Former undisputed heavyweight champion Mike Tyson believes that Manny Pacquiao will emerge victorious in his upcoming fight against Brandon Rios on Nov. 23rd in Macau.
In an interview with Edward Chaykovsky of Boxingscene, Tyson said that Pacquiao vs Rios will be an exciting fight, but the former pound-for-pound king has the upper hand because a fighter like Rios is tailor-made for the former Filipino welterweight champion.
"Rios is just a game fighter. When Pacquiao was at the top his game, he had so much movement, so much lateral movement and a guy like this is absolutely made for Pacquiao. Normally a guy like this is made for Pacquiao. Rios has a lot of spirit and comes across as a warrior when he fights. It's truly going to be an exciting fight," Tyson said.
But while he believes that Pacquiao should be the favorite to win in the 12-round showdown and the 34-year-old still has a lot of gas left in his tank, Tyson said that Pacquiao's performance will depend on how he will react psychologically from his defeat to nemesis Juan Manuel Marquez.
"I think Manny Pacquiao still has a couple of years still in him. He took a sensational loss, but it's all psychological on how he deals with it. If he took it really bad psychologically, because of the loss to Marquez, then we have a problem," Tyson said.
Coming off a controversial loss via decision to Timothy Bradley in June 2012, Pacquiao suffered a second-straight setback and it was a discouraging loss, as he was knocked out cold by Marquez in their fourth showdown in November.
Yet Tyson believes that Pacquiao can still make noise in the boxing world if he can brush off his devastating defeat to his Mexican rival.
"But if he took it as just a bad day at the office, then he can still make a lot of noise in boxing. This fight depends on the psychological condition that Pacquiao is in," Tyson concluded.
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