The Pac Man – some Ground Rules
Emmanual Dapridan Pacquiao AKA Manny Pacquiao AKA Pac Man has for many been the biggest thing in boxing for the last 10 years. Pacquiao was born in Bukidnon in the Philippines on 17th December 1978. he had an amateur career of 64 contests, winning all but 4. in this Pacquiao fight analysis article, I’m not going to go into any detail regarding the man’s extra-curricular activities. he has interests ranging from acting, singing, religion and politics. All of this is very interesting, but I am more concerned ring what he does in the ring. for this reason, the couple of sentences that you have just read regarding the background of Pacquiao is as close as you are going to get to a biography. Everything else in this article will focus purely on the Manny Pacquiao boxing style, skills and tactics. I hope that this suits your requirements. if it does not, I suppose there’s always Wikipedia.
In developing this article, I reviewed videos of 5 Pacquiao fights, spanning 11 years, 9 weight divisions and about 35 lbs; these are some amazing statistics when you actually think about them. I think that the range of Pacquiao fights we are looking at will give us enough variety in terms of opponent-type to allow us to draw some reasonable conclusions about the Manny Pacquiao boxing style and his boxing techniques.
Starting out.
The first Pacquiao fight that we check out is one of Manny’s early encounters at Flyweight against Japan’s Shin Terao. this was Pacquiao’s 24th fight and took place in 1998 in Terao’s homeland. As the first round starts, there are a couple of things that strike me about how Pacquiao fights. Firstly, he is a southpaw that generally moves to his left; this is highly unusual. this is something that I want you to notice now, mainly because we see how this develops through his subsequent fights, but let’s move on to the second thing that I notice. the Pac Man’s upper body is in perfect alignment with his feet, that is, he is very much ’side on’ to his opponent as opposed to square on. this is a fundamental part of the Pacquiao fight style, particularly as he develops through later fights. this stance and body shape was likely formed in his amateur days as it’s a bit of a ‘classic’ form for a top amateur.
Something else to notice is that Pacquiao is very direct. As already mentioned, Manny moves primarily to his left, but he is side-stepping here and does seem to be taking more shots than is necessary, particularly right hand shots. this is generally why as a southpaw it is advisable to move to your right so that you are moving away from the orthodox opponent’s right cross. he is slightly ‘blood and thunder’ even though he is clearly technically adept. this Pacquiao fight is all about pressure. a full-blooded left hook sends Terao reeling to the canvas. So, Pac has the opponent hurt and hurt badly. but, what is remarkable is that after this Pacquiao takes 3 right hands to the head one after another. this porous defence is an indicator of his rawness at this early stage of his career. Progressing through the contest, Pac is pretty wild, choosing to steam-roll through his opponent’s punches to land a fight-ending right uppercut. Straightforward and direct pressure is a big part of Pac’s early career, but the basis of his brilliant fighting style is very much there, of this there can be no doubt.
Enter Freddie Roach
Let’s move forward 3 years now, with Pacquiao taking on Lehlohonolo Ledwaba for the IBF Super Bantamweight title and interestingly Freddie Roach is now guiding the Philippino dynamo. the main points around this Pacquiao fight that I notice are:
- Manny shows many more feints than in the previous bout with Terao. he holds his hands high and he uses long range shots right from the start.
- I mentioned earlier that Pacquiao drifts to his left and that this is unconventional for a southpaw. we can notice now though that as he moves left, he very subtly moves at a slight diagonal retreat. this, for me is a little piece of tactical genius. It’s hardly noticeable, but it is very effective because the orthodox opponent considers Pacquiao to be in range of his right hand (the standard orthodox shot against a southpaw), but it’s an illusion as Manny stays just beyond range thanks to the diagonal movement.
- Pacquiao regularly undertakes ‘double attacks’. a double attack in this case consists of simple two shot combinations thrown in machine gun-like bursts and separated by swift steps out and back in (although Pacquiao uses a wider variety of double attacks in later fights). These double attacks continue until the end of the round. That’s a tough opener for Ledwaba
- At the start of round 2, we see how Pacquiao sets everything off the southpaw jab. even though he spends most of his time moving to his left, the majority of Manny’s attacks are launched down his own right channel. this again is wonderful tactical awareness that must really undermine an orthodox opponent. the orthodox is thinking I can land my right, yet all the time he’s taking incoming along his left. Highly unsettling and the ultimate in diversionary tactics.
- We arrive at a point where Pacquiao takes his first jab.after a full 4 minutes of boxing this is a defensive awakening and is in part due to his mastery of long range boxing and increased use of feinting and upper body movement.
