Here are four things that Keith Thurman must do to defeat Manny Pacquiao.
Disrupt Pacquiao’s Rhythm
The easiest way to do this: Wrap Up. This is going to be a hard one for Thurman, because very rarely do we see him wrap up. Even in instances where he is in trouble, Thurman is more likely to curl up on the ropes than to hold. But rhythm is key in Pacquiao’s fight plan. One of the best ways to neutralize Pacquiao is to disrupt his rhythm. One of the most valuable things that we learned in the Jeff Horn fight, was that the value in disrupting Pacquiao’s rhythm is twofold: (1) it frustrates the busy fighter and (2) it can take away some of the rounds that Pacquiao usually wins by sheer activity alone.
Engage for 12 full Rounds
Thurman is a solid offensive fighter for about 6-7 rounds. After about the 6th round, Thurman tends to be less aggressive, and shifts from more offensive to more defensive, with his focus, seemingly shifting from ending the fight early, to making it to the end of the fight.
In Thurman’s most recent fight vs Josesito Lopez, Josesito had a dominant 7th round and Thurman never recovered, losing 4 of the last 6 rounds on two of the judges’ scorecards (the third judge, had Thurman winning every round except 7 and 8 and clearly wasn’t watching the same fight that everyone else was)
Similarly, when Thurman fought Garcia is 2017, it was like watching two separate bouts. There were the first six rounds where Thurman looked impressive and then the last six where he did very little.
Thurman’s usual strategy of “playing it safe” in rounds 7-12 is not going to work against the notoriously high-stamina Pacquiao. Manny will fight for 12 rounds without ever slowing down. Thurman must compete for 12 full rounds to keep up.
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