By Marcus Richardson: Trainer Freddie Roach thinks his fighter WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao has something to prove to boxing fans when he fights Tim Bradley next month on June 9th in Las Vegas. Roach feels that Pacquiao has to put in a good performance against Bradley to prove to boxing fans that he’s still the same fighter he once was back in 2009.
Roach said “I think Manny Pacquiao realizes that some people in the world think he’s not that good anymore maybe; that he’s washed up a little bit, because his last three fights haven’t been the old Manny Pacquiao, and I think he has something to prove to people.”
Roach should have said the last four fights, not the last three, because Pacquiao has been fading since the Joshua clottey fight in 2010. Pacquiao was great against Miguel Cotto, but he’s looked sluggish and flat-footed ever since in fights that involved Clottey, Antonio Margarito, Shane Mosley and Juan Manuel Marquez. In each fight, Pacquiao has looked steadily worse, and in his last bout against Marquez, Pacquiao appeared to lose but won based on two of the judges seeing him as the winner.
Pacquiao does have a lot to prove, but it’s unclear whether Pacquiao has enough left to beat a fighter in the class of Bradley in an impressive performance. If Pacquiao didn’t look good against Margarito, Clottey, Mosley and Marquez, then he probably won’t look good against Bradley. It may be what Roach asking for is something that Pacquiao can no longer do.
Roach has been predicting knockout wins for Pacquiao every fight for the last three years, but Pacquiao hasn’t knocked out a sole since the Cotto fight. Even that knockout was really questionable because Cotto was still fighting back when the referee stepped in and halted it.