Roach’s strategy for Pacquiao was good but Marquez landed a surprise punch

By Boxing News - 12/10/2012 - Comments

Image: Roach’s strategy for Pacquiao was good but Marquez landed a surprise punchBy Jason Kim: Boxing fans have been busy second guessing trainer Freddie Roach for his aggressive fight strategy that Roach had Manny Pacquiao using last Saturday night against Juan Manuel Marquez. Fans, and some writers, are playing Monday morning quarterback by saying it was the wrong strategy for Roach to have Pacquiao using against Marquez in their fourth fight.

Roach doesn’t believe it was, as he feels it was just one of those things where Pacquiao ran into the shot while he was trying to finish off a bloody and battered Marquez in the 6th, and I agree with Roach. If you look at the 5th and 6th rounds ago you’ll see that Marquez was taking bad punishment, his face was cut, his nose looking broken, and he was consistently getting beaten to the punch by Pacquiao.

Better yet, late in the 5th and in the 6th, Pacquiao really worked Marquez over on the ropes and had him ready to go. Marquez even admitted it himself after the fight that he thought he would either get knocked out soon or he’d knock Pacquiao out because he was getting hit too many times in rapid success to be able to last long in that fight. It’s just unfortunate for Pacquiao that he was hit with a perfect shot when he was trying to send Marquez to the showers.

I wouldn’t call it a lucky punch but it was kind of a lucky shot because it came with Marquez’s back to the ropes and with him in bad shape at the time that he landed that punch. Had Marquez not landed the right hand when he did the round would have ended, and Pacquiao would have continued his domination of Marquez into the 7th round. I don’t think Marquez would have made it out of that round because he was just too slow to match Pacquiao’s speed. It would have taken a miracle for Marquez to make it past the 7th with the way that Pacquiao was attacking him.



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