By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao has failed miserably in his first two fights with Juan Manuel Marquez, and should consider himself very fortunate that he didn’t both of those fights because Marquez outboxed him in both fights.

Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach hates the fact that Marquez made Pacquiao look so bad in those fights, almost amateurish most of those two fights. Roach now is saying that Pacquiao will make sure he wins the fight by knocking Marquez out. It’s pretty standard for Roach to pick Pacquiao by knockout, as he’s done this in each of Pacquiao’s last six fights without fail.

Pacquiao unfortunately has knocked out only three of the six, showing what a great predictor Roach is. He may be a trainer, but he sure isn’t much good at predicting Pacquiao or in some cases other fighters’ bouts. Roach was one of the ones that thought David Haye would easily beat Wladimir Klitschko.

Great pick, Roach. Now Freddie is picking Pacquiao by knockout against Marquez, saying to the journal.com.ph “Pacquiao will knock him [Marquez] out somewhere along the way. Manny just can’t walk in like we [he, not we] in the first two. He was just a young kid then. He’s a much more intelligent fighter. I’m very confident we [he] will knock him out.”

Don’t you love how Roach always says “We” when he’s talking about Pacquiao. That kind of thing makes my skin crawl, because when I see people talking like that it makes me think someone is trying to get credit for what I’ve accomplished. As far what Roach says about Pacquiao not walking in like he did in the first two fights, who is Roach trying to kid?

That’s exactly how Pacquiao still fights, except that he no longer comes skipping in and is more of a plodder. Look at Pacquiao’s last two fights, he plods in like a small heavyweight who’s lost his legs. He’s walking in straight lines and is no longer able or capable of moving like he used to in the ring. Pacquiao has only one option of attacking Marquez and that’s by plodding forward like he’s been doing in his last two fights.

The legs just aren’t there any more for Pacquiao, and he’s stuck as a plodder now. It didn’t used to be that way. If you take a look at Pacquiao’s fight with Miguel Cotto in 2009, you’ll notice that Pacquiao could move from side to side still at that time. But Pacquiao has slowly started to lose his legs in his fights since then to the point where it’s all he can do to shuffle around the ring. The legs are gone for Pacquiao now, and he’s like someone pushing a walker in an old folks home. He’s seriously lost his legs.