Really? Naoya Will Kayo Manny at Prime Versions at Superbantam?
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 10 May 2024
I recently read what Don Farrell, the senior contributing editor of Sporting News UK, wrote about a fantasy fight between current sensation Naoya Inoue and living legend Manny Pacquiao, prime for prime at super bantamweight.
His verdict was Naoya will knock out Manny around the ninth round, noting Inoue's methodical style and sublime skills and that having been knocked out two times previously, the "wilder" version of Pacquiao is more likely to be "it" in case of a knockout ending.
That's precisely the fallacy of this premise which is also used in most other fantasy matchups involving the two in various social media as YouTube and Reddit: That Manny having tasted knockout defeats before is more likely to be on the receiving end of a knockout ending.
But is it not possible or likely that Naoya would be "it" and suffered his first?
The Manny Pacquiao who heralded his coming to the boxing world in 2001 in the USA was universe away from the teenage Manny Pacquiao who was knocked out cold by Rustico Torrecampo in 1996 and that who was too weight drained that a body shot from Thai Boonsai Singsurat stopped him in losing his WBC flyweight title in 1999.
If anything, aside from prompting Pacquiao to move two weight classes up to super bantamweight a few months from the debacle in Thailand, it propelled him to lose no more from that point on, never by KO or TKO. Manny will not lose a fight from 1999 until 2005 when he moved up to 130 and lost his debut bout by decision to former three division and many times champion Erik Morales, one of Mexico's greatest.
Naoya has no known problems with the weight when he was still at light flyweight. But why did he bypass the flyweight which had the likes of Roman Chocolatito Gonzalez and Juan Francisco Estrada? Was it a safe career move?
Did not Inoue himself learn his lessons well after getting brutalized in a close shave against a 40 year old Nonito Donaire in their first fight in 2019 that horrified his countrymen right in his home arena?
Naoya must have resolved, Never Again. And he got his revenge in 2022 when he brutalized a much older Donaire adding his WBC title to his WBA trinklet.
I have to submit that Inoue has improved tremendously from his bantamweight days.
But let us not get ahead too much of ourselves here.
Let us be reminded that the Pacquiao we should be talking here is the one who months from moving up to 122, destroyed two fellow Filipino world title contenders, Reynante Jamili and Arnel Barotillo in a total of six rounds. Both Jamili and Barotillo gave good accounts of themselves before losing to Erik Morales and Vuyangi Bungu respectively.
That Pacquiao is not only the one that shellacked Lehlo Lebwaba in six rounds for the IBF title and made six successful title defenses with just one bump of a technical draw against an unfamiliar rough and foul fighting Agapito Sanchez. Five of those successful defenses ended in knockouts.
That Pacquiao is one who was introduced as the reigning IBF super bantamweight champion in a supposed world featherweight title fight against Marco Antonio Barrera in Texas in 2003. And one that mauled the legendary Mexican prompting a teary eyed brother to beg the referee to stop the carnage.
And Naoya Inoue will knock out that Manny Pacquiao in a prime for prime fantasy matchup?
Granted Naoya is the better, more methodical and technical fighter at their comparable points at 122 lbs. And that Pacquiao had yet to benefit from Freddie Roach's scientific training. But to say that Manny was wild is extremely limiting him especially against methodical or technical fighters with power like Naoya, making him susceptible to defeat, including knockout defeat in a fantasy matchup.
But weren't Chatchai Sasakul sublimely skilled and Lebwaba and Barrera powerful technical fighters with knockout sock in their fists? Barrera at that time was already in the list of pound for pound fighters while Sasakul and Lebwaba were about to crack the elite list if not for Pacquiao.
From time immemorial, boxing greats have their kryptonite.
If there's a style that will not only trouble but beat the prime great Naoya Inoue, it is "wild" style of Pacquiao which is quick, explosive, powerful and relentless and comes at you from wierd angles and in suffocating volumes of ponderous punches
Naoya will kayo Manny?
Not in your wildest fantasy match wet dream.
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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