By Chris Williams: Trainer Freddie Roach is putting his aging fighter Manny Pacquiao on a crash course to taste defeat by getting him knocked out against Juan Manuel Marquez on December 8th by instructing Pacquiao to shoot for a KO instead of having him just try to win by a decision.
Roach doesn’t seem to understand that Pacquiao doesn’t have the gas anymore to KO anybody, let alone a lot fighter like Marquez with his steel chin. Pacquiao may have been able to score a knockouts earlier in his career when he was fighting in the lighter weights against smaller guys.
Back then, Pacquiao was able to bludgeon these little guys into submission with his high punch output and constant work. But now that Pacquiao is at welterweight, he’s not knocking guys out anymore because it takes a lot of work for him to produce the KOs, and he can’t stand there in front of these guys for 12 rounds to unload on them like he did against smaller guys.
Pacquiao takes too much punishment now that he’s at welterweight, and there’s a danger for him. But the most important thing is Pacquiao can’t fight hard enough to produce his KOs anymore, because he’s gasping for breath when he fights hard for a minute of every round.
If Roach tries to force Pacquiao to try and score a knockout against Marquez, Pacquiao’s going to be so out of breath that he won’t be able to defend himself when Marquez starts unloading on him and it’s going to be easy for him to KO Pacquiao.
It’s been three years since Pacquiao last scored a knockout, and that’s not just an accident. Pacquiao isn’t knocking guys out anymore because he doesn’t have the stamina, foot movement and youth to do what he used to do. Pacquiao somehow aged after he defeated Miguel Cotto in November 2009. I don’t know what happened to him, but it’s as if the best part of Pacquiao was left in the ring on that night with Cotto. It could be that Cotto partially ruined Pacquiao by hitting him with so many hard head shots. If you watch that fight again you’ll notice that Cotto hit Pacquiao an awful lot of times even in losing the fight. Cotto got his pound of flesh, as Pacquiao took a real pounding in winning. Pacquiao can’t fight like that anymore, and you can only wonder what happened.
But instead of Roach trying to get Pacquiao to do what he can’t physically do anymore, he should back off and just try and work with the depleted fighter that he has to get him to try and the win the fight any way he can. Pacquiao is like an old car with a lot of mileage on it. Roach should be trying to get that old car to drive 100 mph because someone will give and it’ll be left on the side of the road. Roach should just try and baby Pacquiao, let him drive 25 mph and hope he doesn’t break down at those speeds against Marquez.
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