By Chris Williams: Trainer Freddie Roach is predicting that his fighter Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) will be the one to finish off WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley’s time as the 147 lb. champion when they face each other next month April 12th. Roach refuses to admit that Pacquiao was beaten by Bradley in their previous fight, and he sees him doing another job on him but in a more convincing fashion in the rematch at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Roach is one of those old stubborn trainers who seems to have a hard time coming to terms with the fact that his fighter Pacquiao was beaten by Bradley last time. I just hope for the sake of the sport that Roach is gracious and admits that the better man won if Pacquiao gets beaten a second time. It would look bad if Roach starts crying robbery after the fight, and ends up ruining Bradley’s moment.
“The first fight with Bradley was so easy for Manny that after six rounds he just took it easy on him,” Roach said. “Not this time. Our mantra is ‘Close the show. No mercy…Bradley’s days as welterweight champ are numbered. It’s last call for Bradley on April 12.”
I think I’ve heard something along the same lines of the ‘No mercy’ mantra from Roach before Pacquiao’s last fight against Juan Manuel Marquez, and that fight ended badly for the Filipino star. He ran straight ahead like a little bull into a right hand from Marquez in the 6th round and ended up getting knocked clean out.
I hope we won’t be seeing a repeat of that on April 12th, because Roach should have learned his lesson about pushing his fighter to fight without any sense. You can’t do that in a fight against a high quality fighter like Bradley. Roach might be able to get away with getting Pacquiao motivated to blast out sparring partners at the Wildcard Gym in Los Angeles, California, but that kind of thing doesn’t work when it’s the real thing and when Pacquiao is facing a good fighter.
The judges did their job last time Pacquiao fought Bradley, and they gave the right man the decision in that fight. Pacquiao fought like someone half asleep and undertrained, and he deserved to lose. He should have trained harder and put forth more of an effort for that fight, because Pacquiao fought like someone who was only interested in putting forth minimal effort and still get the decision.
We saw Pacquiao getting decisions in fights he arguably deserved to lose against Marquez in their first three fights, and perhaps he thought he could get a win over Bradley fighting like that. Obviously the judges working the fight weren’t going to give a win over someone who was fighting only 1 minute of every round, so they gave the win to Bradley instead of Pacquiao. The rematch will be the same thing. If Pacquiao doesn’t fight hard then he’s going to lose and he’ll deserve to lose.
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