By Chris Williams: Trainer Freddie Roach is still longing for the lost yesterdays of his fighter Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) as he approaches his rematch against WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s) in their rematch on April 12th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Roach wants Pacquiao to be like he was when he was in his 20s and fighting at a super high level with tons of aggression. The problem is Pacquiao is 35-years-old now, and he’s never going to see 25 again.
The 20s are gone for Pacquiao, and he’s just going to have to make do with what he has left in the tank. But Roach still wants Pacquiao to try and fight like he used to, and he gets happy when he sees Paquiao fighting in a fierce manner. Unfortunately, we saw what happened to Pacquiao when he tried to fight like he used to in his 6th round knockout loss to Juan Manuel Marquez in 2012. Roach has got to face the facts, Pacquiao isn’t helping himself by trying to fight as if he were in his 20s. It’s working against him, because he doesn’t have the speed, reflexes and it doesn’t look like he has the chin that he had back thin.
“I like when he says he wants to be a young fighter, the young Manny he used to be,” Roach told the Boxing Channel. “Now if I can get the killer instinct back. If you have a chance to take a guy out, you want to take him out because one punch can change everything.”
Pacquiao needs to fight at his age level now, and not push things. Pacquiao has got a lot of mileage on him, and he’s like an old car approaching 100,000 miles. You can’t push that card because you might throw a rod or blow a gasket. Pacquiao is better off fighting with his slow in and out style rather than rushing Bradley the way that Ruslan Provodnikov did last year in giving Bradley a beating. Pacquiao can’t fight like that without running into something from Bradley. Instead of trying to go after Bradley, Pacquiao should focus on picking him apart the way he did with Ricky Hatton in 2009.
That was a style that was more suited to Pacquiao. He can’t be going out and chasing Bradly around the ring while throwing double punches anymore. Bradley is smart enough to wait on Pacquiao and catch him with a clean shot to knock him out. We still don’t know how good Pacquiao’s punch resistance is due to Bob Arum putting him in with one of his slower fighters in his last fight. It could be that Pacquiao is susceptible to getting knocked out, and all it could take is one good shot from Bradley that Pacquiao doesn’t see coming for him to be knocked out.
Comments are closed.