Former WBO featherweight champion Shakur Stevenson prophesies an easy win for IBF/WBC welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr when he faces Manny Pacquiao on August 31st in their Fox Sports PPV match.
Stevenson thinks Spence (27-0, 21 KOs) wins as long as he doesn’t get careless in there against the 42-year-old Pacquiao, which is an easy thing for him to do.
If you watched Spence’s last two fights against Danny Garcia and Shawn Porter, those fighters found it fairly simple to nail him with their best shots.
Pacquiao isn’t a huge puncher at 147, though, so it’ll require that he land many shots on Spence’s chin for him to knock him out. It’s doubtful he can do that.
Pacquiao’s last KO was 12 years ago against Miguel Cotto in 2009, and that stoppage was uncalled for. Cotto was still on his feet fighting back when the referee jumped in out of nowhere and stopped it.
The last real knockout Pacquiao scored was against little Ricky Hatton in 2009, but you can’t count him because he was a light welterweight.
“I think I have better success against southpaws because there are certain fighters I’ve been watching my whole career as with Floyd [Mayweather] and Andre Ward,” said Shakur Stevenson to Fighthype.
“They fight orthodox fighters. I think that I have more success fighting another southpaw, but it’ll probably be a little bit different for Manny [Pacquiao going against Errol Spence Jr], but Manny has been in there with all kinds of fighters.
“Maybe he hasn’t fought a southpaw in a while, but he’s fought a lot of fighters in his whole career.
“I’m pretty sure he should be straight with Errol Spence’s kind of style, but Errol Spence is kind of bigger. He’s got the reach.
“As long as he doesn’t get caught with something reckless, that should be an easy one for Errol,” said Shakur.
That’s a safe pick to go with Errol Spence to win because there are very, very few people that are picking the 42-year-old Pacquiao to win.
Manny Pacquiao has four strikes going against him in winning the fight:
Inactivity – coming off a 2-year layoff
Lack of size at 5’5 1/2″
Inadequate power
Age
“I think he’s [Pacquiao] got to use his speed and timing,” said Shakur on what Pacquiao needs to do to beat Spence.
“Manny has got decent timing and decent speed. I think he’ll have to use his speed to try and get off before Errol gets off because Errol is younger, stronger, and should be in better shape.
“I think as the fight goes on, it’ll get really ugly for Manny Pacquiao. So he’s got to try and get off as quick as he can and get ahead of the scorecards,” said Shakur Stevenson.
Pacquiao will need to start fast if he wants to have a shot at winning because his best chance is to use his speed to pile up an early lead.
If Pacquiao can win four of the first six rounds, there’s a chance he might get the decision if he can fight well enough in the second half when Spence comes storming back.
