By Dave Lahr: If nothing else, you can never say that trainer Freddie Roach is loyal to his fighters Manny Pacquiao and Amir Khan, both of which he feels would beat World Boxing Organization light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley if they were to ever fight. Of course, it’s highly unlikely that Pacquiao and Khan will ever fight Bradley, so that is kind of meaningless for Roach to even predict wins for his fighters over Bradley. Khan is being positioned to fight lightweights Juan Manuel Marquez or Juan Diaz, and Pacquiao has been stuck fighting Top Rank fighters from his own stable, and his promoter doesn’t seem interested in matching Pacquiao up with Bradley.

In an article at 8countnews.com, Roach had this to say about Khan, Bradley and Pacquiao: “Timothy Bradley looked like a bum [against Luis Carlos Abregu]. He is a good 140 pound fighter, though. I would like to match him up with Amir Khan. Amir would destroy him, but Manny Pacquiao would knock out Bradley in one round. Bradley had an ordinary guy in front of him the other night, and he wasn’t able to do anything with him.”

I think Roach is delusional if he really believes that Khan would destroy Bradley. I see it as the other way around. Bradley, who has a good chin, would take the fight to Khan and knock him out in 6 rounds or less. Khan has had it easy for the past two years since his 1st round knockout loss to Breidis Prescott. In the past two years, Khan has been put in with light punchers who haven’t been able to land anything because they’re either getting knocked out early or they’re just so weak, it’s just not even competitive. Bradley won’t be knocked out like the fodder that has been fed to Khan, and once he starts landing his shots on Khan’s chin, I see him knocking Khan’s block off before long.

I don’t even see this as a competitive fight. I see Khan running and then getting caught and knocked cold. It’s nice that Roach is talking bold, since Khan is looking to fight a lightweight next instead of someone from his own division. I can only wonder who Khan will fight if he’s able to beat the Diaz-Marquez winner. My guess is another lightweight, who will have to come up in weight like Diaz or Marquez will have to do to fight Khan.

As for Pacquiao, I don’t see him knocking Bradley out in one round or at all. Pacquiao has been put in with fighters that come straight at him for the past few years. If you notice all of Pacquiao’s opponents in the past three years, in each case it’s been fighters that went right at him and made it easy for him. The one fighter that didn’t go after him was Joshua Clottey, who just stood against the ropes all night long with his clamshell defense, just taking shots. Bradley isn’t stupid enough to fight like that. He’ll use movement against Pacquiao and have him tied in knots, looking helpless as a baby. Roach will have to come up with Plan B, C, D, E and F in between rounds to try and save Pacquiao from getting taken to school by Bradley. Roach would be spinning his gears and coming up with zilch for Pacquiao to handle Bradley. I see Bradley winning this fight, but of course, Pacquiao won’t be put in there with Bradley, so there’s no point in Roach even mentioning what Pacquiao would do or not do with Bradley.