By Dave Lahr: Alex Ariza, the strength and conditioning coach for Manny Pacquiao, thinks Manny may be in for a hard time on November 13th against Antonio Margarito in their fight for the vacant World Boxing Council (WBC) junior middleweight title at the Cowboys Stadium, in Arlington, Texas. In an article by Nick Giongco at the Manila Bulletin – mb.com., Ariza said “It’s going to be very physical.”

However, Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach seems to be under the impression that Pacquiao can get the win over Margarito without taking any punishment. Roach says “Manny doesn’t have to take blows from this guy.” It’s strange, but I think Ariza is sounding more and more like a boxing trainer with each day with his pearls of wisdom. I think Roach is hallucinating if he believes Pacquiao is going to beat Margarito without taking blows.

This isn’t little weight drained Ricky Hatton they’re talking about. This is Margarito, a much bigger fighter and one that is used to getting hit a lot. Roach needs to wake up and smell the coffee. Pacquiao is going to get hit and probably get hit a lot. If this fight goes past the 9th round, Pacquiao’s face is going to look like a big jigsaw puzzle with pieces missing all over the place.

Margarito is going to get rough with Pacquiao, and make him feel pain that he hasn’t experienced since Juan Manuel Marquez and Erik Morales both fought Pacquiao. Margarito is going to be attacking Pacquiao’s body and roughing him up when he gets in close. I wouldn’t be surprised to see some rabbit shots every now and then and a few punches south of the border as an attention getter. I don’t know how Pacquiao is going to react to rabbit shots, but my guess he won’t look too good taking them.

Supposedly, Pacquiao’s sparring partners are trying to rough him up a little bit to mimic what Margarito is going to be doing to him in the ring on November 13th. Man, that isn’t going to work. Roach will never let Pacquiao’s sparring go wild on him. Roach would put a stop to the action immediately and keep Pacquiao from getting damaged. If I was the sparring partner, I wouldn’t care. I’d give Pacquiao a small taste of what he’ll be experiencing from Margarito by opening up with some nice elbows, rabbit shots and low blows, along with a head butt or two. They’d have to pull me off of him. All in the line of duty.

Pacquiao isn’t going to know how to deal with what Margarito is going to give him. Margarito is from a tough neighborhood in Tijuana, Mexico, and he’s grown up with the roughhouse style of fighting.

Pacquiao is going to be out of his element and probably running for his life to avoid getting the stuffing beaten out of him every time Margarito gets close. It’s going to be like a big brother beating up on a smaller one. Pacquiao is going to be feeling constant pain from Margarito, and there won’t be any escape.

Running will only prolong the agony because Margarito is great at cutting off the ring on his opponents. I wouldn’t be surprised if Pacquiao’s loses some teeth in this fight. Margarito is no joke, and once he gets those punches and elbows flying, something has got to give.