Roach: Pacquiao not showing hesitation in either hand

By Boxing News - 02/15/2016 - Comments

pac63By Chris Williams: Trainer Freddie Roach says his star fighter Manny Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs) isn’t showing any hesitation in using either of his hands in training camp. Roach started training camp with Pacquiao in the Philippines last Sunday in General Santos City.

Thus far, the 37-year-old Pacquiao isn’t showing any signs of having problems throwing punches with his surgically repaired right shoulder. Pacquiao tore his right rotator cuff in his 12 round decision loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. last year in May, and he had surgery to repair the problem in the same month.

It’s now been nine months since his surgery. According to Roach, Pacquiao is looking pretty good right now and not showing any ill effects from his surgery on his shoulder.

“I am very happy,” Roach said via mb.com.ph. “There was no hesitation in either hand. No, no hesitation at all.”

Pacquiao will have two sparring partners arriving next week to begin sparring with him.
Hopefully, Roach is on the level about what he says about Pacquiao’s ability to punch. As you remember, Roach was less than forthcoming about Pacquiao’s shoulder injury before his fight with Mayweather.

Roach didn’t come out and say that Pacquiao had a bad injury to his shoulder. Perhaps if Roach had done that, many boxing fans would have decided not to spend their hard-earned money on the expensive $100 Mayweather-Pacquiao fight on HBO/Showtime PPV.

Other fans would have likely not bothered purchasing the expensive tickets for the fight and then traveling there at great costs to watch the fight live. If Roach had come right out last time and said that Pacquiao had a bad shoulder injury before the Mayweather fight, I think a lot of fans wouldn’t have spent their money on the fight.

Then there’s also the fans that bet money on the fight. I’m sure they would have liked to have known ahead of time that Pacquiao had a bum right shoulder. That’s why it’s hard for me to believe Roach when he says that Pacquiao isn’t showing any hesitation with either hand.

I’m skeptical now because I was burnt the last time. Unless I’m in the training camp and watching Pacquiao train, I’m not going to be sure of anything when it comes to his health. All I know is Pacquiao is coming back from a torn rotator cuff injury and he’s taking the fight without a tune-up.

That sends a red flag out to me. When do you ever see a baseball player come back from a torn rotator cuff injury and immediately go into an important game? I don’t think it ever happens. When you come back from a rotor cuff injury, they often send the baseball players to their farm teams to get some work in against lesser players. When they do bring them back, they do in short stints rather than throwing the pitcher out there on the mound and tell them to pitch a nine inning game.

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It may not matter whether there’s hesitation or not with Pacquiao’s ability to throw punches. If he doesn’t show some more courage than he did in his loss to Mayweather last May, then I can see Pacquiao losing again. He’s got to fight with more aggression than he did against Mayweather, because Bradley won’t be afraid to let his hands go in this fight.

I think Pacquiao might still be haunted by his 6th round knockout loss to Juan Manuel Marquez four years ago in their fight in 2012. Pacquiao isn’t fighting with the same aggression since that fight, and I think there’s a chance that he’s still subconsciously thinking about that loss.

I don’t think Pacquiao wants to get nailed again like he was in that fight, so he’s been playing it safe ever since then. Bradley hurt Pacquiao in their fight in 2014 with a big right hand shot. Unfortunately for Bradley, he wasn’t able to finish off Pacquiao to get the knockout. If he had pressed the matter a little, I think he would have gotten the knockout.
Pacquiao is the favorite to defeat Bradley in this fight on April 9.

It’ll be third time they fought. HBO will be televising the fight on pay-per-view. Pacquiao had the option of fighting Amir Khan, Adrien Broner, Terence Crawford or Bradley. Either Pacquiao or his promoter Bob Arum selected Bradley.

The result is likely going to cost Pacquiao a great deal of money in lost PPV sales because the boxing community is not showing interest in his third fight with Bradley. The fans overwhelmingly wanted to see Pacquiao fight someone new for a change instead of sitting through another rematch with him and Bradley.



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