By Chris Williams: Freddie Roach is still predicting a knockout win for Manny Pacquiao on Saturday night, and thinks that he’ll be drowning Joshua Clottey with punches in their fight. In an article at the USA today, Roach says “Blocking punches don’t win fights [referring to Clottey’s tendency to spend a lot of time blocking shots rather than throwing them]. I think we can stop him in the late rounds. The accumulation of punches he’ll [Clottey] be taking in this fights he’s never seen before.

I don’t think he’ll be able to handle it.” Roach has been predicting bad things for Clottey since the fight was first signed, so this is nothing new for Roach. However, Clottey has never been hurt before, and never been stopped. It’s going to take something special for Pacquiao to be able to take him out, especially given Clottey’s excellent defense, ability to take punishment and his size advantage.

Clottey is arguably tougher than Pacquiao’s last three opponents Ricky Hatton, Oscar De La Hoya and Miguel Cotto, so any success that Pacquiao has had before will be essentially meaningless in this fight. Clottey is a whole different fighter than those three that Pacquiao was able to take out. Clottey does have one thing in common with them, however.

Clottey was recently beaten, and that’s something that all three of Pacquiao’s opponents had in common at the time that he fought them. They all had been recently beaten. In Cotto’s case, really badly, taking a terrible beating against Antonio Margarito in an 11th round stoppage loss in 2008. Clottey lose a close 12 round decision against Cotto last year.

It doesn’t make one feel all that good knowing that Clottey was beaten by Cotto, a fighter that was destroyed by Pacquiao. But that’s match-making for you. Pacquiao was hoping to get a big money fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr., but when he asked Pacquiao to take random blood tests before he would fight him, the fight negotiations evaporated quickly. Mayweather was asking for something that the Nevada Athletic Commission isn’t requiring for boxers, at least not yet.

Clottey is well aware that Pacquiao will be throwing a lot of punches in the fight, and is ready for him. Clottey will have the size advantage in this fight, and will likely be just as strong, if not a little stronger than Pacquiao in terms of punching power. Clottey is perhaps an even more dangerous puncher than Cotto, simply because he throws his shots with more speed and is capable of throwing triple hooks with a lot of speed and power.

If Clottey connects, he could just easily stun Pacquiao and take him out. Depending on which day you ask Roach, he sees this as a tough fight for Pacquiao. However, in the next breath, Roach points out how badly flawed Clottey is as a fighter. Clottey may not have to be perfect to hurt Pacquiao. If he can last enough to land one big punch, he can possibly hurt the Filipino star and have him counting stars.

Roach may not want to admit this, but it’s a possibility. This is really Pacquiao’s first genuine welterweight that he’s facing. Cotto was a small former light welterweight who moved up the welterweight, De La Hoya started out in the lower weights as a super featherweight, and Hatton was a light welterweight, not a welterweight.