By Chris Williams: Freddie Roach has suddenly changed his tune about his fighter Manny Pacquiao. Roach has been bellyaching for weeks about how awful Pacquiao has looked in training, but now suddenly Roach is barking a different number about his fighter, saying in an article at philstar.com “We [meaning Pacquiao] will knock this guy out, I promise you. I’m happy. Manny Pacquiao is back. Mentally, he is much more into the fight. He knows the game plan. He looks great in sparring.” This sounds really calculated on Roach’s part. I don’t know that I buy any of this.

I think Roach has been putting on a theatrical play for the past few weeks to try and sell tickets to a fight that many people see as a mismatch between Pacquiao and the struggling Margarito. They pick a guy that was recently beaten badly by an old Shane Mosley last year, and then when boxing fans complain bitterly about the fight looking to be a mismatch, suddenly Pacquiao is looking terrible in training. And then when boxing fans start to show interest, presto! Pacquiao is back to his old self.

I’m still not sold on this fight. I wouldn’t mind seeing it for free or at a heavy discount of $50 to put it at a nice $5 price tag, but that’s stretching it on my part. I hate the undercard bouts with Mike Jones vs. Jesus Soto Karass, Brandon Rios vs. Omri Lowther [then co-main event], and Guillermo Rigondeaux vs. Ricardo Cordoba. Those fights are interesting enough to ask for a $55 price tag for this fight in my view. I barely even heard of Lowther, and when I saw him for the first time against Henry Lundy in his last fight, Lowther got badly spanked in a 10 round shut out loss. Boy, he’s a great opponent for a co-main event fight. However, him being the opponent for Rios is kind of fitting for this card, because I see mismatches from top to bottom.