By Chris Williams: Trainer Freddie Roach feels like the victory is in the bag already for his No.1 fighter Manny Pacquiao in his fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 10 days from now.

Roach says he’s never seen Pacquiao in better shape than he is now. Roach says Pacquiao, 36, is having a great camp, and he’s the perfect game plan to give Mayweather Jr. his first defeat of his 19-year pro career. Roach was especially impressed after watching Pacquiao spar six rounds with Liam Vaughan (9-2). Roach felt like it was 15 rounds rather than just six due to the punishment.

“I’ve never seen him in better shape in our decade and-a-half partnership than now,” Roach said via Philboxing.com. “He’s unbelievable. It was only six rounds but I felt the punishment as if we were boxing for 15 rounds. Now I can say that he’s really ready with the way he also banged his two sparring partners.”

So Pacquiao got the better of Vaughn, 24, a fighter with only 9 wins and 2 losses. Vaughn hasn’t fought since August of 2014, and before that he hadn’t fought since he was stopped in 2 rounds by Dan Nazareno Jr. (17-10) in November of 2013. It’s unclear who the other sparring partner that Roach was bragging about Pacquiao “banged” in sparring.

If it’s someone in the same league as Vaughn than that kind of tells you a little bit about why Pacquiao is doing so well. Earlier in the camp, we’d been hearing rumors about Pacquiao struggling against the sparring partners that Roach had found for him. The question is has Roach downgraded the talent level of Pacquiao’s sparring partners or is he getting better as the camp progresses?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-f2l1SP0uE&feature=youtu.be

“Manny can fight any day from today,” Roach said. “He’s ready to fight and to win, I have no doubt about it.”

Let’s hope that Pacquiao is ready to fight on May 2nd because it would be a tragedy if he’s not. But Roach needs to realize that Pacquiao won’t be fighting a sparring partner when he gets inside the ring with Mayweather on May 2nd. He’ll be fighting arguably the best fighter in all of boxing. Just because Pacquiao is beating his sparring partners doesn’t mean he’s going to go out and have the same success against Mayweather in this fight.

I remember how Roach was bragging long and hard about how good Pacquiao was looking before his last fight against Juan Manuel Marque in 2012, and we saw how good that one worked out for Pacquiao with him getting knocked out in the 6th round by Marquez.

Roach needs to be talking the game plan for the Mayweather fight, because that’s what boxing fans what to hear about. They already know that Pacquiao is in good shape because he’s always in good shape for his fights. The thing that will ultimately trip Pacquiao up in this fight is the game plan or lack thereof.

If Pacquiao comes out with Roach’s same old tired game plan that he’s been using from day one when he first walked into his Wildcard Gym many years ago, it’s not going to work against Mayweather. Pacquiao needs an actual game plan, not the same style that he had when he first walked in the door and began training with Roach.

You can’t use that same plan against Mayweather and expect it to work because the style is too old and it’s likely already been figured out by Mayweather in his head and nullified. Pacquiao is going to need some actual game plans, and at least four or five of them for him to be able to compete against Mayweather.