Roach: Pacquiao to show ‘no mercy’ for Bradley in rematch
AP FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Fighter of the Decade Manny Pacquiao needed only a week of training at the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood to impress his long-time Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach.
“Manny (Pacquiao) started the week a little slow due to jetlag but finished off strong on Saturday. He was just brilliant in his sparring on Saturday. His footwork was effortless, his hand speed was blazing and his power is as good as it’s ever been,” Roach said in an interview with www.boxingscene.com.
The eight-division champion Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KOs) arrived in Los Angeles last Tuesday (Manila time) to continue his preparations for his upcoming rematch with unbeaten American Timothy Bradley (31-0, 12 KOs) set on April 12 at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas.
Pacquiao, coming off a dominating performance in a unanimous decision win over Mexican-American Brandon Rios last November, is eyeing a convincing win this time after absorbing a highly-controversial defeat to Bradley in their first meeting nearly two years ago.
“Manny knows he is going to have to hunt Bradley down and close the show this time. The first fight with Bradley was so easy for Manny that after six rebounds he just took it easy on him. Not this time,” said Roach.
Bradley went on to win via split decision and take Pacquiao’s WBO welterweight belt that stunned the boxing world.
And Pacquiao certainly has no plans of pulling back his punches the second time around.
“Our mantra is ‘close the show, no mercy.’ You don’t have to be a groundhog to know that Bradley’s days as welterweight champ are numbered. It’s last call for Bradley on April 12,” added Roach.
Roach also fired back at recent comments by Bradley on the Filipino ring icon.
“Bradley says he fought Manny last time with two bad feet. I don’t remember him coming into the ring in a wheelchair. He hurt his feet when Manny connected his power punches on him. Manny hit Bradley so hard it broke his ankles,” he said.
“For Bradley to say ‘Manny doesn’t have the hunger anymore and it’s never coming back’ and ‘Manny no long has his killer instinct,’ that tells me that Bradley is still suffering from the concussion Prvodnikov laid on him,” Roach added, referring to the Russian brawler Ruslan Provodnikov
Provodnikov lost to Bradley via unanimous decision last year.
“Manny is really motivated for this fight. We decided no matter how many fights we have remaining, we are determined to run the table and win every one. And when it is over, it is going to be as world champion. And that can only happen with a total and absolute victory over Bradley.”
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