Freddie Roach Not Happy About Pacquiao-Marquez 4; Says Pacquiao Must Knock Out Marquez
It appears evident that there will be a fourth fight between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez as Top Rank’s Bob Arum announced that the contracts would be signed as early as next week. With Pacquiao shunning a rematch with Timothy Bradley — too whom he lost a controversial decision back in June — the Filipino will give Marquez another chance at beating him. The two have had three encounters already with the series being 2-0-1 in favor of Pacquiao. However, it could have just as easily been 3-0 for Marquez as the fights were truly that close. As a matter of fact, when the two fought in November of 2011, many thought that Marquez earned the victory and showered the arena with boos when Pacquiao’s hand was raised.
With the fights being so closely contested, there is one person who thinks the fight is a bad idea: Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach.
“The only good thing I have to say about that is Manny picked (Marquez) and we will deal with him,” Roach said after a roundtable where he was discussing Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr.’s September 15 showdown with Sergio Martinez. The hall-of-fame trainer says that Pacquiao did not consult him prior to making his decision and it is one that he ultimate disagrees with. “I have concerns going into this fight…the judges may be on Marquez side considering that most people thought he won the last fight. I think judges are human and they will favor (Marquez) early. I told Manny that he’s going to have to beat this guy convincingly or knock him out.”
Obviously, Roach prefers the latter. As he’s said in the past, he thinks every fight should end in a knockout.
“It’s about time that we had a good knockout because we haven’t had that in a while. To be pound for pound the number one fighter, I think he needs it.”
Roach says that he would have preferred a rematch with Bradley over Marquez because of the hotly contested decision loss but understands the reasons why Pacquiao opted for what he believes will be the far more difficult fight.
“If I wanted to make more money, I would have chosen Marquez too, ” Roach says saying that Marquez brings a bigger fan base in the Mexican community that would net Pacquiao a bigger purse. “ But I would have gone the other way, I would have wanted revenge.”
