By Manuel Perez: Trainer Freddie Roach is looking for the magical fight plan for his fighter Manny Pacquiao so that he can beat World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Miguel Cotto on November 14th. In an interview at Fight News, Roach had this to say: “We need to have a perfect fight plan, just what he had when he beat De La Hoya.” You think? Forget about a fight plan.
All Pacquiao had to do was show up at his fight against the weight drained, badly emaciated Oscar De La Hoya and the bout was as good as won. I don’t know what Roach is talking about when he mentions the fight plan in the De La Hoya fight. That fight would have been won by Pacquiao at any stage in his career because De La Hoya was in no condition fight hard more than one round.
I don’t think Pacquiao needs to be weighed down by a plan. He’s going to be having problems no matter what grand scheme that Roach comes up with to beat Cotto. I think any strategy that is dreamed up for Pacquiao will only hurt him more by making him less able to adapt for changing situations in the fight. Roach will probably tell Pacquiao all the usual stuff anyway – jump in, jump out, throw your right hooks, don’t let him hit you, throw the left…etc. It’s all so predictable.
Pacquiao does all those things anyway. If Roach tells Pacquiao to run around the ring and pick his spots, well, gee, that’s what he always does. I hate the way that Roach sets it up like it’s so complicated. It’s really simple. It comes down to basic talent.
Roach can come up with the best strategy in the world and saddle Pacquiao with it, but if he doesn’t have the size, power or talent to implement it, then he’s going to lose. And that’s what’s going to happen, my friends. Cotto has too much talent for Pacquiao, and Roach can have Pacquiao fight this way or that way but it won’t matter. In the end, he’ll still be overpowered and dominated by Cotto.
But this whole planning deal is all a bunch of hot air as far as I’m concerned. It’s like someone drawing you map on how to cross a street, but instead of showing you how to go from point A to point B in a straight line, the person has got you doing all kinds of complicated gyrations to get you across the street just to keep their mouth busy. I think I could train Pacquiao and get the same results.
I’d just say, ‘stay away from his right, jump in and jump out, throw the right hook and then nail him with the left. When Cotto gets tired in the 9th, like he sometimes does, go after him then.’ It’s so simple it’s not even funny. Training for Cotto is easy. But it takes talent to beat him, and Pacquiao comes up a little short in that department. He’s also too predictable.
Whatever thing that Roach tells him, it’ll come down to Pacquiao doing the same thing as I outlined. Roach might have him doing some bizarre thing like circle to the left or fight, but it’ll come down to the in and out thing and quick combinations.
Basically, Roach could probably sum up the strategy in about sixty seconds if Pacquiao can understand him. In the same token, training for Pacquiao is even easier. All you do is tell Cotto to jab a lot so that he can pick Pacquiao off when he comes in for his predictable attacks. When Pacquiao does come forward, you meet him with a straight right hand, not a leaping left hook like Ricky Hatton.
That was the same kind of useless move that Hatton did. Still can’t believe he tried that worn out primitive garbage on Pacquiao, after Hatton had been seemingly taught in his fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Juan Lazcano that his left hook was leaving him vulnerable.
I also would tell Cotto to go after Pacquiao when he backs up. Marquez was able to clip Pacquiao all night long in his fights with him when Pacquiao would back away in a straight line. He’s so wide open when backing up. That’s the problem I see for Pacquiao.
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