By Chris William: Trainer Freddie Roach doesn’t want to see his fighter WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao risk fate by tangling with Juan Manuel Marquez for a fourth time after Pacquiao was pretty well schooled by Marquez in their third meeting last November.
Pacquiao got the win, but it not too many boxing fans saw Pacquiao as the winner in that fight. Whether you saw Pacquiao as the winner or loser seems to break down along the lines of whether you’re a fan of him or merely a neutral fan.
Obviously, Pacquiao’s loyal fans base saw him as the winner against Marquez last time and in all three fights despite the opposite appearing to take place.
Roach said this about a Pacquiao-Marquez fourth fight in Pacquiao’s recent conference call “They [Pacquiao and Marquez] know each other so well. If we [Pacquiao] can’t get [Floyd] Mayweather, I don’t see why we fight Marquez again.”
Yeah, I guess it’s not a wise thing to do for Pacquiao to try and fight Marquez a fourth time, because this time the judges might get it right, and that could derail the Pacquiao money gravy train express. Even if Pacquiao didn’t lose and was given another controversial decision, it would likely hurt him because he would be exposed again and made to look nothing special like the last three times Pacquiao fought Marquez.
Don’t get me wrong, Pacquiao is good at beating the depleted fighters that his promoter Bob Arum puts him in with, but Marquez isn’t depleted yet and he really has Pacquiao’s number.
Incredibly, if Pacquiao can’t get a fight with Mayweather, Roach wants Pacquiao to skip the Marquez fight and instead take on former WBA lightweight champion Brandon Rios. That right there is very hard to understand because Rios’ stock is way, way down after poor performances against John Murray and Richard Abril.
The whole world saw the Rios-Abril fight recently and almost zero people saw Rios winning that fight. Instead of wanting Pacquiao to fight the recently exposed Rios, Roach should be telling him to fight Abril, because that’s the more interesting fight because Abril would box Pacquiao’s ears off. But then again maybe that’s why Roach isn’t keen on putting him with Abril instead of the guy who won by a controversial decision over him.
It may not matter what Roach wants in terms of a Rios-Pacquiao fight, because Rios will be fighting on June 30th against Mauricio Herrera, and Rios could lose that fight or be given another gift decision that will turn people off.
Comments are closed.