Rios thinks Pacquiao and Roach are scared

By Chris Williams: Unbeaten lightweight contender Brandon Rios thinks Manny Pacquiao and his trainer Freddie Roach are both scared of Antonio Margarito and losing to him. On HBO’s 24/7 Pacquiao/Margarito episode 2, Rios, who trains with Margarito in Oxnard, California, said “Pacquiao is making excuses for not training. To me, he’s scared and Freddie Roach is scared because he’s not going to be the super star no more. He’s just going to be super. The star coming up in Margarito.”

Rios has been very impressed with Margarito’s work regimen that he’s put in for this camp. Rios had never trained before with Margarito until recently, but he’s been awed by how hard Margarito has worked for this camp in preparing for the November 13th fight against Pacquiao. In contrast, Pacquiao isn’t putting nearly the same effort into his training and has been getting manhandled in sparring sessions by Michael Medina, Glen Tapia and Amir Khan. This isn’t good given that none of those fighters bring the same kind of pressure, power, the heart and drive to win that Margarito does for this fight. I don’t think Pacquiao is scared.

I think he’s just being pulled in a lot of different directions due to his popularity, and he’s got things mixed up his head about what’s important now. It’s his boxing ability that has made him in demand, and when that goes, you have to imagine a certain amount of his popularity will likely be lost as well. This is why he should be working a lot harder than he is if he wants to guarantee that he wins this fight. He’s not good enough to just go out there and wipe Margarito out without training hard.