Freddie Roach Says Manny Pacquiao Will Be the First Fighter to KO Shane Mosley

Freddie Roach Says Manny Pacquiao Will Be the First Fighter to KO Shane Mosley

Manny Pacquiao has accomplished so many things throughout his career and is arguably the best pound-for-pound fighter in the sport of boxing. With the exception of getting inside the ropes with Floyd Mayweather Jr. and putting a blemish on his record, there is not much more for him to accomplish in the fight game. However, Pacman has a little extra incentive heading into his fight with Sugar Shane Mosley this weekend. While Mosley is 39-years-old, he is aging, and is just 2-2-1 in his last three fights, including getting outclassed by Mayweather, he has never been knocked out during his illustrious 54 fight career. If there is a fighter that can change that, it’s Manny Pacquiao. Pacquiao has 38 knockouts in his 52 win, he has been dominant in his last six fights and shouldn’t have any problem disposing of Mosley. The only question is whether or not Manny Pacquiao can be the first fighter to knockout Sugar Shane.

Freddie Roach joined WQAM in Miami with the Michael Irvin Show to talk about how tough it is to get a fighter ready to fight in Las Vegas with all the distractions, how dangerous Shane Mosley can be, what it means to him to win the Trainer of the Year award for third straight year, and whether or not he thinks Manny Pacquiao will knock out Shane Mosley.

How tough it is to get a fighter ready to fight in Las Vegas:

“Vegas is a tough place but you have to be very disciplined and most fighters are disciplined about that. They’re athletes and they’re here for a reason of course. Pacquiao, he knows what his limits are and if I can stop him from band practice I’d be a little more happy. He booked a concert after the fight and he has eight songs to sing so he’s working on that after training. One thing about that it takes his mind away from the fight, it relaxes him, he’s very, very calm when he does that, and it’s his outlet.”

How dangerous Shane Mosley can be:

“He can be very dangerous. He has one punch knockout power in both hands. He’s very strong puncher, I’ve seen it in the past. I’ve seen him knockout guys. If you walk into the fire without any thought, he’s a great counterpuncher, and that’s something that we have to be really, really careful with is how we need attack him. It’s in Manny’s nature to attack. Shane loves guys that attack him so we came up with a game plan to attack him from an angle moreso where we’re using the faints and getting on the angle and attacking him from the angle. Once you obtain that angle you’ve got him turning into your punches. I think it’s a good game plan for us and we’ll see if it works.”

How much it means to him to win Trainer of the Year:

“I wanna keep winning them because it’s named after my trainer Eddie Futch who taught me the game. The only thing this year is I’m going to miss Manny. Manny’s not with me. They gave fighter of the year to Martinez, but he’s got a big fight coming up and has other things on his mind right now.”

Whether or not it can be a bad thing that Manny Pacquiao doesn’t have fear when he fights:

“Fear can be used as a positive of course, but one thing about Manny Pacquiao, his work ethic that’s what does it for me. When I say he’s going to be the first person to knock out Shane Mosley, I don’t mean anything bad about Shane. Shane is my friend and I’ve known him for a long time. I’m not being cocky, I’m not talking badly about him, I just have confidence in my fighter Manny Pacquiao because of his work ethic. He trains harder now than the first day when he came into my gym. He just has more on his shoulders now. If he lost a fight he feels like he would be letting too many people down and he just doesn’t want to do that. He just works and works and works. The fight is coming up really close now and he wants to go to the gym and do mitts with me and I say you know Manny the fight is getting closer why don’t you save it until Saturday. We’ll just go light and I say you don’t know what light is.”

Whether or not he thinks Pacquiao will knock out Shane Mosley:

“The thing is I think that’s the icing on the cake. I know Shane is a really tough guy, he’s got a great chin, but I think our pace is going to be too much for him. I don’t think he can handle the pace and I think we will take his legs away from him with body shots. I do think Manny will stop him in the late rounds. I have so much confidence in Manny Pacquiao I can say that I truly don’t think this fight will go the distance.”