Is Roach intentionally talking Pacquiao down to increase ticket and PPV sales?

By Dan Ambrose: In case you haven’t noticed, trainer Freddie Roach has been talking in the media recently about how poor his fighter Manny Pacquiao has been looking during training sessions. This has been an off and on thing with Roach, as he’s either predicting a knockout win for Pacquiao over Antonio Margarito or pointing out how poor Pacquiao is looking in sparring sessions and in the general training for the November 13th fight.

It looks to me that Roach is trying to ride both sides of the fence to try and pump up the pay per view and ticket sales for the fight, which will be taking place at the Cowboys Stadium, in Arlington, Texas. This kind of thing wouldn’t be needed had Bob Arum picked a popular opponent for Pacquiao to fight on November 13th.

There was a lot of different options out there for Pacquiao to take on, such as Andre Berto, Shane Mosley, Juan Manuel Marquez, Sergio Martinez, Paul Williams, Timothy Bradley, Amir Khan and Devon Alexander, to name just a small amount of potential opponents for the Filipino star.

I don’t know about you, but I’d rather watch Pacquiao face any one of those fighters rather than seeing him take on a fighter like Margarito. Those guys are at least still fighting well, which is more than I can say for Margarito. He hasn’t looked good in the ring for two years since beating Miguel Cotto.

Roach seems to be talking Pacquiao and it makes me wonder why he’s doing it. I can’t stand being manipulated, and with Roach saying how bad Pacquiao is looking, it feels like he’s trying to get more people to believe that Pacquiao is having problems in order to increase revenue for the fight.

That’s all well and good, but I prefer to see the fight for what it is – a mismatch between Pacquiao and a fighter on a steep decline. We don’t even know if Margarito’s great punching ability in the past was all of him or a product of loaded hand wraps. That’s why the choice of Margarito for this fight seemed to come at the wrong time.

If he had proven that he could still fight by beating some other top fighters, then I could see the point in Pacquiao being matched up against him. But with Margarito looking terrible in a loss to Shane Mosley, and mediocre in a win over Roberto Garcia earlier this year, he would seem to be a really bad choice of an opponent right now.

Source: boxingnews24.com

Pacquiao vs Margarito

Will Pacquiao be seen as a legitimate champion if he beats Margarito at the 151 pound catchweight?

By Chris Williams: Maybe I’m the only one that is less than impressed with the catchweight fight between Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito for the vacant WBC junior middleweight title on November 13th, but I think Pacquiao’s catchweight fight makes the win less credible as far as I’m concerned. This is for the World Boxing Council junior middleweight title, and not some exhibition bout. I know Pacquiao is into collecting titles, but can’t the guy do it at the full weight without a catchweight? I can’t see Pacquiao as any kind of champion if he beats Margarito at a catchweight, can you? Pacquiao already won the WBO welterweight title using a catchweight in his fight with Miguel Cotto last year, and now he’s about to do it again.

I personally couldn’t live with myself if I was given an advantage like that. I would feel guilty about it and wouldn’t do it in the first place. I would be alright with fighting Margarito, but I wouldn’t fight him at a catchweight. I take that back. I wouldn’t fight Margarito. Instead, I’d go after Sergio Martinez and Paul Williams, both of whom are considered to be better fighters than Margarito. By picking Margarrito, that would be like choosing an easy mark and I wouldn’t want that kind of win. But the whole catchweight thing is kind of off putting to me.

Yeah, I know Pacquiao’s loving fans are all for this catchweight fight and are interested in any advantages Pacquiao can get in the fight, but how do they see this being fair? If a fighter needs a handicap just to fight for a title, then they have no business fighting for that title. Can you imagine the opponents of Wladimir Klitschko being given a catch weight handicap to make it easier for them? This is silly. I know a title will be on the line on November 13th for the Pacquiao-Margarito fight, but I won’t see it as a real one, not with the catch weight being involved. Why isn’t Pacquiao challenging Sergeii Dzinziruk for his WBO junior middleweight title? I think he’s a lot better fighter than Margarito. Why isn’t Pacquiao being put in with him? It just seems like Pacquiao is title shopping and by picking Margarito, who is clearly struggling at this point in his career, Pacquiao has the deck stacked in his favor. The catchweight is just more thing that makes it easier for him.

