By Eric Thomas: In an article from Ron Borges at Thesweetscience site, Freddie Roach, the trainer for WBC lightweight champion Manny Pacquiao (48-3-2, 36 KOs), said that Manny wants a bout with Margarito, whom he thinks he can outbox. Roach further said that Pacquiao won’t ever be defending his WBC lightweight title and that if Juan Manuel Marquez wants a fight with Manny, he’s going to need to gain some weight and move up to the light welterweight division (140 lbs) and meet Manny there because that’s the weight class that Pacquiao will be moving to next.
According to Borges, Pacquiao walks around at 140, so it’s easy for him to fight at light welterweight. He’s feels better at that weight and has more of his strength and speed, Roach says. However, before Marquez and Margarito can get a shot at Pacquiao, he wants to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. next after Manny finishes his fight with Ricky Hatton on May 2nd.
A fight with Mayweather (39-0, 25 KOs), who has been retired for the past year, would be not only a huge bout but also a very risky one as well for the 30-year-old Pacquiao. Considered by many people to be the pound for pound top fighter in boxing before he retired, Mayweather has extraordinary skills, better than even Pacquiao.
The time off from boxing, however, may end up being a problem for Mayweather if he ends up fighting Pacquiao. Mayweather appears to be fighting for money at this point in his career, aiming for mega fighters, rather than his love for the sport and it’s questionable whether he has the dedication to beat an active fighter like Pacquiao.
Things should look a little more clearer once Pacquiao fights Hatton and fans are able to see how well he does against Ricky. Many people are already choosing Pacquiao to win the fight, giving the more crude Hatton much less of a chance to get the win. Both fighters are roughly the same size, despite the fact that Pacquiao has fought at the lighter super featherweight class previously. That’s going to be a problem for Hatton, because he’ll not have too many advantages going for him in this fight other than his toughness and power.
If Pacquiao is at all serious about fighting Margarito, it would seem as if he’s biting off more than he can chew. At 5’11”, Margarito is a large welterweight who throws a lot of punches per round, and unlike De La Hoya, Margarito is strong at welterweight and can punch at a high rate in every round.
Pacquiao could probably use his legs and jab to keep Margarito on the outside for awhile, but it’s doubtful he could do it for long. Sooner or later, Margarito will catch up to Pacquiao and punish him much in the same way that Antonio did against Miguel Cotto while in the process of taking him out in the 11th round in July.
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