By Chris Williams: After his fighter Manny Pacquiao was made to look bad in his previous two fights with Juan Manuel Marquez in 2004 and 2008, Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach wants Pacquiao to knockout Marquez this time.

Roach said this to the Manila Bulletin: “Victory is no longer enough. I want Manny to KO Marquez. I’d be surprised if the fight goes eight or nine rounds.”

It sure sounds like Roach is more than a little bitter towards Marquez. It’s hard to forget how bad Marquez made Pacquiao look in the past.

No doubt Roach thinks this will somehow magically erase Pacquiao’s poor performances in the past with the then prime version of Marquez. It won’t. Beating the 38-year-old Marquez at this point won’t take away from what Marquez did before. It can’t, because that was the prime version of Marquez fighting at his ideal weight range.

Now Marquez is 38, and forced to move up two entire divisions to make this fight. It doesn’t matter if Pacquiao knocks him out, it doesn’t translate into Pacquiao being better than him when he was younger and fighting in his own weight class. It just means Pacquiao and company waited Marquez out until he was old before they decided to finally fight him again, and even then he has to move up a couple of weight classes to take the fight.

Even at 38, I still think Marquez has a good chance of making Pacquiao look bad in this fight. I have my doubts that the judges will give Marquez the decision, though, because he’s facing a cash cow in Pacquiao, a fighter that brings in huge money at the gate and on pay per view. You’ve got to do something really special to get a decision against guys like Pacquiao unfortunately. It might actually take a knockout for Marquez to win this fight, and that’s not likely unless he goes to the body. Pacquiao is weak there, whereas if you throw to the head you’re wasting your time. Pacquiao’s head can absorb almost any shot from fighters at welterweight and below.