- A couple of seconds after he takes the jab, the follow up assault is outstanding. Pacquiao loves to operate at long range and we see how important his feet are. he uses small, calculated movements to keep his opponent in the ’strike zone’. Pacquiao uses the pivot regularly, maintaining the stance throughout and enabling a concentrated attack on Ledwaba.
- To his great credit, the South African comes back strong during the 3rd round, landing 3 solid jabs on Pacquiao, but it is not long before normal service is resumed. in this round, Pacquiao lands the slickest of combos, a lead right uppercut followed by a solid straight left.
- The fight ends in a 6th round TKO for the Pac Man, a solid performance and a launch pad for bigger and better things. speaking of which, enter Marco Antonio Barrera.
The Arrival
It’s one thing overcoming the likes of Terao and Ledwaba, it’s a whole other ball game stepping in the ring with a fighter of the capability and pedigree of Marco Antonio Barrera, one of Mexico’s all-time greats. does Pacquiao let us down, like hell he does this fight takes place in 2003 and it’s another step up in weight as well as class for Manny, moving into the featherweight category.
It’s an interesting start to this fight. Pacquiao does his usual drift to his left, holding his right hand really high in defence against the Barrera jab. the Mexican uses a very effective double arm block from the centre of the ring and puts Pac on his back foot. this is going to be a tough assignment some stuff I spotted here:
- We can see Pac Man’s initial attempts to get around the tight defence of Barrera (who happens to be quite conservative and cagey in terms of attacking Manny.) Pacquiao, whilst at long range, rolls, slips and feints in order to draw the lead from the Mexican so he can then make his greater hand speed count during counter-attacks. this speed comes in the form of mid and long range hooks to the body of the tough Mexican.
- Jumping forward a bit now, we see a patient Pacquiao in this fight (probably because he is aware of how dangerous Barrera is). throughout the 2nd round, Manny constantly feints and we can see that he is developing into a consummate counter puncher. he probes and teases on the edge of range (you guessed it, moving to his left and attacking down his right); Pac is developing the patience of a hunter
- Barrera, despite the constant threat from Pacquiao, shows his class landing solid shots on the Pac Man. Pacquiao’s response is instant and chilling. he fires long range shots in ferocious bursts whilst maintaining superb balance. his footwork is perfect, he commits fully to the attack without over-committing and he simply never overbalances. his double attacks were formed in his amateur days, and he has honed these perfectly for the pro game.
Pac overcomes Barrera in the 11th by way of a TKO (Barrera was saved by his corner). Manny Pacquiao has most definitely arrived on the world boxing scene, and in some style
The Ultimate Tactical Challenge
The first round of our next fight is one of the most one-sided you’ll see that doesn’t end in a stoppage the fight took place in 2004 and involved the talented and tough Mexican Juan Manual Marquez. Pacquiao dumps Juan Manual Marquez on the seat of his pants 3 times in the opening round, all with crashing simple two punch combinations (you guessed it, from long range) I have included the round here more for entertainment than anything else
What was more interesting for me though was the tactical master class that unfolded between these guys following the shellacking of the first round.
OK, onto the main body of the Marquez fight analysis.
- We see early in round 2 a very familiar approach from Pacquiao, although the movement that he makes to his left is more of a side-step than a diagonal retreat; he seems to want to apply a constant level of pressure to Marquez. again, Manny very rarely leads with his own left hand, and as usual he moves left and attacks down his right using a mixture of supreme footwork and blinding speed.
- Check out the way in which Pacquiao uses the jab – lay back- back hand; simple, economical, fast, accurate.perfectly executed. Credit to Marquez, he fights a smart round here and establishes a foot hold in the fight after what was a disastrous opener. he boxes conservatively, employing a sensible ‘fighting retreat’ i.e. not chasing down Pac Man (not really that surprising) but still providing a level of threat that at least checks Pac’s forward march.
- In relation to the previous fights, we’ve talked about the double attacks used by Pacquiao. a double attack is the process by which a fighter can launch shots which are separated by a defensive action (such as a lay back or move out and back in.) the double attack is a superb method of counter punching, and a central reason for Pacquiao’s success. whilst there are any number of style characteristics that can be learnt from Pacquiao, the double attack has to be up there with the very best of them
- Marquez often uses his lead hand block and and lead hand parry to really good effect, nullifying the Pacquiao jab. now Pacquiao is very quick to spot Marquez’s defensive tactics here and in response he uses feints of the jab and turns it into a lead hand (long) right hook. the shot is not intended to hurt the opponent, but the important thing is that it lands. It’s not a power shot, it’s a pressure shot, designed purely to show Marquez that there is no one single method that he can use that will consistently work. Versatility is an absolute must for any opponent during a Pacquiao fight if they realistically expect to walk away with a victory.
