Roach: Pacquiao is going to push a much faster pace against Marquez

By Boxing News - 11/21/2012 - Comments

Image: Roach: Pacquiao is going to push a much faster pace against MarquezBy Chris Williams: Trainer Freddie Roach thinks he’s come up with the strategy for his fighter Manny Pacquiao to conclusively beat Mexican warrior Juan Manuel Marquez on December 8th without controversy this time. Roach says he’s going to have Pacquiao fight at an incredibly fast pace like he did in his first fight with Marquez back in 2004 when Pacquiao was 25. He’s now about to turn 34, and it’s debatable whether Pacquiao can realize Roach’s vision.

Roach said “We [Pacquiao] plan to fight the fight at a much faster pace this time like we did in the first fight [in 2004] in the early rounds. That’s where we had the most success.”

Roach went onto say that he’s been pouring over the old tapes of their three prior fights and he’s come to the conclusion that Pacquiao had the most success against Marquez when he was fighting at a fast pace throwing a lot of shots and keeping Marquez under the gun.

Pacquiao did find some success in the first round of his 2004 fight with Marquez when he was able to knock Marquez down three times in the 1st round. But as Marquez’s trainer Nacho Beristain explained it, Marquez made the mistake of starting fast in that fight without gauging the speed and power of Pacquiao’s shots first. This allowed Pacquiao to knock him down multiple times before Marquez made adjustments. However, what Roach fails to remember about the 2004 fight between Marquez and Pacquiao was that Marquez made adjustments in the 2nd round to Pacquiao’s fast pace and dominated the remaining 11 rounds of the fight. A lot of boxing fans believes that Marquez won the last 11 rounds and should have been given the decision. It really didn’t matter that Pacquiao was pushing a fast pace because he was getting drilled left and right by Marquez and getting dominated. It could be that Roach is only focusing on the success that Pacquiao had in the 1st round of the 2004 fight because it’s clear that Pacquiao struggled badly in the 11 rounds with his head getting his head whip-lashed from side to side by Marquez’s shots in each round.

Roach is making a mistake of trying to get Pacquiao to fight at the same fast pace as he did back in 2004, because he’s not the same fighter physically. Pacquiao is slower, doesn’t move as much, doesn’t throw as many punches and doesn’t fight with the same intensity that he once did many years ago. Pacquiao is like an old car with 300,000 miles on him and Roach is asking him to drive at 100 mph for a long 8 hour drive. You do that with an old car and the chances are something is going to fail. That’s just common sense.

Roach should be realizing the limitations of his fighter Pacquiao and looking to fight smart instead of just trying to overwhelm Marquez like Pacquiao used to do against his other opposition earlier in his career. You can’t try and have Pacquiao use his old youthful style in his 34-year-old body. That’s not going to work and I’m disappointed in Roach for even trying to get him to do this. It’s not smart.



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