Roach wants swift, merciless kill

LOS ANGELES – Freddie Roach, who said just days ago that the fight could be over in six rounds, is now hoping to get it done in one.

Just one round and it could be over.

“We already talked about it,” he told scribes Thursday afternoon following a heavy two-hour workout with Manny Pacquiao at the Wild Card Gym. (Related story on A-21)

“And I told him, ‘You know what, if you hurt him (Juan Manuel Marquez) in the first round, don’t, don’t, don’t let up on him,’” Roach said.

He said Pacquiao has done it before, sending Marquez down on the floor, thrice in their first match in 2004, and once in their rematch in 2008.

This time, if and when it happens, Roach said it’s time to finish it off.

He said Pacquiao only smiles back when he talks about this scenario, but he could sense that his favorite boxer has everything all figured out.

“It’s not going to be like the last two fights (with Antonio Margarito and Shane Mosley) where he gets too compassionate,” said Roach.

Yes, Pacquiao must have played with too much compassion in his two recent fights, that people have started to criticize him for being too kind, too gentle on the ring.

“Don’t take it easy on him,” Roach keeps on reminding Pacquiao, and he added, “I think he’ll finish this one.”

Roach said he’s never seen Pacquiao train this hard, and it only shows that the 32-year-old pound-for-pound champion is leaving nothing to chance this time.

But Roach believes that Marquez is also working so hard he wouldn’t buy stories saying the 38-year-old Mexican is into something illegal.

“A lot of people want to point their fingers and say he’s doing bad things and so forth. But I’m not going to do that because I’m tired of that being done to me,” he said. “He looks like he’s working hard because that’s what he’s supposed.”

Pacquiao’s first fight with Marquez ended in a draw, and the second one with a razor-thin split decision favoring the fighting congressman from the Philippines.

Marquez believes he won both fights, and even came out wearing a t-shirt that says, “I beat Pacquiao twice!”

Roach said Marquez has gotten under the skin of Pacquiao, and he could pay dearly for it.

“I’ve never seen Manny as motivated for a fight. The whole camp he had that extra fire in him. And yet he would just smile at me,” he said.

Roach loves it when Pacquiao smiles at him.

“He’s the most motivated as I’ve ever seen. He really wants this one. That’s why he’s pushing himself a little harder. I’ve never seen him like this,” he said.

Pacquiao sparred seven rounds against three different boxers Thursday, and worked on the mitts for another six rounds with Roach.

When time was called, Pacquiao begged for another minute, but Roach just wouldn’t let him.

It was a heavy day at the gym even if last Wednesday Roach ordered Pacquiao to take a day off. He said it’s only the second time “in my life” that he let this happen so close to a fight.

“He’s been working so hard,” said Roach, who refused to be dragged.

From the gym, Pacquiao left for the Jimmy Kimmel show, in a live studio along Hollywood Boulevard. But he left the gym not the way he wanted to.

Pacquiao was also already in the driver’s seat of his brand-new Ferrari when the car’s engine wouldn’t start. He gave it a try, for a couple of minutes, until he gave up.

“Late na ako (I’m late),” he blurted.

Then he got off his $225,000 458 Italia, and hopped into his old Navigator, and drove off for the Jimmy Kimmel show.

The Ferrari was towed away under cover of darkness.

During the show, Pacquiao sang the Bee Gees hit “How Deep is Your Love.”

Then he answered questions, including the big one, if he was willing to fight Mayweather on a “winner-takes-all” basis – that the winner takes all the purse and all the shares on the pay-per-view.