Roach: Pacquiao can beat Mayweather with one hand tied behind his back

By Boxing News - 04/26/2015 - Comments

roach111By Chris williams: After weeks training his fighter Manny Pacquiao how to defeat Floyd Mayweather Jr’s shoulder roll defense, trainer Freddie Roach feels extremely confident about Pacquiao being able to do that on May 2nd.

Roach has put Pacquiao through constant drills for him to use his straight left hands to fire past Mayweather’s left shoulder to nail him to the head. Roach feels that Pacquiao is going to have no problems nullifying Mayweather’s shoulder roll if he chooses to use if this fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Roach is so confident in Pacquiao’s ability to land his left hand at will in this fight that he feels that can beat Mayweather with his right hand tied behind his back to where he only uses his left throughout the fight.

“That’s where Floyd is most vulnerable,” Roach told the dailymail.co.uk. “We’re at the point where Manny could beat him with his right arm tied behind his back.”

If Mayweather comes out there in the ring on May 2nd and isn’t using his shoulder roll defense, it’s going put Pacquiao and Roach into a situation where they’re going to need to come up with some new tricks to try and defeat what Mayweather is doing. It’ll also mean that Roach and Pacquiao will have wasted weeks in trying to figure out how to defeat Mayweather’s shoulder roll. That would be a real disappointment for Roach and Pacquiao because it’s never good to waste weeks working on one game plan that you’re not able to use in a fight.

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If Mayweather comes out fighting southpaw against Pacquiao, it’s not going to be good for Pacquiao and Roach. Mayweather is talented enough to where he can switch his fighting stance and do just as good in the southpaw stance as he does from the orthodox stance.

“He [Mayweather] prefers the ropes to the middle so he can wait, set traps, suck you in and pick you off with his counters,” Roach said. “Especially that very good, very straight right. The old Manny might have walked into that. Not now. He will close him down, catch him with two or three hard punches but then move. Floyd will throw back alright but Manny won’t be there.”

Roach thinks that Mayweather won’t be able to connect with anything as Pacquiao comes charging him like he does with all of his opponents. That’s not giving Mayweather much credit for him being able to hit someone shorter than him who will be coming forward at him much of the night. If Mayweather does miss while Pacquiao is bum rushing him, it’s still going to be very difficult for Pacquiao to land two or three punches like Roach thinks he’ll be able to do against Mayweather. When Pacquiao attempts to extract himself from the situation by backing away, he’s going to be vulnerable as well to Mayweather picking him off with a hard shot while he backs away.

“The first time anyone can remember Manny ever watching a boxing tape was when I showed him one of Floyd’s fights,” Roach said. “Showed him how the game plan can work. He liked it. He said ‘I can do that, no problem.’ He saw how Floyd throws a lot less punches, maybe 35 a round against up to a hundred of his own. But that also persuades him he can afford to be patient if necessary.”

So let me get this straight; Pacquiao watches some tape of Mayweather at Roach’s request, and then tells Roach how he can defeat Mayweather using the game plan that he’s designed for him. Pacquiao has no clue what will or won’t work against Mayweather based on watching video. They’re both guessing and it’s so sad because if it doesn’t work, they’re both going to be lost at what to do against Mayweather.



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