?Manny should fight hard and fight smart? - Roach
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 29 Apr 2011
While he rules out an upset when World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao battles ?Sugar? Shane Mosley, trainer Freddie Roach is worried about the Filipino ring icon?s penchant to mix it up if only to make fans who would watch the fight happy.
?Manny has always wanted to give the fans their money?s worth and for that, he makes himself open to whoever his opponent to hit him, thinking that he?s too fast to really be hit hard,? Roach told this writer in an interview after yesterday?s workout at the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles.
?And that?s what I worry about. Remember (Antonio) Margarito? Well, Manny beat him black and blue, but Antonio was able to connect a few times to hurt Manny. I don?t want that to happen,? he said in reference to the Pacquiao-Margarito fight November last year. ?The fact that Mosley knocked Margarito out only means that he?s more of a power puncher than Margarito.?
In that fight, held at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas, Texas, the pound-for-pound king easily disposed of Margarito but not until after receiving some telling blows to the ribs as he willingly stood toe-to-toe against his bigger opponent in his desire to test how powerful the latter was and to please the more than 40,000 crowd.
?I don?t mind Manny engaging Mosley as he did in his previous opponents, but to avoid the taking a single knockout punch, which Mosley is capable of throwing, I kept telling him to fight hard, yes, but fight smart,? Roach said
Roach said the eight-division kingpin will always be open to extreme danger in the ring because he chooses to engage his opponents.
He said he doesn?t blame Manny for his style because that what makes him the most exciting fighter in the world today.
When he lets his hands go, he leaves himself open. There is no perfect defense.
Roach, meanwhile, disclosed that after doing the mitts, shadow boxing, working the double end and speed balls and conditioning exercises yesterday, Pacquiao weighed 151 pounds, well within the prescribed 147-pound for the welterweight fight against Mosley.
?As I have been saying, he?s been doing well, Roach assured. ?Tomorrow (Thursday U.S. time) he?ll have eight or 10 rounds of sparring against (Shawn) Porter and Beltran, the same frequency on Saturday, his last sparring here in L.A. before proceeding to Las Vegas Monday (Tuesday in Manila),?
Going back to the fight, Roach said Manny is going to throw a lot of combinations and Shane will come right back at him. ?That?s why this will be an exciting fight, But when he lets his hands go, he always leaves himself open. There is no perfect game, really.?
?We have a big challenge ahead of us,? Roach said. ?Manny is motivated for a reason The way to go about attacking Shane is to have a lot of thought behind it. You walk in and attack him, you walk into fire. He?ll counter the hell out of you. And he has knockout power.?
Although Mosley has an impressive knockout rate ? 39 KOs in 54 fights ? he set that record primarily early in his career. He started 38-0, with 35 knockouts, but has been just 8-6-1 (with one no-contest), with four knockouts, since.
While he had a dismal performance against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in May of last year where he lost by a lopsided decision, he showed he still can hurt an opponent, wobbling Mayweather in the second round. His last two victories against Ricardo Mayorga and Margarito were both via stoppage.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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