Next weekend’s eagerly awaited $300 million fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jnr involves a clash of styles that makes it possible to put a case in favour of either fighter emerging victorious.

Mayweather is commonly acknowledged as one of the best defensive fighters of all time — and perhaps the actual best of all time.

He has perfected the shoulder roll to such an extent that in most of his fights he never takes a clean shot.

Add to this his unrivalled shot selection, accuracy, timing and ring awareness, and his remarkable 47-fight unbeaten record comes as little surprise.

The 37-year-old is a true boxing phenomenon, a fighter who’s never out of condition, who despite amassing a fortune and immersing himself in luxury and opulence has retained the desire of a hungry and broke novice.

He will be looking to nullify Pacquiao’s intensity, catching him as he comes forward throwing combinations, before tying him up on the inside.

Mayweather is excellent when under pressure and he will be confident he’ll be able to use his range to punish Pacquiao with counters.

Key for him in this regard, though, is keeping the fight in the centre of the ring. If he goes to the ropes, as he did against Maidana in their first fight, he could well pay a heavy price, what with Pacquiao’s superb handspeed and the sheer amount of punches he throws.

Another factor could well be the fact that Mayweather has been having serious trouble with his hands in the build up to the fight.

The word is he’s been injecting them with cortisone and various painkillers throughout his camp. If true, it explains why in his recent fights the pound-for-pound champion hasn’t thrown anywhere near the number of punches he used to.

It’s a fact and a state that will have given more confidence to Pacquiao and Freddie Roach, his trainer, knowing that they will certainly outwork Mayweather when it comes to punch volume.

Having said that, when I spoke to Pacquiao’s strength and conditioning coach, Justin Fortune, while in LA last week, he said something interesting when I asked if they’d come up with a gameplan to deal with Mayweather’s defence.

Fortune told me that the problem wasn’t the gameplan, it was whether Manny would be able to execute it on the night.

He went on to reveal that during sparring, Pacquiao had a bad habit of forgetting to keep his lead foot on the outside of his sparring partner’s.

Being a southpaw — ie a left-handed fighter — it’s essential that Pacquiao avoids Mayweather’s right hand while keeping him in position to throw his left hand through the middle.

This means he has to keep his right foot on the outside of Floyd’s lead left foot. If he doesn’t — or at least doesn’t do so enough — and starts drifting over to his left, it will bring him into range of Mayweather’s right (backhand) with likely devastating consequences.

Whoever is able to win this battle of the feet, and thereby control the range and angles required to find gaps and utilise their backhand, will win the fight.

Another factor will be who is able to make the necessary adjustments while the leather is flying. One of Mayweather’s strengths — to add to the many — is his ability to make adjustments during a fight.

In this respect he’s three dimensional, whereas Pacquiao only knows how to fight one way — coming forward throwing blizzards of punches, relying on his intensity, pressure and power to overwhelm his opponents.

The Filipino legend’s lack of a plan B was exposed by Juan Manuel Marquez in their fourth fight in 2012, which ended with Pacquiao walking into a vicious right hand in the fifth round that put him to sleep.

There’s little doubt that Mayweather and his team have watched a tape of the Marquez fight and KO a million times up to now, drawing comfort from the fact that if Marquez — a fighter that Floyd schooled over 12 rounds when they met in 2009 — could KO Pacquiao then so can they.

However such linear logic does not apply to boxing. Styles make fights, an old boxing cliche but one that nonetheless contains an unimpeachable truth.

Plus, given Mayweather’s hand issues and the fact he hasn’t stopped an opponent since 2011, when he KO’d Victor Ortiz — and even then it was a controversial stoppage, coming after Ortiz stopped fighting and dropped his hands to apologise to Mayweather for a headbutt after the referee, Joe Cortez, stopped the action to deduct a point from him.

In the same vein, Pacquiao hasn’t stopped an opponent since Miguel Cotto all the way back in 2009, whom he defeated by TKO in the 12th round.

It suggests that the fight will go the distance. Talking to Roach recently, it’s clear that Pacquiao has prepared for the fight of his life.

Unlike past training camps, there have been no distractions this time round. They are fully aware of the fight’s significance and historic importance, evidenced in Roach’s assertion that “it’s for the soul of boxing.”

Floyd Mayweather claims that he’s a better fighter than Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Robinson.

During a recent interview with ESPN, he said: “No-one can ever brainwash me to make me believe that Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali were better than me.”

Mayweather is wrong. Both Robinson and Ali were better fighters and gave more to the sport than he has. Money and greatness are not two sides of the same coin.

Ali in particular transcended boxing to an extent that Mayweather could only dream of. While in the ring he faced and defeated a who’s who of legendary names during heavyweight boxing’s golden age.

Outside the ring Ali fought and defeated the US government’s attempt to destroy him after he refused to be inducted into the military to fight in Vietnam.

The hardest challenge Mayweather’s had to deal with outside the ring is finding a parking space at the shopping mall.