By Chris Williams: We’ve seen Freddie Roach come up with a number of excuses for his fighter Manny Pacquiao under performing in his last three fights. However, the excuses are running thin and if Pacquiao can’t beat Juan Manuel Marquez without great controversy there’s going to be a bucket-load of criticism heaped onto the heads of Roach and Pacquiao.
We’ve heard the excuse about Pacquiao having leg cramps, and we’ve heard the excuse about him having marriage problems. But this time Roach is going to have to face the music and just say it straight that Marquez is simply the better fighter with superior talent. It’s pretty obvious to the rest of the boxing world despite the excuses given each time Pacquiao has been fighting lately.
Roach wants Pacquiao to KO Marquez in this fight in order to shut off all avenues of criticism that he himself as well as Pacquiao will receive from boxing fans. To try and make that happen, Roach is working Pacquiao hard with help from strength and conditioning coach. They’re going to work him and pray that he can regain what he’s lost through age.
All I can say is good luck. Getting Pacquiao back to where he was before is going to be impossible to do. You can make it look deceiving if his promoter Bob Arum starts matching Pacquiao against weak opponents. It’ll give the impression that Roach and Ariza’s training has brought Pacquiao back to his old form. However, Arum doesn’t seem to want to do that because he’s trying to maximize revenue for Pacquiao’s fights and to face an easy guy won’t bring in the big cash that he’s used to getting.
The only way I see Pacquiao winning this fight is by controversy like in the last two times he fought Marquez. The fight will likely play out like it’s done in the past with Marquez dominating Pacquiao, but then we’ll see Pacquiao get the decision. The boxing fans will boo and then the excuses will likely start from there by Roach.
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