Roach: Marquez deserves a 4th shot at Pacquiao

In the aftermath of Manny Pacquiao’s narrow majority decision victory over Mexico’s Juan Manuel Marquez last night, Pacquiao’s hall of fame trainer Freddie Roach was shocked that his prediction of a knockout of Juan Manuel Marquez didn’t happen and grudgingly acknowledged that Marquez is due a 4th shot at Pacquiao as the two sides try to achieve a definitive result.

Roach is widely acknowledged to be a shrewd tactician who is highly accurate in his pre-fight prediction.  He had forecast a Pacquiao knockout by the mid rounds.

“What can you say? It’s Marquez’s style,” Roach said. “It was really close. I wish Manny had moved more to his right than he did tonight. He kept moving left, right into Marquez’s right hand.”

“I was very surprised,” Roach said.  ”I had predicted my fighter would win in six rounds and I was way off. It was a very competitive fight and it could have gone either way.”

“I thought Manny edged it out in the last two rounds. It was the kind of fight I don’t want to do again but I think we have to.

“He (Marquez) has given us problems three times now and he is very good at what he does. I do think he deserves a re-match first.  I think it will be close.  I think all of their fights will be close.  Marquez fought very well.”

While Roach acknowledged the legitimacy of a 4th Marquez fight, Roach also addressed the holy grail of modern boxing — Pacquiao vs Mayweather.   ”If Mayweather doesn’t fight Manny I think it will hurt boxing,” said Roach.  ”It’s time to do it. I want the challenge. I want my fighter to be challenged. Mayweather is a bit of a counterpuncher also,” said Roach after the fight. “He can give us trouble. We need to learn to deal with these counterpunchers better.”