By Chris Williams: Trainer Freddie Roach is convinced that his fighter Manny Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KO’s) is going to have no problems out-boxing former WBA lightweight champion Brandon Rios (31-1-1, 23 KO’s) in their fight in 10 days in Macao, China. Roach sees Rios as just a tough fighter that is made to order for Pacquiao, and he plans on having Manny use his boxing skills to get a victory over him rather than pushing Pacquiao to slug it out.
Roach said “The more I see of Rios I the tapes the better I feel. He’s just a tough guy and tough guys don’t win fights. Manny can outbox him and he can do it with ease.”
Tough guys do win fights in boxing, especially when they’re facing an aging fighter coming off of a brutal knockout loss like Pacquiao. Rios can be out-boxed, but Pacquiao has never really out-boxed anyone during his career other than perhaps Antonio Margarito. Even in that fight, Pacquiao took a lot of head shots from Margarito. I really think Pacquiao has been the same fighter since the Margarito fight, so it just goes to show you that there is no such thing as an easy fight for Pacquiao unless you’re matching him against a nearly shot Shane Mosley.
Pacquiao is turning 35 in December, and I don’t think he’s young enough to change his stripes and all of a sudden start out-boxing everyone.
Roach said “He [Pacquiao] has to look impressive in this fight…He knows he has to look impressive…He is totally recovered. I don’t think it’s going to affect him at all.”
It’s going to be impossible for Pacquiao to look impressive if he’s trying not to get hit for 12 rounds. If the idea is for Pacquiao to shine and try to entice someone like Floyd Mayweather into fighting him, then Pacquiao is going to need to stay in the pocket and try to mow Rios down. It’s not going to be impressive if Pacquiao plays hit and run against a plodding light welterweight like Rios. Top Rank picked the perfect guy for Pacquiao to look good against, so now he has to go out and show that he’s not over the hill, because right now some people think Pacquiao’s best days are well past him. He hasn’t won a fight in two years, and he has looked good in a fight in three years. Pacquiao has to blow through Rios if he wants to impress someone like Mayweather and I don’t think Pacquiao can do that at his age.
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