By Dave Lahr: Trainer Freddie Roach is feeling good about the chances for his fighter World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao against former IBF welterweight champion Joshua Clottey on March 13th. In a teleconference today, Roach said “Clottey’s a very strong guy, he’s a good puncher. I think his best punch is the uppercuts. But I have a lot of confidence in my fighter [Pacquiao]. He’s sparring with guys who fight quite a bit like Clottey. We have big strong guys and Manny’s handling them with ease. I think we will overwhelm him and I think the fight will end before 12 rounds are over. I think Manny will be the first to knock him out.”

Yeah, yeah, Roach, we’ve heard it all before. This is nothing really new for Roach. He often predicts a knockout win for Pacquiao no matter who the fighter is. Frankly, I’d be worried if Roach didn’t come with his usual prediction of a knockout win for Pacquiao.

But let’s be real here: they have the perfect opponent to beat with Clottey. The guy throws few punches, loses his stamina quickly by the halfway point in his fights, has beaten by half of the four good fighters that he’s faced in his career and is coming off a loss. If Pacquiao can’t beat this guy, then he needs to consider moving back down in weight to maybe the lightweight division. I would say the light welterweight division, but I think WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley would beat Pacquiao if he ever made the mistake of fighting him. Pacquiao probably won’t ever fight that guy.

Clottey’s definitely a beatable fighter. He’s ranked number #1 by the WBO, which I can’t understand given that Clottey lost his last fight. You would think that he would at least be dropped a two or three places after his loss instead of remaining at number #1. That’s kind of sad. If Clottey is the best the WBO has, what can you say about the division? I think Shane Mosley and Floyd Mayweather would give Pacquiao a major beating if he would only fight them, but for some reason Pacquiao is facing Clottey. I wonder why?

Pacquiao had a few pearls of wisdom of his of his own during the interview, saying “Joshua Clottey is taller and bigger than me.” That is certainly true. Clottey is a little taller than Pacquiao at 5’8″ compared to the 5’6 1/2″ Pacquiao. However, it’s not enough for it to matter all that much. If we were talking four or more inches, then I would be concerned but Clottey is barely taller than Pacquiao. Plus, Clottey has a crummy workrate, so any height advantage is negated by that. “He [Clottey] is a former champion. I cannot underestimate him.”

“I believe Floyd Mayweather was not ready to fight me,” Pacquiao says. “That’s why he makes some reasons to cancel the fight.” From what I remember, Mayweather didn’t cancel any fight. He wanted random blood testing to take place within 30 days of the fight. He offered 14 days, while Pacquiao wanted them to stop at 24 days. The next thing heard after that was Pacquiao deciding on fighting Clottey. Mayweather didn’t cancel the fight.