By Chris Williams: As is his custom trainer Freddie Roach is predicting another knockout win for his number #1 fighter Manny Pacquiao as he heads into his May 7th fight against an aging and badly struggling 39-year-old Shane Mosley next month at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Mosley hasn’t won a fight in over two years and has looked completely shot in his last two fights against Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Sergio Mora. Even though Mosley has looked terrible, he’s been picked out as Pacquiao’s next opponent. Roach says “The fight with Sugar Shane won’t be easy, but my prediction is that Manny will win by knockout and become the first boxer to stop Mosley.”

Gee, it sure helps to pick out fighters on their last leg as they nearing 40, doesn’t it? I suppose Pacquiao could knock out a lot of fighters if they’re chosen at the point where they’re badly struggling in the last stages of their careers. I don’t agree with Roach’s prediction, of course, but it wouldn’t be a Pacquiao fight without Roach making his obligatory knockout prediction I guess. I do see Pacquiao winning but that’s not saying much. Mosley is fighting like a 40-year-old and is only months away from turning 40. This is a terrible mismatch on paper and I can’t see it being any different in real life. I doubt Pacquiao will knock Mosley out though because he’ll carry Mosley the whole 12 rounds and won’t go for the kill when he can out of respect for Shane.

It’s going to be painfully obvious how old Mosley is by the 2nd round when he goes into vapor lock and is either too tired or afraid to let his punches go. From there it will be just be a sparring session. I can’t believe this fight is a pay-per-view bout. This is an ESPN fight as far as I’m concerned because Mosley has no chance of beating Pacquiao at this point in Mosley’s career. Had this fight taken place 10 to 15 years ago, I’d have Mosley beating Pacquiao but not now. Good choice of an opponent as always for team Pacquiao. In their last fight, they fought Antonio Margarito at a catchweight for the vacant WBC junior middleweight title, even though Margarito had fought only once at junior middleweight in the past six years. Pacquiao wasn’t fighting an actual champion and he wasn’t fighting at the full 154 weight.