By Chris Williams: Trainer Freddie Roach doesn’t see any point in his fighter Manny Pacquiao taking an easy, safe tune-up fight to gauge where he’s at following his brutally bad 6th round knockout loss to Juan Manuel Marquez last Saturday night. That sounds like a nice risky approach by Roach and Pacquiao. Throw him back in with the guy that knocked him out and see what happens.
Pacquiao was knocked completely out in Ricky Hatton-eque fashion, and that’s a terrible way to be knocked out. When a fighter gets knocked out like Paquiao was, they’re often put in an easy fight in their next bout just to play it safe and give their head a rest from getting hit hard, but Roach doesn’t appear to want that for Pacquiao.
Roach said to Philstar.com “I don’t think that’s necessary at this stage. I don’t think he [Pacquiao] needs to fight a bum.”
I don’t know but I think Roach might be sorry if Pacquiao put back in with Marquez and knocked unconscious again for 1 to 2 minutes. Getting knocked completely out is one thing, but if it happens in a fighter’s very next fight then you got to figure that it’s time to call it a career.
The thing is if Roach and Pacquiao were to play it safe by taking on a scrub or two he’ll at least get a rest from the heavy shots he’d be eating if he were to fight Marquez immediately in a rematch, and he’d also get a good chance to see how he reacts to getting hit. Getting hit in sparring isn’t the same thing as getting hit in a real fight because of the large gloves and head gear that’s used.
Pacquiao might be fine in sparring but when he gets in the ring for the real thing, we could see him poleaxed again by Marquez or even against a scrub if Pacquiao’s ability to take a shot is degraded.
When you get knocked out the way Pacquiao was by Marquez it can sometimes cause that fighter to never be the same again in terms of their ability to take punishment. Wouldn’t it be smart for Pacquiao to at least step inside the ring with an easy option instead of jumping back in the ring with Marquez and ending up face down on the canvas again?
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