"I don't think Pacquiao is the same fighter...Quite frankly, he left himself open with this kid Algieri. It was a one-sided fight, but there were spots there when he was coming in from too far away or looping his aggression and he was getting caught...For the most part, it was another efficient performance for Floyd. He took away the strengths and the danger from an offensive standpoint that Maidana possesses and Floyd negated it," stated world-class trainer and ESPN commentator Teddy Atlas, who broke down the most recent performances of 8-division world champion Manny Pacquiao and undefeated pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather during a recent conversation with FightHype.com.
ATLAS ON PACQUIAO
"I don't think Pacquiao is the same fighter. I don't think he's physically the same fighter; not because he's used up. I just don't see the strength and the size. I don't know if that means he used to be on something, like Floyd thought he was. I don't know. I don't know because I don't get into that, but he doesn't look as big and he doesn't look like the guy that was knocking out Cotto and destroying Antonio Margarito and those guys. Pacquiao hasn't showed that kind of power, that kind of aggressiveness, and quite frankly he hasn't been that same physical size he used to show me. He doesn't look like the same guy. He doesn't look like the same guy mentally that bites down on his mouthpiece and goes after you."
"Now he comes in in spots, but it's only in spots. Quite frankly, he left himself open with this kid Algieri. It was a one-sided fight, but there were spots there when he was coming in from too far away or looping his aggression and he was getting caught with right hands. I would only think what would happen if those opportunities were there for a better fighter if he would go about it that way. Maybe he wouldn't go about it that way if it was a better fighter, but I couldn't help but think that. So I wasn't greatly impressed. Yes, he won a one-sided fight, but yes, he was supposed to win a one-sided fight against this kid."
ATLAS ON MAYWEATHER
"As far as Floyd's last fight, the rematch against Maidana, again, efficient, but something Floyd never was, he never was the most exciting guy in the world. He was never Sugar Ray Leonard. He was never the most exciting guy in the world. He is a very efficient boxer. He is a very, very, very good boxer. He usually takes the danger out of the fight. That's what he does and that's what makes him so good. He wants to make it as safe and as efficient as he can for himself and that doesn't equate...again, I'm just speaking the truth of what I see with my own eyes and from my experience that needs to be spoken. That doesn't make for the most scintillating, extraordinary fan-pleasing fights. It just doesn't. But it makes for efficient performances for Floyd. For the most part, it was another efficient performance for Floyd. He took away the strengths and the danger from an offensive standpoint that Maidana possesses and Floyd negated it. Having said that, I don't think it was the greatest performance by Maidana. I think Maidana had a more inspired performance in the first fight. I thought he gave a less fiery performance in this fight, to be quite honest. Maybe it's because he got satisfied in the first fight getting paid. It happens. I know people don't like to hear it, alright, but I got news for you people out there, it happens. It's part of being the human race. When people, especially when people come from a place where they haven't had a lot in their life and they work their entire lives to get a lot and they finally get there, sometimes it satisfies them; not everyone, but sometimes it does. He looked a little bit more satisfied in the rematch and performed like he was a bit more satisfied during the course of this fight than he did the first time, to be honest."
"Having said that, I think that Floyd is almost as good as a manager as he is a fighter. He picks these guys. They don't pick him. And he does a very good job of surveying the landscape and knowing what he's thinking and knowing what he's getting himself involved in. He seemed to know that in the rematch and he went about his business that way. Again, it was not an exciting fight, but a fight that Floyd made safe for himself. He doesn't hide from it. He's going to go in there and make it as safe a fight as he can. And what he chose to do, he could have chose different ways. He could've chose to use head movement and counter back and do it that way, or to punch on the inside of the guy and got out of the storm that way. And there are different ways to go about it. He chose to use his legs on the outside and to grab anytime that they got close before Maidana can get anything done in close. Floyd knew that that was the one place Maidana could give him trouble, so he decided that anytime they were in close, he had already pre-thought, prepared, and preordained in his mind that when they were in close, he wasn't gonna be embarrassed to grab. And that's what he did. So he moved and punched a little bit and when they got close, instead of engaging in other ways he could have engaged, he decided to grab, and obviously for him, that was the way he wanted to go and that was successful for him."
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]