By Chris Williams: Trainer Freddie Roach still has bad blood with Brandon Rios (31-1-1, 23 KO’s) for the time in 2010 when he imitated on video the way that has problems speaking. Rios was seen on video making fun of Roach in front of Antonio Margarito, and seemingly enjoying himself why Margarito laughed at his imitation of Roach.
That’s one of the reasons why Roach is hoping that his fighter Manny Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KO’s) will knock Rios out next month on November 23rd at the Cotai Arena, Venetian Resort, Macao, Macao S.A.R., China.
Roach said via Sports Inquirer “Manny will be doing me a big favor by knocking this guy [Rios] out.”
Roach should be hoping that Pacquiao just wins the fight period without getting knocked out or badly hurt himself in this fight, because Bob Arum picked a dangerous opponent for Pacquiao to be facing in his first fight coming off of a brutal knockout and a long layoff. It’s going to be difficult enough as it is for Pacquiao to win the fight coming off of a 11 month layoff from the ring. That’s a long time to be away from action, and he’s also not a young fighter at 34 soon to be 35. Pacquiao isn’t Bernard Hopkins, and he’s not someone that is going to be still fighting into his 40s.
If Roach sends Pacquiao out there to even the score for the way Rios mocked him, Pacquiao could wind up knocked cold on the canvas just like he was against Rios. If anything, Roach should be making Pacquiao think smart and not get him all riled up to where he’ll madly rush forward straight into one of Rios’ big right hands. Rios has an advantage in this fight because he knows Pacquiao is coming off of a bad knockout loss and he knows that there’s a chance that he may not be the same fighter.
Getting knocked out any fashion the way that Pacquiao was brings a lot of unknowns into this fight. You can’t pretend that Pacquiao that may not be the same fighter after the way he was knocked out because it was just too brutal of a KO to ignore. Instead of wasting Pacquiao’s time on a mission to get revenge, Roach should be trying to keep Pacquiao from getting knocked out again. Hopefully Roach has been teaching him some defense because he’s going to need some if he wants to be able to take Rios’ hard shots for 12 rounds without nose diving on the canvas again.
Rios might even be stronger for this fight than he ever has been before because the fight will be taking place at 147, and he won’t have to worry about draining down to get to the 140 lb. limit like he’s done recently in his two fights against Mike Alvarado.
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