HOLLYWOOD – Freddie Roach is putting a thousand bucks that Manny Pacquiao stops Miguel Cotto right in the opening round.
He thinks it could happen. He wants it to happen.
“I’m just saying it’s a possibility. And if we hurt him early we’ll finish him. He’s been hurt early many times,” said Roach at his Wild Card Gym Tuesday after steering Pacquiao to eight rounds of sparring on a surprisingly hot California afternoon.
Roach has been calling for a first-round knockout for Pacquiao on Nov. 14, and said in case it fails, he also put in a thousand bucks each on rounds nine and 10. A reporter said he’d take the cue so he’d make some money.
“Me, too,” was the quick answer from the hottest trainer in boxing today.
As Pacquiao took the backdoor out of the gym, after more than two hours of heavy workout, Roach talked to scribes from Manila. He was showed a photo of a shirt-less Cotto, a shot that was taken just hours earlier at the LB4LB Gym somewhere in LA.
“He likes tattoos and we’re going to put tattoos on his face, too,” said Roach, still at it in trying to throw the WBO welterweight champion from Puerto Rico off. Slowly but surely he’s been succeeding.
“He said it hasn’t (affected him) but he’s been talking about it. I’m just saying he has many fundamental mistakes,” added Roach of Cotto, a natural welterweight (147) but someone who might have difficulty making the catchweight of 145 lb.
“I tell you what I watched his fights when he still had hair and he’s a pretty good fighter. But in his fights with no hair he showed mistakes. His mistakes? He tells you when he’s coming in. This is going to be a Ricky Hatton fight all over again,” said Roach.
By this time, Pacquiao was stuck somewhere inside his favorite Thai restaurant downstairs, grabbing a bite and surrounded by friends and some pretenders too overzealous to keep the scribes from Manila from entering.
He sparred eight rounds against Ray Beltran and Urbano Antillon, and raised his total to 138 rounds. Roach said sparring continues with six rounds on Thursday, four on Saturday and probably three or four more on Monday, the day the team pushes to Las Vegas.
No media was allowed in as Pacquiao sparred.
Pacquiao looked spent coming out of the gym, but had time to have a picture taken with a fan, a little girl who had waited for more than three hours out front to get a glimpse of the Pinoy icon. He was smiling even if you knew he was tired.
Roach said he likes where they’re at right now.
“Eight rounds today then down to six and four. He’s ready and he’s back to normal after some distractions in Manila where everybody wants a piece of him of course. He’s been into some great sparring. He’s happy and he’s okay. And I’m happy, too. He’s where I want him to be,” said the trainer.
Roach repeated what he said a few days ago that if Cotto, who will be fined $1 million for every excess pound, goes in over 147 then he would call the fight off.
“He should be able to make it. But I really don’t care what he weighs. The contract is the contract. We’ll deal with it as it comes. If he’s too heavy there’ll be no fight,” he said, however, adding that Manny might go the opposite way.
“Manny doesn’t give a shit. Manny will fight him at any weight. Manny will fight King Kong,” said Roach, then asked how much he’s putting into the fight.
“I put a thousand in the first round then I put a thousand on rounds nine and 10,” said Roach.
He wasn’t joking.
Notes: Manny Pacquiao came out smiling, waving to his fans when he was called in by the host, Jimmy Kimmel. He was greeted with chants of “Manny! Manny!” from the Filipinos among the audience. Kimmel, a very popular talk show host here in LA, the program being aired live from Hollywood Boulevard, was quick to realize that Pacquiao had too many fans, and said, “I don’t want you to think this is a fight because I don’t want to get punched.” Then he asked the Filipino fighter if he preferred to be called “The Mexecutioner” or “Pacman,” and the 30-year-old ring icon answered, “Just Pacman.” That set the tone for his first and very successful appearance in a live program beamed nationwide. He was asked if he ever played the computer game, which he was named after, and he said he did when he was young, but that the only other Pacman he knows now is his three-year-old Jack Rusell Terrier. He did bring the house down, especially when he belted out Dan Hill’s “Sometimes When We Touch” live. The fans just went crazy, and Kimmel rose from his chair to give the boxer a hug. It surely won’t be the last of Pacquiao’s appearance on US television.
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