Roach: Pacquiao really doesn’t like Mayweather

LAS VEGAS, USA – One of Floyd Mayweather’s best weapons – his left jab to the body – is a quick, yet forceful blow that stops an advancing foe in his tracks and leaves him open to combination punching to the head and body.

Manny Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach has scouted Mayweather more so than any other fighter; he’s waiting to see Mayweather try that against Pacquiao on Saturday night.

“He does have that long jab to the body that he likes to throw and a lot of sparring partners tell me that’s the most painful shot he throws,” Roach said before the fighters stepped on the scale at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. They tell me it hurts him quite a bit. 

“But Manny stays in the pocket in a southpaw stance. If he throws that long jab to the body, he will get knocked out.”

Shawn Cameron, an unbeaten junior middleweight boxer from Brooklyn, N.Y. who also boxes out of a southpaw stance, agrees that the signature punch isn’t likely to be effective against Pacquiao.

“It works but not as well on a shorter person, especially a southpaw,” said the 9-0 (4 knockouts) boxer.

Roach, who has served as the aggressive mouthpiece to the reserved Filipino boxer, says he thinks Pacquiao’s work rate and movement will trouble Mayweather, who is a solid 2-to-1 favorite to win.

“The ring can be cut off and we will set traps for him,” said Roach. “I think with our high volume of punches we can outpoint him because we’ll throw a five punch combination and he’ll get two off and we’ll be out of the pocket by then. He’s a pretty good counterpuncher but he’s very selective about what he counters with and usually only one or two shots.”

Pacquiao (57-5-2, 38 KOs) appeared jovial and relaxed, eating a Butterfinger Peanut Butter Cup (which sponsors him) after he weighing in at 145 pounds. Mayweather (47-0, 26 KOs) was stoic in contrast, appearing to use his physical size to intimidate the shorter Pacquiao.

“I feel tomorrow that the Lord, he’s always with me, he strengthens me. He will deliver him into my hands,” Pacquiao said of the fight.

“My frame of mind is to be smart and to listen to this man right here,” Mayweather said of his father/trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr. “Without my father I wouldn’t be where I’m at.”

The 7-time Boxing Writers Association of America Trainer of the Year Roach says he expects Pacquiao to awaken the violent streak that first made him one of the sport’s most popular fighters, and earned him Fighter of the Decade honors in 2010 from the BWAA.

And it’s because he really doesn’t like Mayweather.

“This is one of the first fights where he really doesn’t like his opponent that much. With the drug charging, that he’s not clean and so forth, the court case. He’s really not happy with this person so much. 

“I think his killer instinct will come back, it returned a little bit for the [Chris] Algieri fight, he knocked him down six times. When he had him on the ropes one time he did try to finish him. 

“He’s not the finisher he used to be, but I believe in this fight he’ll become that man once again because he hits me pretty hard on the mitts with my protector on and I asked him ‘Will you hit Floyd that hard?’ He said I guarantee you, yes.’” – Rappler.com

Ryan Songalia is the sports editor of Rappler, a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA) and a contributor to The Ring magazine. He can be reached at ryan.songalia@rappler.com. Follow him on Twitter: @RyanSongalia.