Pacquiao couldn’t be more prepared for Mosley (Yahoo! Sports)

LAS VEGAS – There was a time not that long ago that those in Manny Pacquiao’s camp had legitimate reason to be worried before his major fights. He didn’t have a right hand to speak of and he only fought moving in one direction. He was so aggressive on offense that he was deficient defensively. There wasn’t a lot of nuance to his game.

One by one, Pacquiao has erased those flaws and turned himself into the best fighting machine the sport has seen since “Sugar” Ray Leonard more than a quarter of a century ago.

Pacquiao is the best fighter in the world. By far. Pound-for-pound, he might be the hardest puncher in the game. It’s hard to imagine anyone with faster hands. There is no finer conditioned athlete in boxing and perhaps not in all of sports.

The scary thing for his competitors is, he’s getting better. He added a right hand to his repertoire after watching film with trainer Freddie Roach of his 2005 loss to Erik Morales, in which he essentially fought one-handed and concluding that his critics were correct.

Order Pacquiao-Mosley fight

He only used to be comfortable fighting while moving in one direction and astute opponents, particularly Juan Manuel Marquez, were able to have success with him by taking advantage of that.

None of that is an issue for him any more. Now, those in Pacquiao’s inner circle only worry about far less troublesome issues, such as Pacquiao working too hard or not taking an opponent seriously enough.

He’s an overwhelming favorite to successfully defend his World Boxing Organization welterweight title and his position atop the sport’s mythical pound-for-pound rankings when he meets Shane Mosley on Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in the main event of a pay-per-view card.

A prime Mosley would have been a legitimate threat and cause for sleepless nights for Roach, promoter Bob Arum and the rest of Team Pacquiao. But the nearly 40-year-old version of Mosley that Pacquiao will face on Saturday hasn’t won in two years and was given the high-paying slot opposite Pacquiao because he has a familiar face and can help push pay-per-view sales. That seems like a wise decision at this point, as all indicators are that the sales could hit a Pacquiao career record of 1.5 million and perhaps slightly more.

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Roach, however, isn’t dismissive of Mosley as a boxer and wanted to make sure Pacquiao understood that, regardless of what else may have happened, Mosley still carried plenty of power and thus would be a danger. But Roach has been with Pacquiao for 10 years and knew that most of the people who Pacquiao ran across in the Philippines were telling him that a bout with Mosley would be easy.

So, when Roach began the lengthy journey from Los Angeles to Pacquiao’s initial training base in Baguio, Philippines, he rehearsed what he’d say when he finally saw his fighter face to face.

“I was really, really worried about (whether Pacquiao would take Mosley lightly) when I was flying to the Philippines,” Roach said. “I said, ‘OK, I have a big obstacle in front of me. Everyone in the Philippines is telling Manny this would be an easy fight.’ And so I knew I was going to have to have a talk with him. So, on the first day of training, I asked him, ‘How was your run?’ And he says, ‘Hard.’ ”

That surprised Roach and he pressed to learn more. He assumed that Pacquiao had done his running on the flatlands in a nearby park.

“He goes, ‘No, I went to the mountains,’ ” Roach said. “Usually we start off on the flats and work our way up to the mountains. I said, ‘Why?’ And he says, ‘Yeah, but Mosley is a tough fight and we need to work for this one.’ That was the first day. And you know what? That attitude hasn’t changed until now.”

As he’s aged, Mosley has tended to fade late in fights, so it wouldn’t be a surprise if he were to storm Pacquiao early to try to get him out.

A sturdy chin is one of Pacquiao’s better, if lesser noticed attributes. And Pacquiao is such a competitor that he fires back early and hard when under assault. That leads to another problem for Mosley because there’s a risk of trying to get into a shootout with Pacquiao because he essentially has a more powerful weapon and a deeper cache of bullets.

“Joshua Clottey showed that the issue isn’t whether you can hit Pacquiao,” Mosley trainer Naazim Richardson said. “The issue is whether you can stop Pacquiao from hitting you all the time. And can you continuously do that? Because in the second half of the bout, this guy’s energy is unbelievable.”

Mosley tends to get wide with his shots, which will leave him open to Pacquiao’s faster, straighter shots. A jab, an uppercut and a straight left hand will be very important punches for Pacquiao.

So, until Mosley tightens up, Pacquiao figures to attack him from the middle.

“I told Manny that where I think we beat Shane is right down the middle,” Roach said. “He has a big overhand right and a really wide left hook. If you pull away from that hook, you’ll be in trouble, because you’ll be on the end of it. You can’t do that. You have to stay in the pocket and counter it. The counter will be very effective.”

Roach is encouraging Pacquiao to go for the knockout as a way to surpass Floyd Mayweather Jr., who won a wide 12-round decision over Mosley a year ago. Nearly everyone in boxing is pining for a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight, but Mayweather doesn’t seem interested.

As a result, Roach said the next best thing will be to outdo Mayweather and beat the guys he’s beaten more decisively.

But Pacquiao is a compassionate sort and has backed off ever so slightly late in fights. He would have stopped Antonio Margarito had he gone for it and he could have stopped Miguel Cotto several rounds earlier than he did.

It’s not likely that he’ll change against Mosley, so look for Pacquiao to rack up the rounds and win the fight by a wide unanimous decision.

If Pacquiao makes a glaring mistake, he’ll be at risk, because Mosley can punch and he won’t have to search to find Pacquiao the way he did Mayweather. But barring an unlikely mistake, Mosley’s chances would seem to be limited.

Expect Pacquiao to win at least 10 of the 12 rounds and further solidify his position as the best fighter on the planet.

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