Analyzing Pacquiao's Boxing Style

I watched the replay of the Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao's fight with Ricky Hatton. It's the first time I've sat down and really watched the guy box. Here is my take. (Admittedly this is based on only 5 minutes and 45 seconds of fight time. When I get around to watching some further fights, some of the "missing" attributes I note below may actually be there.)

Manny Pacquiao is not much for finesse. I saw no fancy combinations, successful feints, or development/modification of his strategy based on his opponent's actions. (It could be that, from the opening bell, Pacquiao quickly saw — as I did — that Hatton was woefully unprepared for this fight, and that Hatton had not made any adjustment to Pacquiao's unique stance or arsenal, and therefore Pacquiao didn't bother to dig deeper into his repertoire.)

Here is what I did see: The most devastating southpaw left hook the sport of boxing has ever witnessed. It starts off normally, but then drops down to a point that puts his opponent's defensive right glove directly between Pacquiao's left and his opponent's eyes. Then, it comes up and around the opponent's right glove so quickly that it is only visible for a tenth of a second before it connects.

I've never seen a hook move that fast. It's superhuman.

A right handed opponent can only block that punch by guesswork: If he's boxing along and suddenly can't see Manny's left glove? Duck. Bob to the left. Fast. And hope. That's it.

And heaven help his opponents if Manny ever learns to put that left hook on somebody's kidneys and ribs instead of using it to throw one haymaker after another.

An opponent who adjusts his right glove down, and closer in a bit more to his chin would have a better look at Manny's left hook, but that opponent would be sacrificing his right eye and temple to Manny's left hook to save his jaw. It might delay one from getting knocked out... long enough to land a few punches of one's own: Obviously, Pacquiao's left glove — when not taking people's heads off — is blocking his own view of an opponent's similar right hook (should a "similar" speed and style of punch ever be achieved by another boxer... which I doubt).

Anyway, for a boxing purist, you won't see Pacquiao put on any art-of-pugilism displays. Instead, you watch a boxer like this and realize that he has placed "art" down on his list, and supplanted it with a ton of physical prowess and natural skill... and then to top it off, goes mirror-image with it. It's untouchable, brutal, and the most amazing boxing I've ever seen.

Oh... one other thing: Manny Pacquiao is the first boxer I've ever seen to walk into an arena shoulders back, head up, smiling, laughing, and waving (well... except for Apollo Creed). It was rather charming: You instantly like the guy.