Arum defends Pacquiao’s KO drought
It has been seven years since Manny Pacquiao scored a knockout.
That was in 2009, when Pacquiao battered Miguel Cotto, flooring him twice and finally stopping him in the 12th round.
Since then, the Filipino icon has chalked up wins only by decision. He actually came close to knocking out Juan Manuel Marquez in their fourth meeting in 2012, but Pacquiao’s carelessness in the sixth round resulted in him running into a perfect Marquez counter that sent him to dreamland.
Pacquiao would then rebound with decision wins over Brandon Rios, Timothy Bradley and Chris Algieri.
Against Algieri in 2014, Pacquiao again appeared headed for a knockout win when he decked his opponent a whopping six times. But Algieri proved to be a tough nut to crack, and Pacquiao still failed to finish him off.
After losing to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the richest boxing match ever, Pacquiao bounced back with an impressive win over Bradley in their rubber match. He scored a couple of knockdowns there, but the fight still ended up in the judges’ scorecards.
Now, Pacquiao is hoping the slump will end when he takes on Jessie Vargas on November 5 in Las Vegas.
For his longtime promoter Bob Arum though, Pacquiao’s inability to knock opponents out lately isn’t necessarily an indication of the fighter’s decline or diminishing punching power.
“We haven’t seen him knocking people out like he did so spectacularly at one period of his career,” Arum told Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports. “He is scoring a lot of knockdowns. He had six knockdowns against [Chris] Algieri [in 2014] and he had Bradley on the deck twice in his last fight.”
According to Arum, Paquiao’s recent opponents are more to blame.
“It’s not that he (Pacquiao)’s not hitting hard. He is hitting hard, but opponents fighting him are more cautious. The ability to knock out a guy isn’t a oneway street. It’s also the opponent,” added the Top Rank Inc. boss.
“If the opponent is looking to survive and not firing as many shots as he could, then it’s a lot more difficult to do. It’s not impossible, but it’s a hell of a lot harder when the opponent isn’t willing to open up,” Arum also said.
Pacquiao and Arum must be wishing that Vargas will turn out to be a different breed. — Philstar.com