By Esteban Garduno: Freddie Roach is showing what appears to be a certain sense cockiness about his fighter Manny Pacquiao in his fight against Tim Bradley tonight. Roach doesn’t believe that Bradley has the skills to even win one round against Pacquiao tonight when they meet at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
When Roach was interviewed by Max Kellerman before Friday’s Pacquiao-Bradley weigh-in, Roach said “This isn’t the end of Pacquiao, believe me. We can’t fight him flat-footed. We’ve got to move side to side, in and out. He’s [Bradley] not going to win one round.”
When Kellerman asked Roach if he was going to have Pacquiao attempt to jump on Bradley early to try and take him out, Roach said “For sure.’
In response to this, trainer/HBO analyst Emanuel Steward had this to say about Roach: “There’s an arrogance there to a certain degree [with Roach]. If you’re fighting a guy like Bradley, it [cockiness] shouldn’t be conveyed to the fighter. You always respect your opponent. I think he’s overlooking Bradley. I think Bradley is the toughest opponent for Pacquiao to fight besides Mayweather and Marquez. The skills and also the mental makeup of Bradley. He’s a tough, tough fighter and he’ll be there all the way through to the end of this fight. Bradley will be a lot more difficult to hit than the guys that Manny has been fighting.”
It does seem like Roach for whatever reason is overlooking Bradley. That could be a calculated move to make him angry enough to want to slug it out with Pacquiao. An angry Bradley is a less effective fighter than a cautious one that is trying to make Pacquiao miss with his shots. By angering Bradley, Roach could be trying to get an edge for Pacquiao. Roach also could be making noise just to pump his own name up by making himself the center of attention.
By making a bold claim like saying Bradley won’t win a single round, Roach will come out in an elevated place if Pacquiao does that tonight. This could lead to Roach getting more fighters wanting to train with him, even though it was Pacquiao that did the fighting and not him.
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