By Manuel Perez: It’s weird how people accidentally expose their true beliefs by the slip of the tongue. I noticed that Freddie Roach, the trainer for Manny Pacquiao, has been saying that Cotto has slipped somewhat as a fighter and that Roach is going to take advantage of that by having Pacquiao capitalize on Cotto’s problems.
My question is why would Roach and Pacquiao want to fight Cotto if he is going down hill as a fighter? That seems kind of unsporting if you ask me. Why not take on Shane Mosley, Andre Berto or Paul Williams, so that Roach and Pacquiao can have someone that’s not going down hill or in physical decline.
I mean come on, Pacquiao has already fought two consecutive fights against fighters that were in their decline in Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton, why does Pacquiao need yet another fighter that is slipping? How can that be interesting or sporting? It like saying, ‘Hey, let’s go hunting.” And instead of going looking for some big game, you get a cage full of chickens and start shooting away at them while their still cooped up. There’s no sport in that, is there?
I think Cotto has little left, probably enough to beat the little Filipino, unless the act of taking on excess weight to get to the 145 pound catch weight ends up draining Cotto of his strength. It might just do that, you never know. Pacquiao didn’t want to fight at the full welterweight limit of 147, hence we have Cotto having to drain down to 145 to give Pacquiao a handicap in their November 14th fight.
I know that Roach is thought of as a near genius by some, but I’m starting to think he’s really losing it. Roach needs to shut his yap before he taints the fight. The way that Roach is flapping his gums 24/7 putting Cotto down, it’s virtually guaranteeing that Pacquiao won’t get any credit should he win the fight.
Normally, when a trainer or fighter thinks they have an easy fight, they build up their opponent to make their accomplishment that much bigger in the public’s mind. Roach is doing the opposite of that by tearing Cotto down. It’s bad enough that Roach and Pacquiao chose for the fight to take place at catch weight and then asked for the title to be on the line at that weight.
That is really some bizarre stuff. Cotto has to fight at a handicap, even though he’s the champion. Is there something wrong with this picture? Additionally, why has Cotto been selected when he’s supposedly going down hill as a fighter? To me, that’s cherry picking of the highest order.
Pacquiao is supposed to be the number #1 pound for pound fighter in boxing, yet here is taking on a beatable fighter rather than Mosley, who is regarded by most boxing experts to be the top fighter in the welterweight division. I don’t know how to look at it other than Pacquiao and Roach are cherry picking opponent.
You know, I really like Pacquiao a lot as a fighter up until now, but Roach has really caused me to lose respect for Pacquiao. I now am hoping that Cotto knocks Pacquiao’s head off on November 14th so I can gloat afterwards.
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