiao's weight/size as it is with his skillset and power; you said itself yourself it's more that he is in a "different league" (level) to Crawford's previous opposition.
Most modern welterweights come into the ring around 160lbs. That's my take in anycase given so many people have questioned Crawford's ability to step upto welterweight. Just from a physical standpoint he is actually better suited to welterweight than Manny IMO.
Size wise, yes. The question is does he have a welter chin. We know Pacquiao can hang with the elite giving and taking but we're not sure if Crawford can take punches from Peterson or Garcia let alone Pacquiao
If God is a boxing fan then nothing would be better than seeing Pacman beat Crawford and sticking it to Bob Arum's greedy ass. He just has to have Manny's last fight be against a Top Rank fighter so that he gets both ends of Manny's last show. He wants the money so bad that he would risk TC's meteoric rise up the power rankings and have him fight at 147 for the first time against a legend.
I'm a huge Crawford fan and i hope that he doesn't sign on for this fight. I don't think that many want to see him beat up Manny or the other way around. It's like two good guys wrestling against each other in the WWF.
I think Crawford is going to struggle with Pacman because that switch to southpaw that has fueled his fights in recent memory won't be a big deal against a natural southpaw.
You could tell that Jean didn't prepare for Crawford switching to Southpaw at all which I found completely ridiculous. Canadian trainers are pathetic.
I think it's going to be a great fight and I think Manny takes it in a close one and gives his fans one last hurrah
Manny has been so inactive lately, it's difficult to gauge how he'd perform at this level next year. I'd say Crawford would give any version of Pacquiao a tough outting. However, Crawford's willingness to get in the mix when things get tough could spell doom for him.
I'm going with the majority if they meet next year with Crawford pulling out a competitive, but decisive UD.
