Roach believes Pacquiao will beat Bradley because of his superior conditioning

By Boxing News - 03/04/2014 - Comments

pac101010By Chris Williams: Trainer Freddie Roach believes his fighter Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) will beat WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s) next month because he’s in better condition for their fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Roach has been working Pacquiao hard in training camp in the Philippines, and he’s had sparring partner Lydell Rhodes soaking up a lot of rounds against the 35-year-old Pacquiao.

Roach didn’t mention the fountain of youth, but he’s talking in glowing terms about Pacquiao like he’s somehow found the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León’s mythical fountain of youth somewhere for the aging Pacquiao. Roach has been talking about wanting Pacquiao to fight like he was in his 20s, and that’s just not going to be possible given how old he is.

Pacquiao hasn’t looked in the best of shape for quite some time since his fight against Miguel Cotto in 2009. In many of his fights since then, Pacquiao has looked lethargic and winded when forced to fight hard. You can’t really count Pacquiao’s last fight against Brandon Rios, because that looked more like a sparring session than a real fight due to Rios’ slow hands and inability to move around the ring to make it a real fight. But Pacquiao has looked tried when facing guys with decent skills. Even against the past his best Shane Mosley, Pacquiao looked tired.

“It’s about who’s the best conditioned fighter the night of the fight,” Roach said to Husleboss. “Bradley is a workhorse. I know he trains hard. But you know what? My guy works hard also. We’ll be in better shape than him and that’s why we’ll win the fight.”

Pacquiao likely won’t be the better conditioned fighter on April 12th. If Bradley was the better conditioned fighter in April 12th, and definitely was, then it’ll be the same situation on April 12th. There’s a basic problem with Pacquiao that no amount of training can undo – he’s getting old. Roach can’t erase the years simply by driving him hard like he’s a racehorse that you’re trying to get back to his winning ways. You know what happens to aging racehorses, do you? They get put out to pasture once they get up there in age, because they can’t keep winning. There’s a point where even the best training won’t help. So I really don’t think Roach’s working Pacquiao hard is going to turn him into the better conditioned athlete on April 12th.

Instead of trying to turn back the hands of time, Roach should be focusing on coming up with a fight plan to defeat the kinds of things that Bradley will be doing in the ring on April 12th. The idea is that you work smarter when you’ve got an aging fighter. You don’t work the guy into the ground in trying to recapture his lost youth. Roach needs to focus on having Pacquiao fight at a slower pace, but using more strategy to cut off the ring instead of simply trying to get him to overwhelm Bradley with punches the way he used to do with his opponents.



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