Roach: Pacquiao’s fight with Marquez won’t be close

By Boxing News - 09/08/2011 - Comments

Image: Roach: Pacquiao's fight with Marquez won't be closeBy Chris Williams: Freddie Roach would be the last person to admit that his fighter Manny Pacquiao may have problems against Juan Manuel Marquez on November 12th in their third and possibly final fight together. Roach sees Pacquiao as having improved from the last two times he fought Marquez, and doesn’t think he’ll get countered over and over again like he was before by Marquez.

“Manny doesn’t go in recklessly like he did in the first two fights,” Roach said in an article at ringtv. “Manny doesn’t fall into the traps of a counter puncher. He knows how to feint now. He used in and out motions. You don’t know whether he’s coming of going. Counter punchers start reaching for him and he counters that.”

It would be believable about what Roach is saying about Pacquiao not being vulnerable to counter punchers, but the problem is Pacquiao hasn’t any counter punchers other than in sparring sessions against pretty much lower fringe level contenders just starting out. There isn’t any counter punchers on the level of Marquez that’s been sparring with Pacquiao, and he certainly hasn’t fought any counter punchers since Marquez did a number on Pacquiao in their second fight in 2008.

Pacquiao’s been carefully matched against pretty much fighters that come straight at him looking to slug. Marquez is a whole different matter, and no matter what Roach is saying, Pacquiao will be vulnerable against Marquez’s counter shots.

Roach says “He [Pacquiao] has a little grudge. [Marquez] came to the Philippines wearing a t-shirt that said, ‘We got robbed and so forth.’ I’ve urged him to be compassionate and take him out. That’s the only thing that will make the controversy go away.”

I bet it really eats Roach up inside the way Marquez got the better of Pacquiao in their previous two fights, and how a lot of boxing fans think Marquez was robbed of a decision in both fights. No matter how Roach spins it, many boxing fans are still going to believe Marquez did get messed over in those two fights. And beating him now that he’s 38-years-old and having to move up two weight entire divisions just to fight Pacquiao, makes it tough for Pacquiao to get the credit he would have gotten had he simply given Marquez the rematch when he asked for it three years ago. The way it happened this way it gives the appearance that Pacquiao and his management waited Marquez out until he was pushing 40 before they finally decided to fight him again. Now he’s probably too old to beat Pacquiao.



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