Will it be another marvel from Manny or a passing of the mantle? Anish Parekh investigates

Anish Parekh delves into this weekend's Manny Pacquiao vs Keith Thurman fight

Manny ‘Pacman’ Pacquiao is a marvel. At 40 years old, he still manages to muster enough desire to challenge himself against the world’s elite welterweights. It is not only the fights themselves that he must endure but also the mental and physical toil, that is necessary to prepare for such high-stakes matchups.

The ‘Pacman’ has so many accomplishments that his boxing life could be split into two Hall of Fame careers. Early in his boxing life, he was the young puncher whose left hand rendered his opponents senseless. He rampaged through the weight divisions and racked up his most impressive victories against three of Mexico’s finest pugilists – Marco Antonio Barrera, Juan Manuel Marquez and Erik Morales.

Then Filipino hero did the unthinkable. He climbed further through the weight classes and demonstrated that he could retain his speed and power, whilst dominating talented and much larger men than him – thus making a mockery of the old adage that ‘a good big ‘un beats a good little ‘un’. He dismantled Oscar De La Hoya, left Ricky Hatton paralytic and overwhelmed a bewildered Miguel Cotto. Legendary names all scythed and sliced to pieces before being gobbled up by the ‘Pacman.’

Pacquiao has suffered defeats of varying manner after these triumphs. Robbed by Tim Bradley, maimed by old nemesis Marquez, outclassed by Floyd Mayweather and roughed up by Jeff Horn. Despite these disappointments, Pacquiao has displayed another admirable quality – resilience. He has always managed to bounce back and remain a relevant player among his welterweight peers. He prevailed twice over Bradley to take the lead in their trilogy and added the scalps of Chris Algieri, Jessie Vargas, Lucas Matthyse and Adrien Broner – all of whom have owned versions of a world title.

This weekend, Pacquiao will be confronted by yet another young and talented welterweight, with physical attributes that would represent a seemingly insurmountable task.

WBA welterweight world champion, Keith Thurman, has bested many of his contemporaries such as Danny Garcia and Shawn Porter – and was being heralded as the next big crossover star. Unfortunately, a combination of inactivity and injury layoffs have stunted his progress towards stardom.

His looked shaky and suffered numerous scares during his last outing against perennial gatekeeper, Josesito Lopez. The vaunted ‘One Time’ knockout power also appears to be a thing of the past, having scored zero knockouts since his stoppage victory over Jesus Soto Karass in 2013. Many observers – myself included – were left to wonder whether Thurman’s time at the top was over.

Could a 40 year old Pacquiao spring an upset on the stalling Thurman? The Philippines senator has lost the speed in his legs that enabled him to dart into opponents and fire off blazing combinations before expertly maneuvering out of danger. To compensate for that, he has become a better ring-general, keeps his hands higher for protection and uses smart upper-body movement to slip and evade punches, whilst countering-attacking effectively.

However, I believe that even a questionable Thurman will have enough to overcome this smarter, more patient version of Pacquiao. Not because Pacquiao is not good enough, but simply because Thurman’s boxing style would be problematic for him.

Thurman skates around the ring frequently, pops out his jab and chooses his moments to get into range to unleash hurtful punches, before disengaging and wandering around the ring once more. He has shown fragility to the body on more than one occasion in contests against Luis Collazo and Josesito Lopez, but Pacquiao has never been the most committed or bruising of body punchers.

Lopez had occasional success in hunting Thurman down by cutting off the ring and dragging him into the trenches for a dog-fight. Pacquiao on the other hand has always struggled with cutting off the ring and doesn’t possess the strength rough-up the larger Thurman. If the bout did descend into a war, then Thurman – the more physically imposing man – would get the better of the exchanges.

Thurman doesn’t have the one-punch knockout power as advertised, but still throws with enough authority to stun and hurt his opponents, in a way that makes them hesitate before attacking recklessly in response.

Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman will surely be in an inspired mood as he aims to grasp a once in a lifetime opportunity, to vanquish an all-time-great and enhance his status in the sport.

Pacquiao will give everything he has to add to his legacy but will ultimately, be out-fought and out-maneuvered in a night of frustration. This will be Thurman’s night, as size, youth and athleticism will finally count as an advantage when pitted against the decaying skills of an aging ‘Pacman.’

In boxing, watching God’s of war diminish into mere mortals can be indelibly sad and Saturday night could be a cruel and uneasy watch for admirers of the Filipino icon.