Roach wants to keep Pacquiao from taking punishment from Margarito

Watch Pacquiao vs Margarito Fight - Trainer Freddie Roach is trying to keep Manny Pacquiao from running into so many head shots while training for Pacquiao’s November 13th bout against Antonio Margarito for the vacant WBC junior middleweight title at the Cowboys Stadium, in Arlington, Texas. It’s looking like Roach is going to try and have Pacquiao use a hit and run style to keep him from getting hammered so badly by Margarito. In an article at Gmanews.tv, Roach gave Pacquiao a lot of directions during his sparring session with Glen Tapia, saying “Don’t stay in front of him because he will hit you. Don’t take two punches in order to land three. Move, move away.”

From the sounds of it, Pacquiao was getting tagged by Tapia, who was said to have done well against Pacquiao. That’s not a good sign. If a 20-year-old, 7-0 fighter like Tapia can find Pacquiao with punches, then Margarito will have no problems whatsoever. It looks like Roach has his hands full trying to keep Pacquiao from following his brawling instincts and wanting to slug it out. If that happens against Margarito, Pacquiao is going to get torn apart limb by limb.

Pacquiao’s last opponent Joshua Clottey really did a number on Pacquiao’s face with only landing 10 measly punches per round. Can you imagine what Margarito is going to do to Pacquiao by landing seven to eight times many? Roach wants Pacquiao to hit and run, but Pacquiao won’t be able to follow those instructions. He’s only good at fighting like that in the first minute or two of the 1st round. After that, he reverts back into his slugging nature and just goes toe-to-toe while Roach squawks in the corner telling him to move. Those mutterings from Roach are completely lost on Pacquiao, because he only one way of fighting and that’s 100% attack.

Pacquiao’s high punch output attacks work on fighters like Miguel Cotto, Ricky Hatton, Clottey and Oscar De La Hoya, all of whom had come off recent defeats. But against a warrior like Margarito, who loves to slug it out, it’s going to be like bringing slop to a hog. He’s going to love and batter Pacquiao. If Pacquiao was able to switch gears and follow a plan B after things get bad for him in the first couple of rounds, I think he might have a chance to beat Margarito. But he won’t be able to do that. Pacquiao continue to fight as he always does and will come right at Margarito trying to beat him at his own game by throwing a lot of punches and getting his teeth knocked out in return.

Margarito can’t be out-worked. That’s not possible. You can clinch him to death like Shane Mosley did, but you can’t outwork him. Pacquiao is going to try and he’s going to get kicked around the ring like a little soccer ball from November 13th.

source: boxingnews24.com

Margarito won't last more than 8 rounds against Pacquiao

Manny Pacquiao’s strength and conditioning coach, Alex Ariza, thinks Pacquiao will be too fast and too strong for Antonio Margarito on November 13th. In an article by writer Ronnie Nathanielsz at www.inquirer.net, Ariza says “Once we are done preparing Manny… for fight night, I don’t see Margarito lasting more than eight rounds. I really don’t. I don’t think he’ll be able to take Manny’s power. And as far as Margarito pushing him, I think it’s going to be Manny pushing him.” I’m not sure when Ariza became so good at picking apart fights, but I think it really helps that Pacquiao is facing a guy that many boxing fans think is totally shot.

I don’t think Margarito will be able to take Pacquiao’s power either, but that’s why I don’t even understand why the guy was picked to be fighting Pacquiao in the first place. Shane Mosley, who I think has been on a steady decline as a fighter since 2007, was able to totally dominate the slower Margarito with speed and stop him in the 9th round last year in January. It doesn’t take a genius to see that Margarito is going to have problems against a fighter like Pacquiao. Ariza is only speaking the obvious, because it really goes without saying that Margarito is going to have problems with Pacquiao’s hand speed and power.

We pretty much know how Margarito is going to fight by looking at his last bout against Roberto Garcia at junior middleweight. Instead of trying to overwhelm Garcia with punches, like Margarito has done for virtually all of his boxing career, he instead fought him at a distance using his jab and pecking away with mostly single shots instead of combinations.

This is probably how Margarito is going to try and fight Pacquiao, and it’s not going to work. This is such a horrible mismatch that it’s not even funny. How in the world was a fighter like Margarito selected for Pacquiao? This is disappointing. But, yeah, Ariza is right, but so what? They found a guy that looks shot and now Pacquiao is going to fight him. Big deal. How about matching Pacquiao up against Sergio Martinez or Paul Williams. I’m not holding my breath waiting for that to happen. This is just good match-making on Pacquiao’s promoter’s part. They found another bigger fighter who’s struggling and now they’re going to fight him rather than much dangerous guys like Williams and Martinez.

Watch Pacquiao vs Margarito Fight

Credits: boxingnews24.com By Chris Williams