By Chris Williams: Trainer Freddie Roach doesn’t want to leave anything to chance with the judges possibly taking away a would-be victory, and to keep that from happening, Roach is instructing his fighter Manny Pacquiao (53-3-2, 38 KO’s) to try and stop 38-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez (52-5-1, 38 KO’s) on November 12th in their mega fight at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Pacquiao went life and death with Marquez in their two previous fights with many people thinking that Marquez should have won both of them.

Marquez was the much better fighter in each of these fights but was held to a 12 round draw in fight #1 in 2004 and a 12 round split decision defeat in fight #2 in 2008. Roach obviously doesn’t want to take any chances that Marquez makes Pacquiao look like a novice in November and is giving him instructions to take Marquez out. Roach has things titled in Pacquiao’s favor in this fight with the bout taking place at 144, which is basically the full welterweight weight minus three pounds. That’s a catchweight but it’s hardly a catchweight fight that will be of any benefit to the 135 pound Marquez. He has to come up in weight quite a bit to take this fight instead of Pacquiao meeting him at the half way point.

There is also the age factor. Marquez is almost 40. If they had given Marquez a rematch immediately three years ago, things wouldn’t be so bad because Marquez would be only 35. But 38, that’s a high number for a boxer. I can’t imagine Marquez winning being both smaller and a lot older. But looks like Roach is still worried and wants to take the judges out of it. I wonder what else will pop up in the coming months that will give Pacquiao more advantages in this bout.