Roach: “We [Pacquiao] have to fight the perfect fight” [to beat Mayweather]

By Dave Lahr: In an interview from writer Gareth Davies at The Telegraph, trainer Freddie Roach revealed that his fighter Manny Pacquiao would have to “fight the perfect fight” to beat Floyd Mayweather Jr. You can say that again, Roach. Pacquiao would have to not only fight the perfect fight, but Mayweather might have to help out by having an incredibly bad night for Pacquiao to win this fight.

I think Mayweather would be too big and too quick for Pacquiao unless Manny fought the absolute best fight of his life and Floyd had a brain freeze on the same night. Roach thinks that he’s spotted some weakness in Mayweather’s game, saying “I’d been looking at how Mayweather reacts against southpaw fighters. There’s quite a difference to how he reacts with right handed fighters. He’s not that comfortable with the southpaw stance. It gets him in a little trouble.”

Roach is obviously talking about Mayweather’s fight with Zab Judah in 2006. Mayweather fought tentatively in the first four rounds of the fight against the then lighting fast and powerful southpaw Judah. But Mayweather took over the fight completely from the 5th round on and never looked back.

Judah was tough because he didn’t attack Mayweather like Pacquiao will likely do. Judah gave Mayweather very few chances to land counter punches in the early going of that fight, forcing Mayweather to initiate the attacks. Mayweather prefers to wait on his opponents and look for opportunities to land counter punches when his oppositions comes to him trying to land. Mayweather did look a little uncomfortable in the early part of that fight, but Judah was so fast back then and very controlled offensively. There was little for Mayweather to counter in the early part of that fight.

Roach says “It’s a complicated game plain I was beginning to put together.” I don’t know that Mayweather is the type of fighter that can be beaten with an artificial game plan. I think if anything, Roach might end up screwing Pacquiao up if he makes him follow some pre-planned pattern to try and beat a fighter like Mayweather. Floyd changes his game plan from second to second, and if you have Pacquiao stuck on plan A trying to beat a constantly improvising Mayweather, the fight could quickly turn into a route for Mayweather.

Pacquiao has got to be able to think for himself and adapt along with Mayweather, and using some mold that’s been dreamed up by Roach after seeing a fight four years ago or whenever. That fight was long ago against a different opponent. Mayweather fights differently based on who he’s up against in a fight, and what opportunities are there for him to capitalize on.

Roach says “You look at the way Floyd fights. If you put pressure on him, on the ropes, he rolls and ducks, and counters and if you get too aggressive, he’ll walk you so cleverly onto a counter punch.” That’s what I mean. Pacquiao would have a terrible time trying to attack a defensive fighter like Mayweather.

Every time Manny comes forward trying to land, Mayweather will move and counter and probably make Pacquiao look really bad. Mayweather is much different compared to any of Pacquiao’s recent opponents. In fact, I can’t think of any fighter that Pacquiao has ever fought that is similar to Mayweather. Pacquiao can all the sparring partners he wants to train for a fight against Mayweather, but none of them can mimic what he does – Certainly not Shawn Porter or Amir Khan. Those guys don’t like Mayweather.