Source: boxingnews24.com

Pacquiao vs Margarito

Khan gets rocked by Pacquiao in sparring session

By William Mackay: In the final bit of sparring in the Philippines before leaving to the United States to train at the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles, CA, Manny Pacquiao reportedly gave WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan some problems in their sparring session. Khan had been talking about doing well with Pacquiao in their previous sparring sessions, describing them as 50-50 with both fighters going well. But it looks like Pacquiao took things a little more serious in this final bit of sparring before leaving to the U.S., as writer Ronnie Nathanielsz from the www.inquirer.net said this about the Pacquiao-Khan sparring session: “Pacquiao showed what he’s capable of doing in a final 30-second burst at the end of the third round when he rocked Khan.” It looks like Pacquiao stopped playing around and taking it easy on Khan and showed him a little taste of what Khan would be experiencing if he were to really be fighting Pacquiao and not just sparring.

Khan said “With Manny, you can’t be too confident. You see what he did? I had to get my defense up. Manny hits hard but I didn’t get hurt. But he’s been training hard all week and when he spars, it’s just 50 or 60 percent.” Khan is saying he didn’t get hurt, but had Pacquiao not been wearing big 16 ounce gloves and if there wasn’t head gear being worn, I’m not so certain that Khan would be saying the same thing. My guess is Khan would have been knocked out by Pacquiao in that round. It only took 30 seconds of serious fighting from Pacquiao do big time damage, and that was with huge gloves and head gear.

I don’t like Khan’s chances against Pacquiao with 10 ounce gloves and no hear protection. This shows you that Khan needs to start moving more when he faces fighters with power like Pacquiao and Marcos Maidana. Khan will be facing Maidana, a fighter that arguably hits harder than Pacquiao, on December 11th. If Khan is getting rocked by Pacquiao, what are his chances against the hard hitting Maidana?

Source: boxingnews24.com

Pacquiao vs Margarito

Berto wants Mosley, Cotto and Pacquiao in 2011

By Chris Williams: WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto (26-0, 20 KO’s) will be making his 5th defense of his World Boxing Council belt on November 27th against Freddy Hernandez (29-1, 20 KO’s) at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Berto, 27, feels confident that he’ll win that fight, and few boxing fans would disagree with Berto. He’s a lot faster than Hernandez and a bigger puncher as well. Berto is already looking beyond the Hernandez fight and has three big named fighters that he wants to take on next year in 2011: Shane Mosley, Miguel Cotto and Manny Pacquiao. Those are fights that have a decent chance of being put together. One of the reasons why is because Berto’s fights are regularly shown on HBO, and he’s got a lot of fans in the United States to pool from to come and see him fight or at least purchase his fights on pay-per-view, as long as it’s against a popular fighter.

Berto, in an article by Chris Robinson at examiner.com, says “If all goes well [with his fight against Hernandez next month], like I said, me and Mosley have unfinished business. I would love to take care of early next year. The Cotto fight is another fight people have been talking about for the past two years. And hopefully we can finish the year off by getting Manny Pacquiao.” That would be a huge year for Berto if he was able to get those three fights. The only fighters that Berto would have missed is Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Amir Khan. However, the chances of Berto beating Mosley, Cotto and Pacquiao probably aren’t very good. I can see him beating one, possibly two of them, but not all three. Berto has looked too vulnerable in fights against Steve Forbes, Juan Urango and Luis Collazo.

If Berto is struggling against those fighters, then I really don’t like his changes against even better fighters. As bad as Berto has looked in fights against Forbes and Collazo, I can see Hernandez beating Berto and maybe by knockout. Berto can dish it out but he doesn’t look good in taking shots to the head. He seems to get flustered easily and come apart.

I think Berto would have a good chance of beating Mosley, if Shane looks the same way he did against Sergio Mora recently. Mosley has looked shot in his last two fights against Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Mora. Facing a guy like Berto, who would be fighting at home, would make it very tough on Shane to beat.