- We begin to see in the fight a classic southpaw versus orthodox encounter. Watch Marquez’s lead hand block and counter right hand, a classic tactic to use against a southpaw. Tactics become more and more important. Marquez is ‘managing’ his left hand side with the lead hand defensive work, but also firing hurtful right hand shots at the incoming Pacquiao to take advantage of Pac’s ‘drift’ to the left. Marquez may have identified a vulnerability here in that when Pacquiao gets his movement left wrong, a price can be exacted
- Moving into Round 4, Pacquiao knows that he is involved in fight with a smart boxer. he constantly slips inside and outside, seeking to draw the lead from Marquez, but Marquez being the clever boxer that he is continues to cause Pacquiao problems. the fight ultimately ends in a draw, but I think that we may have seen here Pac’s style count against him (albeit it against a high quality opponent.)
Marquez has found a way to counter the Pacquaio tactic of drifting left and attacking (swiftly) with his lead right, an extremely effective (and pretty unique) tactic in Pac’s locker. the question is can this response to a single aspect of Pacquiao’s style win the fight? in short, no. however it will certainly provide a key element of any ‘anti-Pac’ strategy
In With the Big Boys
In November 2009, Manny Pacquiao stepped up again to take on the always dangerous Puerto Rican Miguel Angel Cotto, a man who by and large KO’d opponents as soon as look at them. It’s a WBO Welterweight contest and my observations are outlined below:
As described in the analysis of the Terao fight earlier in the article, Pacquiao’s upper body position is key for me i.e. the right shoulder at 1 o’clock and the left shoulder at 7 o’clock. his upper body is aligned pretty much perfectly with his legs. for my money, this body shape is one of the key reasons why Pac is so fast with his double attacks and why he can do so much damage with his long range shots, particularly the straight left.
There is a real contrast of stances here that is worth highlighting. Cotto, whilst holding a tight guard, is hunched forward with his weight over his front leg. When Pacquiao fights, he hardly ever leans forward (if at all) and this ensures that he is pretty much in perfect balance at all times. By employing this ‘hunching’ stance, Cotto cuts down his own height and makes it more challenging for him to defend effectively against Pac’s long range work (i.e. a swift step backwards is pretty much ruled out.)
Pacquiao uses the double arm block to great effect. Cotto is super strong, so Pac is happy to ‘tease’ at long range, but he knows he can’t just back away. he needs to provide a ‘clear and present danger’ to the bigger, stronger opponent. we see the consummate Pacquiao fight strategy to deal with strong, dangerous opponents.
Cotto launches an attack and in response Pacquiao retreats and instantly springs back to fire in the old faithful one-two. this is the classic double-attack, a favorite of Manny’s.
At the start of the 2nd round, there are some real eye-catching exchanges of single and double shots at long range. Cotto is very proficient and Pac is using the old faithful double arm block to deal with the incoming power shots from Cotto. we see Pacquiao at his deadly best with a jab – long left uppercut – long right uppercut out of the double arm block. These shots spear through Cotto’s tight guard. From that point and for the next 20 seconds, Pacquiao’s long range work is simply brilliant, using singles and doubles combined with great footwork.
What this Pacquiao fight proves, aside from the fact that Pac Man is a highly intelligent boxer, is that as the level of threat and danger increases with the opponent faced, so Pacquiao’s tactics and execution increase in their effectiveness.
In Summary
Manny Pacquiao, quite rightly, is considered the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world today. taking this a step further, many consider him worthy of a high ranking in a list of the best fighters of all time. the way in which he has developed as a fighter, and at the same time laid waste to many top boxers as he has steam-rolled his way up through the divisions of boxing is an amazing achievement that deserves high praise indeed.
Pacquiao is fast, smart, hard punching, tactically minded, super fit, tenacious and aggressive all in equal measure. he is indeed an all round fighter who has adapted to and overcome anything that’s been put in front of him in recent years. for those who are seeking to learn from a boxing master like Pacquiao, be sure to identify the simple things that he does brilliantly:
- His boxing stance and body form are perfectly balanced, enabling him to take advantage of his natural speed.
- Excellent at long range, mastering the ’simple’ skills of long range boxing.
- Goes against convention, albeit exercising caution when doing so.
- He has continued to develop as a fighter, both defensively and offensively.
- He is able to box in a range of styles, being as versatile as he needs to be in response to a particular opponent.
- To beat Manny Pacquiao, it’s going to take a really intelligent fighter who is able to concentrate 100% for the entire fight and be able to set and maintain a high pace. Any takers?
Oh yes indeed, the Pac Man Cometh
Pacquiao Fight Analysis – The Pac Man Cometh
