Mayweather-Pacquiao: How trainers and former foes would approach fight

LAS VEGAS – When he was preparing the 1996 U.S. Olympic team to compete in Atlanta, Al Mitchell knew he wouldn't have many issues with Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Mayweather was only 19 when the Games began, but to Mitchell, he seemed as if he'd been boxing for 19 years. He instinctively knew how to move in the ring, how to slip and slide away from danger and create openings for himself to punch.

"Very, very high boxing IQ," Mitchell said of Mayweather. "I knew right away that this was a kid who understood the game. He came from a boxing family and he had that boxing IQ like he had been around for years and years. It came natural to him."

Mitchell learned early on in those games that Mayweather also could perform under great pressure. In his first two wins, Mayweather used his legs and his boxing skills to defeat Bakhtiyar Tyleganov and Artur Gevorgyan.

His third-round bout was against Cuban Lorenzo Aragon. Moving away and countering, which Mayweather did so well in the first two bouts in Atlanta, wouldn't work so well against a tricky veteran like Aragon, Mitchell believed.

"I told him, 'Floyd, this is very important, but you can't box and move against this cute Cuban,' " Mitchell said. "You've got to pressure him. You've got to back him up.' And the bell rang and Floyd went out there and right away, he went away from his norm and attacked, and he backed him up. And I said, 'Whoa, this kid is better than I thought he was.'

"He was hitting him with lead right hands, lead hooks, and I said to myself right then and there that this was a kid who really and truly could win the gold."

Mayweather didn't win the gold medal in those Games. He was beaten by Bulgarian Serafim Todorov in what was widely believed to be a corrupt decision. The referee mistakenly raised Mayweather's arm when the verdict was announced.

But he'll get plenty of gold – $180 million worth, maybe more – on Saturday when he meets Manny Pacquiao for the WBA-WBC-WBO welterweight titles at the MGM Grand in the richest fight in the sport's history.

Yahoo Sports enlisted the aid of two well-known trainers, Mitchell and Dan Birmingham, to help break down the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight.

Mitchell was assigned to map out a plan for Mayweather to defeat Pacquiao, while Birmingham, the 2004-05 Trainer of the Year, was asked to script a plan for Pacquiao against Mayweather.

Oscar De La Hoya and Juan Manuel Marquez, former world champions who are two of five fighters to have competed against both Mayweather and Pacquiao, agreed to add their take.

Marquez drew with Pacquiao in 2004, lost to him in 2008 and 2011 and knocked him cold in 2012. He was routed by Mayweather in 2009.

He said preparing for Mayweather is much more challenging.

"Pacquiao has more power, for sure, but Mayweather's style is very complicated," Marquez said. "If you're training for him, you have to work very hard on the plan, and understand what Mayweather is thinking. Mayweather has great experience and his technique is excellent and there are many layers to what he does."

Birmingham said the first thing he would do were he advising Pacquiao would be to convince him to create distance. He thinks crowding Mayweather would be the absolute wrong thing for Pacquiao to do.

Birmingham, who currently trains Keith Thurman but is best known for his work with Winky Wright, said he believes that Mayweather is the bigger puncher and would prevail in an inside battle.

Mayweather, he said, likes to work off the ropes and in the corner, where he is able to overextend his opponents and then counter them with shots they don't see coming.

He raved about Mayweather's awareness in the ring, but said he has his flaws.

"There is a blueprint to beating everybody," Birmingham said. "I don't think Manny will do it by laying on top of him and trying to be a warrior. I think he should keep on the outside, keep the right angle and just stay a half-step away. He's going to have to engage at some point in the fight, especially when Floyd puts on the pressure, which is usually in the later rounds.

"This is the part of the game plan that in my mind is so important. He has to be tricky. He has to use his stutter step and his short step rhythm. I'd have him feint constantly, especially after he starts using his straight punches. There is an art to stutter stepping and being tricky on the approach, and I'd work on that over and over."

De La Hoya, who was stopped by Pacquiao after eight one-sided rounds in 2008, agreed with Birmingham to a large degree. He had success with the jab in the first half of his 2007 fight with Mayweather, but went away from it in the second half and fought more flat-footed.

That led to issues he couldn't overcome. He said Pacquiao will face the same problems if he stands square in front of Mayweather.

"For Pacquiao to win, the key is going to be his legs," De La Hoya said. "He's not a Robert 'The Ghost' Guerrero, Victor Ortiz or especially [Marcos] Maidana," De La Hoya said. " Pacquiao's more versatile. He moves in and out and side to side, and he'll present challenges to Mayweather that way. But to me, the one factor that will determine it for Manny is his legs.

"If he can keep up that in-and-out, side-to-side thing and throw a lot of punches and not get tired, he'll cause Floyd a lot of problems."

Mitchell, though, said he wouldn't be worried if he were advising Mayweather. He said he thought Mayweather could drop so many lead rights on Pacquiao that he could stop him in the seventh or eighth round.

He said that though Pacquiao's style of movement is not typical, he often winds up square to his opponent.

He'd encourage Mayweather to look for those moments and fire away, because he said Pacquiao is available to be hit.

"I think they'll beat him around the body quite a bit early," Mitchell said. "That's what I'd tell him. I'd just want Floyd to be aware of how, when Manny hops in like he does, that he leaves himself open. Manny has a little speed and he throws punches, but he's wide open. I mean, wide open.

"I think Floyd should use that double jab. Jab to the body and then bring it up. Break down the body and the head will fall. I think he's going to stop him around the seventh or so. I know Floyd will be looking him over and figuring him out, and people might say that's starting slow. But Floyd is so smart and when he gets a sense of the timing and sees how open this guy is, he's going to really tee off, I think."

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