Floyd Mayweather Jr. is afraid to take on Manny Pacquiao next year despite everything basically set up for a bout, promoter Bob Arum says.
Arum said recently that HBO and Showtime--which each have a contract with one of the fighters--have agreed to jointly do the fight, and that Manny is also ready.
Arum claims that “There is only now one impediment and he’s been the major impediment to this fight and that’s Floyd Mayweather.”
The biggest reason that Mayweather is “looking for every excuse not to do the fight” is because Money is afraid of fighting a southpaw, or left-handed fighter, Arum says.
“I promoted the guy for ten years and I know how difficult it was to get him in the ring with any southpaw,” he told the Telegraph.
“When you talk about a southpaw who can move like Manny, that’s not the kind of opponent that Mayweather feels he would do well against. That’s the problem. If Manny agreed to fight right-handed, the fight would be agreed in five minutes.”
“His whole style is geared for a right-handed fighter,” Arum said earlier this year. “And to compound that if the southpaw is really fast and moves, that would give Mayweather and his style a lot of problems.”
Whether Mayweather does have trouble with southpaws or not has been the subject of debate for years, with some calling it a fact and some labeling it as a myth.
“Yea he has a harder time against southpaws...until he adjusts, then its business as usual,” said one commentor on Yahoo Voices.
“Sure he does. But it’s obviously not enough trouble to make a difference,” said another.
“Zab Judah and DeMarcus Corley each gave him some issues in their respective fights, and Victor Ortiz may have been having his best round yet against Floyd until he accidentally pressed the R2 button on his controller and did his Dirty Move,” noted Bad Left Hook.
The blog noted that Mayweather has trouble with one punch from an orthodox stance--the jab.
“Now, let’s translate that to a southpaw’s punching angle, which is how [Robert] Guerrero will be fighting. The jab that a right-handed boxer throws comes out at a very similar angle to that of a straight left hand from a southpaw boxer. In other words, Guerrero’s best punch will come to Mayweather at a similar angle that a jab from an orthodox fighter would.”
It also said that in addition to the straight left hand, the right hook can affect Mayweather, and the right hook from a southpaw is a much shorter punch and can also be much more difficult to see out of one’s peripheral vision.
“The reason behind the assumption is that Floyd pins his chin against his left shoulder and often stands with his front turned to his right – this works well against an orthodox fighter as the power punches come from his right towards his left shoulder, which guards his chin,” explained Pinnacle Sports.
“The potential problem comes when the power punch comes from his left. Despite mastering the art of rolling to his right and then countering, his aging years could make him more vulnerable. It doesn’t need saying that Mayweather can adapt by adjusting his stance, but it is hard to reverse habits that have been engrained into your style for your entire boxing career, especially when you have been dragged into a brawl by a younger fighter.”
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