While there seems to be split opinions on the outcome of the fight, it seems most boxing insiders feel that it is split into two camps, those who know what they are talking about and those who do not. It seems like 95% of the knowledgeable boxing insiders, fighters, trainers and writers all feel that Mayweather will out class Manny Pacquiao. The common theme seems to be that anyone picking Pacquiao is doing so because they favor his personality or they just don’t understand boxing. People seem ashamed to admit that they think Pacquiao can win the fight.

The reality is, nothing can be further from the truth. Pacquiao can at least match Floyd with his hands and he has quicker feet at this point without a doubt. Floyd’s strategy will be what it always is, to “Be Floyd Mayweather”. “Being Floyd Mayweather” usually means slow down the pace, sharp shoot single pot shots and stay slick on defense so that no matter how many punches Pacquiao throws, he will land few if any totally clean. The result if Floyd is able to do his thing is that he squeaks out rounds where he lands at a higher percentage and he is very efficient while Pacquiao lands to the body and throws a lot more, but cannot land clean upstairs. The judges know this going in and will give Floyd most rounds that transpire in that fashion.

Pacquiao to his credit will attempt to prevent Floyd from “Being Floyd”. He will catch Floyd early and he will hurt Floyd. That being said, just because he hurts Floyd doesn’t mean that he will stop him, drop him or even know that he hurt him.

The question at that point becomes what will Floyd do? Will he be able to regroup, take over and make his opponent fight on his terms like he did with Shane Mosley? Or will Pacquiao simply make that impossible? That is where the fight will get very interesting. Not only will Mayweather have to make the right adjustments at that point, Pacquiao will have to as well. If Pacquiao is overtaken by the moment, he can walk into a trap, punch himself out or allow Floyd to get into his head the same way he got into Canelo Alvarez’s.

The vast majority of “boxing insiders” are selling Pacquiao short when it comes to his skills, boxing IQ and instincts. It seems that everyone, even people who favor Pacquiao acknowledge that Mayweather is a defensive wizard and the best in the business at making adjustments, but everyone is acting like Pacquaio is just a wild aggressive fighter who always fights with reckless abandon. If he was, they would be right and Mayweather would win the fight easily, but that simply is not the case.

Strategy and adjustments by both camps and fighters will be huge in this fight. While Oscar DeLaHoya, Shane Mosley and Ricky Hatton all favor Mayweather, the two men who often disagree with the others who gave the most likely scenarios of how the fight will play out were Big George Foreman and Roy Jones. Foreman stated that he feels Mayweather will give away the first few rounds, but while he will adjust and improve as the fight goes on in the end he will fall short by the narrowest of margins.

Roy Jones is the one who made a prediction that at first sounded counter-intuitive; Roy said that Pacquiao won’t allow Floyd to get away with what he usually does because of Pacquiao’s speed and how busy he is. Roy seemed to believe Floyd would lose rounds and he would have to hurt Manny early, maybe even knock him out to win the fight, he later added that he thought Floyd could start taking over and possibly take a decision. If the fight is even near close the judges will favor Floyd, so Pacquiao will need to fight hard with controlled aggression for the full 12 rounds.

I foresee Pacquiao landing early and a lot more often than Floyd is accustomed to getting hit. Floyd will make adjustments, but will need to show a willingness to engage and firepower that his safety first approach usually doesn’t show. Any point deductions or knockdowns will be huge because regardless of how it comes out the judge’s scores may be all over the place because of contrasting styles. In the end, Pacquiao clearly wins too many rounds to be denied, if Floyd digs in and both fighters start landing bombs, all bets are off, but I have Pacquiao winning by controversial split decision, or getting blatantly robbed on the cards if he doesn’t take it.