By Dave Lahr: Freddie Roach is already predicting a knockout win for his fighter Manny Pacquiao in the 6th or 7th rounds this Saturday against 39-year-old Shane Mosley, but Roach is hoping Pacquiao can get Mosley out of there much earlier in that, as early as the 3rd round if everything works right.

Speaking with the Sports.inquirer.net, Roach said “Three rounds? I’d love that. Manny Pacquiao goes out there really quick and does what he can do. He can end it if he wants to. If he wants to do it.”

It looks like Roach is starting to get a little carried away about the ability of his fighter. This is understandable because when you face a series of fighters that basically have little chance even before they step into the ring for one reason or another, it leads to a lot of easy wins for a fighter like Pacquiao. This can lead to a trainer like Roach getting drunk on success to the point where he’s rattling off names and counting it as a knockout without batting an eyelash. Of course, perhaps Roach isn’t over-confident and merely knows what he has in front of him with the nearly 40-year-old Mosley. Goodness knows, Mosley hasn’t won a fight in over two years and has looked dreadful in his last two fights. I guess if I was Roach I’d be flapping my gums 24/7 about Pacquiao as well. But I think Roach isn’t necessarily drunk on success, because if he was he’d be pushing to have Pacquiao fight Sergio Martinez and Victor Ortiz, and he’s not doing that. This means that he knows Pacquiao’s limitations and instead is merely blabbering about Mosley.