LOS ANGELES – Freddie Roach couldn’t have asked for anything more from his prized pupil, Manny Pacquiao.
“He did what he was supposed to do. He fought the game plan. He did it so I give him a 10 – perfect,” said the three-time Trainer of the Year Monday as he went back to business calling the shots at the Wild Card Gym.
Roach had just wrapped up his training with his other boxer, Amir Khan, when he reminisced the events that led to Pacquiao’s sensational victory over Ricky Hatton at the MGM Grand last Saturday.
It was performance that’s being talked about, and that will be remembered for a long time. This early, it’s being dubbed as “the knockout of the year” and Pacquiao the “athlete of the year.”
Roach said Pacquiao simply took advantage of Hatton’s weaknesses, particularly that of leaving himself open when he’s on the attack, and getting ready to throw his left hand.
“Everything went on as planned. Manny took advantage of him to the fullest. He was surprised, I knew that once we hurt him. He has never fought guys who can finish him off like Manny and Manny fought well,” said Roach.
“So, that’s three perfect fights in a row,” he added, referring to the fights against David Diaz and Oscar dela Hoya last year as the other “10s.”
“Ricky just couldn’t stop making the same mistakes. He got hit by that right hook about 12 times. So he couldn’t make the adjustment. And we just took advantage of him. I truly believed that Manny was to knock him out early,” he added.
The fight, which ended with only one second left in the second round, and Hatton half-asleep lying at the center of the ring, was so big that pay-per-view sales are expected to go over the roof.
“That’s what Bob Arum told me, that the pay-per-view sales are over and over,” said Pacquiao who helped sell 1.25 million buys during his bout with Dela Hoya last December. This one should exceed those numbers, and the millions it generated.
“The only thing that took us a little longer was that when he rushed out it took Manny a minute to get the distance. And once he got the distance it was over. The first right hook that landed was the beginning of the end,” added Roach.
The soft-spoken trainer, who was practically dragged into a nasty word war with Hatton’s trainer, Floyd Mayweather Sr., found a good way to get even.
“I just stood in the ring and stared at him (in the ring and after Hatton had been knocked out) and when he looked at me I raised my hands. I just waited for that moment. And that was the moment,” said Roach, laughing.
“They made it into a mega-fight and I’m not sure if Floyd’s trash-talking helped make that. But if you noticed when he got out of the ring he started taking pictures and signing autographs. He doesn’t give a shit about his fighters and I have no respect for him,” he added.
Roach said it’s back to business just two days after the shortest and yet the biggest fight of the year so far.
“As you see I’ve started training Amir (who fights Andriy Kotelnik in London on June 27) for his next fight. No vacation. No time for that,” he said.