Source: boxingnews24.com

Pacquiao vs Margarito

Berto thinks Pacquiao could be in trouble if Margarito brings the heavy pressure on 11/13

By Chris Williams: In the latest boxing news, WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto (26-0, 20 KO’s) describes the Manny Pacquiao vs. Antonio Margarito fight as a “Toss up” fight, according to an article from writer Chris Robinson at Examiner.com. Berto, 27, says “If Margarito brings that pressure, it could be too much for Manny.” I totally agree with Berto. This fight boils down to Margarito, and what he does in the ring. If he fights like his old self from two years ago, throwing 100 punches per round, then he’ll simply steam roll over the little Filipino without too many problems. But if Margarito looks tired and lets Pacquiao get off first all night long, he’ll end up losing and probably get stopped. The good thing that Margarito has going for him in this fight is that Pacquiao doesn’t tend to clinch a lot.

That’s what really seemed to throw Margarito off his game against Shane Mosley last year in his 9th round TKO loss in January. Mosley was using the old punch and grab technique to perfection and Margarito didn’t know how to adjust to it. What he needed to do was jab and move to keep Shane from landing and immediately grabbing him. But instead, Margarito stood in one place and made it very easy for Mosley to attack and grab. Against Pacquiao, Margarito probably won’t have to worry about those kinds of things.

He just needs to be the one that’s coming forward and throwing his punches nonstop. He can’t give Pacquiao an opportunity to throw his own punches, because that will lead to Margarito taking too much punishment. Instead, Margarito needs to just keep throwing shots to Pacquiao’s midsection, head and wherever he can land.

Pacquiao tends to go on shut down when facing guys that throw a lot of punches. Pacquiao keeps waiting for them to stop to begin his own shots, but if they keep throwing for extended periods of time, Pacquiao just looks to cover up and ride out the wave of shots. If Margarito doesn’t stop throwing punches, he very well could turn Pacquiao into another Kermit Cintron-like victim. Pacquiao can take a lot of head shots, but he looks very uncomfortable when you tag him in the bread basket. I think that’s where Margarito needs to aim his shots. He’s wasting his time if he goes after Pacquiao’s head. It doesn’t work, because his head is like granite and just stops the shots without him getting hurt.

Source: boxingnews24.com

Pacquiao vs Margarito

Pacquiao arrives in Los Angeles to begin training at the Wild Card Gym

By Jim Dower: Manny Pacquiao (51-3-2, 38 KO’s), the winner of seven division World titles, arrived in Los Angeles, California tonight to begin the last part of his training for his bout with Antonio Margarito on November 13th. Pacquiao, 31, will now undertake what will likely be the hardest period of training at the Wild Card Gym, in Los Angeles, California. Pacquiao will be training with better sparring partners and will have a lot of hard training ahead of him to get him in top shape to take on the Mexican tornado Margarito at the Cowboys Stadium, in Arlington, Texas.

The fight will be available on pay per view for $55 and there will be a HBO 24/7 Pacquiao/Margarito 4-part series to get casual boxing fans interested in this fight. Pacquiao has been steadily moving up against bigger and bigger opponents with every fight. This will be his biggest opponent yet, and the one with the best stamina and punch output compared to the other fighters Pacquiao has faced. This is why Pacquiao needs to be in the best shape he can possibly be, because Margarito has a very real chance of winning the fight if he can avoid getting knocked out and stick around long enough to wear the smaller 5’6″ Pacquiao down with his size and work rate.

Pacquiao has been fortunate in his past few fights with his opponents either getting crushed or throwing few punches. Miguel Cotto and Joshua Clottey attempted very little on offense, whereas Ricky Hatton was knocked out almost immediately without landing much. Oscar De La Hoya was weight drained and threw very little in the fight. This could be a real test for Pacquiao if Margarito doesn’t fold up or run like Pacquiao’s other opponents.

Source: boxingnews24.com

Pacquiao vs Margarito

Margarito vs Pacquiao Live Stream

Margarito vs Pacquiao Live Stream. This November 13, 2010 the boxing fight of the year is here, Antonio Margarito vs Manny Pacquiao. This is going to happen at Cowboys Stadium, Arlington, United States. Don't miss this exciting boxing event.