This is how John Scully believes Pacquiao will behave in the ring if his coach tells him he needs a knockout win because Mayweather is ahead on points and the chances of losing are great.
Scully is a boxing trainer and a former professional boxer in the light-heavyweight division with a total of 49 professional fights before retiring in 2001.
In an interview with Robert Brown for ontheropesboxing.com, Scully was asked about his thoughts on Brandon Rios’ recent statement. saying Pacquiao has lost a bit of his killer instinct.
“I can see why people would say that. The fact of the matter is, killer instinct comes out when you need it and in recent fights Manny hasn’t needed it. He was very comfortable ahead late in the fight with Brandon Rios and he was obviously way ahead with Algieri, so he didn’t feel that real need to finish the show,” Scully said.
“I think if you see Pacquiao getting hit with shots or if he’s behind on the scorecards and they tell him he needs a knockout to win, I think the killer instinct would be very prevalent, it would be very much there,” he added.
According to Scully— who is coming up with a boxing show called “Knockout” along with Floyd Mayweather Sr., Shane Mosley and Roy Jones — “winning by knockout over Floyd Mayweather would be unbelievable for Pacquiao’s career and it would basically be one of the greatest victories of all time.”
Scully’s observation seems to validate popular claims that Pacquiao saw no need for a KO win over Rios and Algieri because he knew he was way ahead on points and thought a knockout win was unnecessary, if not a bit risky, as he had to be on the offensive mode that could leave his defense open.
In his rematch against Bradley prior to the Algieri fight, Pacquiao knew that he was winning the fight and he may have decided then that there was no need to go for a KO win.
Pacquiao was clearly ahead on points in the later rounds in his last three fights which could be the reason he was not challenged to go for a KO win as Scully explained.
As the announcement for the potential fight draws near, fight fans anticipate that Pacquiao’s killer instinct will resurface once he gets challenged by his coach Freddie Roach to go for a KO win in order to secure a rematch which could even be more lucrative than the first fight.
Mayweather had reportedly inserted a rematch clause in their fight contract which states that there will be an automatic rematch if he loses to Pacquiao in their first encounter.
For Scully, the key to victory is for Roach to challenge Pacquiao to go for a knockout win as Mayweather is known for his skill in piling up points with his mostly accurate counter attacks.
