With less than five weeks to go before Manny Pacquiao's highly-anticipated clash with Ricky Hatton, the current pound-for-pound king is looking sharp in his preparations leading up to the fight. "We had some really good sparring partners and Manny's doing well," trainer Freddie Roach revealed with a slight grin. In fact, the world-class trainer is so confident, he doesn't even think Hatton will last three rounds with his star pupil.
"I told Manny if he doesn't knock him out in three rounds, I'll be disappointed," Roach proclaimed. It may be a bold prediction, but it's not the first time that Roach has picked the correct round that Pacquiao would end a fight. He accurately foretold the 9th round stoppage of David Diaz and he also confidently predicted that Pacquiao would knockout Oscar De La Hoya. Although he was technically off by one round, thanks to De La Hoya quitting on his stool, Roach's 9th round knockout prediction appeared to be imminent based on the lopsided beating that Oscar absorbed.
So what makes Roach so confident that it will only take three rounds to stop Hatton? After all, the Manchester native has only been stopped once (a 10th round TKO loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr.) in his 46-fight career and had no problems surviving against other devastating punchers like Kostya Tszyu and Jose Luis Castillo. "We have the gameplan down. Manny knows how to fight this guy," Roach replied. "You know what Ricky Hatton does best; he throws two punches, kind of holds you, ties you up and then sinks that left hook into the body, his best punch. We're not going to be there. He's not even going to be able to find us. We're just way too fast for him."
The last time I ignored what Roach had to say, I watched in disbelief as Manny Pacquiao picked apart, dismantled and embarrassed Oscar De La Hoya. Everything that he said leading up to that fight...from Oscar not being able to pull the trigger to size not being a factor...absolutley everything that he said came to fruition. I think one thing is clear...Freddie Roach knows boxing and this time, I'm actually going to listen to him. Don't be afraid to lay some money down on Manny Pacquiao by third round stoppage!
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