Pacquiao V Lomachenko: The Locomotive Train II

If Floyd Mayweather were to follow it, he’d get Errol Spence’d the way Sugar Ray Leonard got Terry Norris’d.

Because Pernell Whitaker followed it, he got Tito’d.

Smith happened to Bernard Hopkins and Glen Johnson’d Roy Jones.

Julio Cesar Chavez was turned into absolute copper by the Golden Boy,  just as Oscar De La Hoya was completely gobbled up by Pac-Man.

At age 39 and 59-7-2 (38KOs), Manny Pacquiao, near the end of his train ride, is somewhere between a very upgraded Henry Armstrong and demonstrably better than the Aaron Pryor being treated like a junkie by Bobby Joe Young. That still beats a lot of quality fighters.

Pacquiao’s remaining skill set is still world-class enough to beat Danny “Swift” Garcia, Mikey Garcia, Shawn Porter, Adrien Broner or Lamont Peterson. However, Vasyl Lomachenko, still settling into his seat on the same train, is a multidimensional, science fiction rendition of Nicolino Locche in an aggressive jazz ensemble. Loma would simplify Pacquiao, turning any Calculus into 1+2, 3 and 4 with pace. The neo-nomasman would not make Pacquiao quit, but he would force the conductor to throw him off the train. A malfunctioned and badly damaged Pac-Man machine would read “Game Over” with a high score under Hi-Tech.

Excerpt from “Vasyl Lomachenko V Manny Pacquiao: The Locomotive Train”, January 2018

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Pac-Man Unplugged

We really are prisoners of the moment, aren’t we folks? I mean, Senator Manny Pacquiao goes out and bludgeons Lucas Matthysse, so now he’s the 2nd coming of the “Pac-Man” who gut checked and gutted Miguel Cotto in 2009, right? 

He’s not.

 As impressive as he was, Manny would’ve always spanked a Matthysse basically from his era. In 2010, when Pacquiao was an aggressive A+ fighter of uncanny movement, punch sequence, rhythm and otherworldly speed and power from a patented southpaw position, Matthysse was a super elite club fighter with dangerous one-punch ability. 

A solid B-level/bootleg version of that Pacquiao in Zab Judah was solving Matthysse like easy puzzles from “Wheel of Fortune.”  So it came as no surprise that the remnants of an all-time great was able to soundly stop what was a very good club fighter Golden Boy masqueraded as elite, though trained eyes knew better. That’s why it’s somewhat easy to gauge what the 2018 version of Pacquiao can do – and what he cannot do, against the likes of Vasyl Lomachenko. 

A very rare and special conditioning advantage Pacquiao would still have over virtually anyone he can still face, would be negated by Loma’s ungodly conditioning program. Factor in a pronounced edge in consistent youthful athleticism and volume, and their styles produce a very different version of his classic with Oscar De La Hoya in a way more competitive than humiliating. That fight would probably end with Buboy Fernandez rescuing an old Pacquiao in the same way Marco Antonio Barrera was saved from a young one.

The Ghost of Duran 

But now that Lucas Matthysse, “The Machine,” has been Pac-Man’d and stripped of his “regular” WBA welterweight championship status, the casuals have started weighing in with hardcore imagination,  so let’s help them out. A best case scenario for Pacquiao, if he truly decides to give Jinkee the best Christmas present of all-time, is to just… retire. 

But Pacquiao seems cut from the longevity cloth of Roberto Duran, with a penchant for disregarding boxing’s time honored tradition of an eventual unrequited love. 

In a perfect world scenario where the fight gods beckoned for Pacturds, Manny would continue on and face the oft-injured and largely inactive “super” WBA welterweight champion Keith “One-Time” Thurman next.

It’s been three years since Thurman sat at a podium in Tampa after escaping Luiz Collazo as the WBA “regular” welterweight champion with a dismissive tone regarding Manny Pacquiao. Having been stripped of the WBC belt and not being nearly as active as an old politician since, how many believe Pacquiao could strip a backpedaling Thurman of “super” status? 

When the buzz at Wild Card Gym attracted A-list stars in Hollywood, Pacquiao was dueling with the likes of Amir Khan and “Showtime” Shawn Porter. Khan’s chin is “Made in China” and would eventually be shattered by Pacquiao. I think Danny “Swift” Garcia beats Porter to recapture the WBC welterweight title and matches up favorably for Pacquiao. Always has. DSG is a plodder with a full toolbox that Manny is capable of nailing shut. If it were Porter, it’s a more difficult fight along the lines of a rough Jeff Horn. But whatever Porter is now, it’s lesser than the fighter who went to war with Thurman in June 2016. He’ll be even less after facing Garcia, so it’s likely a rejuvenated Pacquiao actually stops Porter. 

The only thing an improbable 40 year-old WBC/WBA welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao could possibly do beyond that is rematch a Floyd Mayweather who might want Pacquiao drug tested in front of the United Nations. Errol Spence Jr? See Mike Tyson V Marvis Frazier. Terence Crawford? Go to YouTube and revisit Thomas Hearns V Roberto Duran. But if Manny decides to go the route of Lomachenko, we’ll all know that he’s no longer wearing a pair of Nike’s. 

“Just Do It” retired long ago.