Roach Predicts Pacquiao KO Win in 6th Round

The first two fights between Manny “PacMan” Pacquiao and Juan Manuel “Dinamita” Marquez were close, but their November 12 showdown will not go beyond six rounds, according to Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach.

“I don’t think that it will last six rounds,” Roach told RingTV.com’s Lem Satterfield.

Roach said he has never seen Pacquiao so focused in training than in his current preparations for the HBO pay-per-view defense of his World Boxing Organization welterweight vs Marquez to be held at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas.

“Manny is 100 percent focused on Marquez, and he’s really, really motivated for this fight,” said Roach in a Q & A posted in the RingTV website Wednesday.

“I’ve never seen Manny so happy and so motivated throughout a training camp like he has been for this one. So we’ve had a great camp.”

Roach, a five-time Trainer of the Year, said the crucial factor in the coming Pacquiao-Marquez would be PacMan’s tremendous punching power.

In their first match in 2004, Marquez bucked three knockdowns in the first round and rallied to earn a controversial draw.

Their rematch four years later was just as more controversial, with Pacquiao winning by split decision on the strength of the only knockdown scored by the explosive Filipino icon in the third round.

“This time, I think that Marquez stays down. I think that at this point, we get him down and we keep him down this time,” Roach said.

Asked how much longer Pacquiao – the best boxer in the world pound-for-pound – would keeping fighting, Roach thinks his prized fighter has two more years or about four fights.

And if Roach had his way, he would like Mayweather to be next for Pacquiao – a super fight that could be the biggest and richest in boxing history.

“We probably have at least four more fights at two fights a year. But since Mayweather’s not been coming to the table and we’re looking at retiring at some point, we’re going to fight the best opponents that we can,” Roach said.

“Mayweather is certainly possible in my mind, and then, they could fight the rematch and maybe a trilogy. Because there definitely could be that type of a fight,” he added.

According to Roach, Mayweather is largely to blame for failure to make the fight that every sports fan wants to see. He said attempts to make that fight fell through the first time because of Mayweather’s demand that Pacquiao undergo Olympic-style drug testing which Pacquiao rejected because he felt he was being singled out.

The second round of negotiations collapsed, Roach said, after Mayweather demanded $100 million while rejecting a guaranteed purse of $50 million.

In the unlikely event that Mayweather finally steps up to fight Pacquiao, Roach said PacMan could retire even sooner.

“To me, the perfect scenario is to knock out Marquez, beat Mayweather and call it a day. That’s my dream,” Roach said.