By Chris Williams: Trainer Freddie Roach is once again sounding more like a promoter than a trainer. In the latest boxing news, Roach, in an interview at Abs-cbnnews.com, said “We the way things are going right now, I’m sure we’re going to knock him [Antonio Margarito] out in the 8th round. Maybe less. Nothing has changed in his routine. He is still very strong.” I wish Roach would tell us something different. It’s always a knockout prediction and it’s always against someone that Pacquiao has a good chance of beating. Margarito was stopped last year by Shane Mosley, and has done zilch to show that he’s come back from that loss.

I don’t count a win over fringe contender Roberto Garcia. You got to give me something better than that to show me that Margarito is the same fighter he once was. I don’t know what happened to him but his once impressive power is completely gone since the Mosley fight. That’s not good. Since Margarito still looks like a shadow of his former self, I think it’s wrong for him to have been picked as Pacquiao’s opponent. Why pick someone that isn’t looking good unless the object here is to find someone beatable for Pacquiao. If that’s the case, then a job well done by Pacquiao’s matchmakers.

It’d much rather see Pacquiao in with someone that has an excellent chance of beating him like Timothy Bradley, Paul Williams, Sergio Martinez or James Kirkland. Put him in with them if you want to have Pacquiao fight fight a good junior middleweight, not someone that just recently fought his first fight at that weight in six long years in Margarito. This fight isn’t even going to be competitive and what Roach says is true, but anyone can point that out because it’s so obvious. I’d like to see Roach making the same knockout prediction if this were Pacquiao facing Williams, Martinez or Kirkland. Let’s see Roach make predictions then. He would probably knowing him but people wouldn’t buy into it because Pacquiao would finally be facing fighters that are a threat to him and at the top of their game, which I can’t say that Miguel Cotto, Oscar De La Hoya, Joshua Clottey and Ricky Hatton were when they were matched with Pacquiao.