Roach impressed with Pacquiao’s footwork, thinks he’ll KO Marquez by the 6th

By Boxing News - 10/25/2011 - Comments

Image: Roach impressed with Pacquiao’s footwork, thinks he’ll KO Marquez by the 6thBy Chris Williams: Trainer Freddie Roach is really excited about his fighter Manny Pacquiao’s footwork in the gym and thinks that he’ll easily beat Juan Manuel Marquez on November 12th. For some odd reason, Roach actually thinks Pacquiao’s ring movements have gotten better rather than worse. It’s almost like Roach is asking boxing fans to believe what he’s saying rather than what they’re seeing from the labored movements of his aging fighter.

Roach said to yahoo.com “I don’t think this fight is going to go six rounds. With Manny’s footwork, he’s just a completely different animal to the guy that fought Marquez he first time. [Marquez] has gotten up against Manny before, but I don’t think he’s going to be able to get up from the power Manny has now.”

Yes, Pacquiao is a whole different animal from what he was in the past. He’s a lot slower now, can no longer jump around, and is more of a classic plodder. Seriously, Pacquiao walks guys down now and doesn’t seem to be able to move like he used since putting on a lot of muscle in a short period of time. Roach is kidding himself if he thinks Pacquiao’s footwork is good. Since the Miguel Cotto fight, Pacquiao’s legs have cramped up with every fight and he can’t jump around even if he wanted to. But besides the cramping issue, Pacquiao just has the look of someone that’s carrying around too much muscle for his own good. Unfortunately that’s just the way it. There’s no going back now. Once you put on all that weight you’re pretty much stuck with it. If Pacquiao tries to take the weight off now, he’ll only end up weight drained and vulnerable.

Roach seems to have a lot of unhappiness surrounding the first two fights between Pacquiao and Marquez. A huge segment of the boxing community think that Marquez did more than enough to win both of the first two fights, and Roach doesn’t like that. Roach said “We can put it to bed [if Pacquiao can beat Marque], finally shut them up and be happy.”

I guess if you can be happy that Pacquiao and his management waited until Marquez was 38 before fighting him again, then more power to you. I know what that looks like to me. It looks like Roach and his team waited until Marquez was old and then fought him. As it is Marquez is going to be not only older, but will be fighting two whole divisions above his lightweight weight class at 144 lbs for the Pacquiao fight. I guess Roach will take a win anyway he can get one. Maybe after this, they can select one of the old guys out of retirement like Kostya Tszyu, beat him and then be happy. Pacquiao beat an over-the-hill 40-year-old Shane Mosley in his last fight.



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