“We have a good game plan set up for Brandon (Rios), he’s a very tough guy in the pocket, he’s dangerous there. Footwork and angles will be very important in the fight and whoever can pull the game will win the fight.”
Those of the words of a confident Freddie Roach when speaking to ThaBoxingVoice.com regarding the big pay-per-view bout coming up in November from Macau, China when his star pupil Manny Pacquiao takes on an all action Brandon Rios.
A lot of questions will be answered in this fight regarding Pacquiao’s return but one thing Roach is confident about is Rios’s inability to take a punch at the welterweight level.
“We need to put combinations together and then get out of harm’s way because Brandon will be swinging back, we’ll box and bang. At 47 Manny’s a big puncher and we don’t think Brandon can take a punch from a big puncher at 47. He’s only fought twice at 40 and this is his first fight at 47. Alvarado was not really a big puncher. He’s (Rios) usually fought guys at 35,” stated Roach.
Roach is also confident in stopping Brandon Rios and feels it’s a necessity to show the world that Manny Pacquiao is not a diminished fighter. “I think we’ll stop him at some point of the way. To be impressive, we have to knock him out. It’s a big fight and we need to be impressive. If you hurt these guys at the right time, you take him out. I think my guys is going to be 100 ready by fight time.”
Roach knows that no matter what, that there will always be questions regarding a fight with Floyd Mayweather that never materialized which at one point was still the biggest money fight in boxing, and may still be. Mayweather has stated in the media that Pacquiao is on the decline and is a has been. Roach’s response to that was more to thinking about the Brandon Rios fight, then speaking on Mayweather.
“It’s funny, he says that when Manny been knocked out. If you don’t think you can get knocked out in this sport, you need to pick another sport. But he’s (Pacquiao) fine. What happened, happened. it’s not going to bother him. I expect Manny to fight his best fight in a while because Brandon’s style is good for Manny.
