Roach: I thought Pacquiao was about to finish Marquez off

By Boxing News - 12/10/2012 - Comments

Image: Roach: I thought Pacquiao was about to finish Marquez offBy Eric Thomas: Trainer Freddie Roach was taken by surprise by his fighter Manny Pacquiao’s knockout loss to Juan Manuel Marquez last Saturday night. Roach for some reason thought the fight was in the bag and he felt that Pacquiao was on the verge of scoring a knockout in the 6th when he got clipped by a right hand. Marquez was bleeding from a cut on the bridge of his nose, which appeared to be broken.

Roach said at the post-fight press conference “I was going to tell him [Pacquiao] to get back to boxing and sharpshooting the guy. I thought the fight was about over. I didn’t think it was going to last that much longer on our side.”

That would explain some of the extra high confidence that Pacquiao had going into the 6th. Roach must have been planting thoughts into Pacquiao’s head after he knocked Marquez in the 5th round. Marquez wasn’t hurt from the shot but Pacquiao really went after him thinking he had him ready to go. He badly misjudged the situation, but when Pacquiao smells blood he tends to really go after his opponents to finish the job.

Marquez was hitting too hard for Pacquiao to be fighting with the kind of aggressive manner he was using because he was assuming he’d be able to take Marquez’s power shots.

The last thing that Pacquiao should have been thinking is that he could walk though Marquez’s power shots after he was knocked down in the 3rd by one of Marquez’s huge right hands that was thrown almost like a baseball pitcher throwing a ball. It was a strange angle and the shot landed on the side of Pacquiao’s head and flattened him. That was an attention getter from Marquez, and Pacquiao didn’t realize that the fight was going to be much different this time because of Marquez’s power compared to the three previous fights.



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