Pacquiao says he wants to KO Bradley, Roach pleased

By Boxing News - 02/04/2016 - Comments

pac3366By Chris Williams: Trainer Freddie Roach says that former eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao has told him that he’ll be looking to score a stoppage on April 9 in his third fight against WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley on HBO pay-per-view from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Pacquiao would do well to try and get the 5’6” Bradley out of there, because the last thing he needs is to lose the fight by a controversial decision like he did in their first fight in 2012.

Bradley will be looking to score a knockout on a body shot in this fight, so it makes sense for Pacquiao to look for a KO as fast as he can in this third and likely final fight between them.

“Manny told me that he will be looking for a knockout this fight, that’s the first time he’s said that to me in, like, ten years,” Roach said to Fighhype.com. “I like when he says stuff like that, that’s right up my alley. That’s what I want him to do in this fight. I don’t care if Teddy Atlas is saying he’s scared of fire or whatever story he has. This is not a storybook; this is a fight.”

It might not matter whether Pacquiao is saying he wants a knockout or not, because he’s not shown the ability to KO fighters in the welterweight division. The last time that Pacquiao knocked out anybody was in 2009, when he stopped Miguel Cotto in the 12th round in their catch-weight in 2009. Pacquiao looked like he changed overnight after that fight, and lost the power, speed and movement that he had in his subsequent fights.

That fight wasn’t even at the full weight for the welterweight division despite Cotto being the WBO champion. The last fight in which Pacquiao scored a knockout at welterweight at the full weight for the division was against Oscar De La Hoya in 2008, and that was against a badly weight-drained, inactive and arguably over-the-hill De La Hoya.

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The reality is that Pacquiao hasn’t ever really knocked anyone out at welterweight that wasn’t either old, weight drained or fighting at a catch-weight. That’s why it’s difficult to imagine that Pacquiao will be able to KO Bradley in this fight. I don’t think it’s going to happen for Pacquiao.

“[Pacquiao’s] not a big puncher at 147. That’s a clear fact,” Roach said. “At 140, he’s a better puncher, at 135 he was an even better puncher. It’s just the weight. He didn’t carry the punch up to 147. Look at all his fights at 147, he only has, like, one or two knockouts. He’s not a big puncher at that weight division, and he never will be.”

Pacquiao hasn’t shown interest in fighting at 140, so it doesn’t matter whether Roach says he’s a better puncher in that weight class or not. There are no big names at light welterweight [140] other than Adrien Broner, and Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank would likely never make a match between those two fighters in a hundred years.

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Pacquiao has been fighting at welterweight for the past eight years because of the bigger names in that division. Pacquiao could have stayed at 135 or fought at 140, and likely would have been knocking out most of the guys he fought, but he made the decision to fight at 147, where the bigger names were and obviously the bigger paydays.

“He’s never really realized it until I told him last fight, just go out there and box, you’re not a big puncher,” Roach said. “But when you hurt somebody, you are supposed to jump on them, and that part of the game I know he can still do. He doesn’t want to hurt anybody. I don’t think that’s a good idea. If you have a chance to knock somebody out, you shouldn’t let the fight last longer than it should.”

I think Pacquiao has been trying for knockouts in every fight he’s had since the Cotto KO win in 2009, but his power just doesn’t seem like it’s there anymore. If you compare how Pacquiao looked in the Cotto fight to how he’s looked in his fights since then, it’s like two different fighters. Pacquiao might have taken too much punishment in the Cotto fight that could have changed his game. It’s hard to say. All I know is that Pacquiao hasn’t looked nearly the same since his fight with Cotto.



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