By Dave Lahr: Freddie Roach is really starting to make a name for himself as a minor fight predictor. Having correctly picked a number of fights involving Pacquiao, Roach is now once again coming out with one of his predictions, seeing a knockout win for Pacquiao over Miguel Cotto on November 14th in their clash at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas.

Of course, picking Pacquiao to win isn’t as hard as it looks, because the Filipino’s opposition has been very beatable in the past two years, with fights against Oscar De La Hoya, David Diaz and Ricky Hatton. Together, Roach and Pacquiao got Cotto, 28, to agree to come in at a 145 pound catch weight for Manny’s their November.

Although it’s only two pounds, it may be just enough for Pacquiao to get the knockout victory that Roach so craves. One hopes that Roach isn’t putting his star fighter Pacquiao in a hard position where he feels obligated to go out and fulfill the Nostradamus of the boxing world by trying to take Cotto out.

Pacquiao doesn’t need that burden, and would be much better off if Roach kept his trap shut for a change. Pacquiao hasn’t beaten a quality fighter in quite some time, and it might be pushing him to ask that he try to knock Cotto out.

The Puerto Rican fighter might be compromised since being beaten badly in the 11th round by Antonio Margarito and battering in his fight with Joshua Clottey. But Cotto still has the power to knock Pacquiao out if the Filipino goes out looking for a stoppage win.

Pacquiao is fast, but he’s not very big and hasn’t had to slug it out with normal welterweights as of yet. I don’t count Hatton or De La Hoya, because those fighters were all but shot by the time that Pacquiao met up with them.

Roach feels that Pacquiao’s speed with be too much for Cotto, and that he will not be able to handle his speedy punches. Hatton had a problem with Pacquiao’s speed and was getting clobbered in the 1st round by Pacquiao’s fast shots. That may be the case for Cotto if Roach has his way. The difference in this situation is that Cotto hasn’t been knocked out like Hatton was.

Sure, Cotto took some knees against Margarito but he wasn’t on his back staring at the ceiling lights like Hatton was in his fight with Floyd Mayweather in last 2007. Cotto will be able to fire back with big shots unlike Hatton and the badly weight drained De La Hoya.

Cotto hits harder than both of them and harder as other victims of Pacquiao. Roach may be writing checks that Pacquiao can’t cash because he doesn’t have recent experience against a puncher like Cotto and Pacquiao may not be able to hurt him the same way that he was able to against the last two fighters that he met up with.