The first time Manny Pacquiao fought without Freddie Roach in his corner he ended his long KO drought with a stoppage of Argentine power puncher Lucas Matthysse.
The Matthysse fight was in July of 2018, Manny hadn’t stopped an opponent since Miguel Cotto in 2009. A few months later Pacquiao signs with Al Haymon and PBC, and has Adrien Broner lined up as an opponent.
One would think if you had the best performance of your career without Freddie Roach, why would you bother bringing him back and ruin a good thing?
Buboy Fernandez and Justin Fortune did a great job getting Pacquiao ready, it was the best condition we’ve seen him in ages. He looked so tired and sluggish in the Jeff Horn fight, but against Lucas he was like a new man.
I know Roach has a lot of fans, mainly casuals who grew up watching him with Pacquiao on HBO 24/7 and seeing him all over the TV. He is the most famous boxing coach in the world but he has been somewhat of a jinx when it comes to predicting the outcome of his fighters upcoming bouts.
I think Roach predicting Pacquiao KO’s stems from the Ricky Hatton knockout. Before the fight Roach said that Manny would KO Hatton within the first 2 to 3 rounds, and he did it. Roach let that prediction go to his head and he started believing he was a clairvoyant.
His brutal one punch knockout of Ricky Hatton made casual fans believe Pacman was a savage puncher so they expected him to delver a brutal KO each fight.
We must realize that Manny is a 5 foot 5, former 112 pound boxer, and he is fighting guys who are way bigger and stronger than him, even his next opponent Adrien Broner is naturally bigger than him.
You are not going to knockout or one punch KO many of these guys especially when you are not really a puncher at welterweight but more of a swarmer.
I have nothing but the utmost respect for Freddie Roach he is a hall of famer and one of the best trainers but please stop predicting that Pacquiao will knockout his opponents because it hasn’t happen in ages.
Some boxing fans have called it the Roach jinx, when he predicts a fight by KO it never comes true.
It doesn’t even have to be Manny he is working the corner of, most recently he said Tyson Fury would knockout Deontay Wilder or had the power to do it, but instead it was Fury on the canvas nearly out cold.
Roach is now trying to sell the Pacquiao vs. Broner fight and most people are not going to fall for it again, he said Manny is hitting him harder at 40 than he did ten years ago, and he will knockout Adrien Broner.
I’ve watched Broner fight before and one thing for sure is he is hard to knockout. He has no neck and can take a punch.
I see Manny Pacquiao winning a decision but I don’t see him dropping or hurting Broner, especially with the Roach KO prediction I am confident if Pacman wins it will go the distance.
