Right after Manny Pacquiao’s sterling performance over former WBO light welterweight champion Chris Algieri in Macau, China last Nov. 22, Pacquaio’s trainer Freddie Roach predicted a knockout win for Pacquiao in a possible clash with Mayweather next year.
Now, Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum has sided with Roach, saying Pacquiao will stop Mayweather once he gets the unbeaten champ up in the ring with Pacquiao. “There’s always a doubt, but I feel similar to the way Freddie Roach feels ? that Manny Pacquiao will decisively beat Floyd Mayweather and may very well knock him out – stop him,” Arum told worldboxingnews.net in a phone interview But Arum is basing his prediction of a decisive victory or even a knockout win for Pacquiao on Mayweather’s difficulty in dealing with left-handed fighters like Pacquiao. “A left-handed fighter, unless he is slow as molasses, he really has difficultly with. The couple that he has fought, one guy almost cold cocked him years ago. Mayweather retreated to his corner as he is very smart and Manny really poses a big danger for him.” Arum said that Mayweather’s style is designed for right-handed people and it is for that reason that Pacquiao could stop his 47-fight winning streak if they finally face each other in the ring early next year. Roach’s reason for his bold knockout prediction is not solely based on Pacquiao’s being a left-handed fighter but he believes that Mayweather is no longer the same fighter that he was two, three years ago. ?You know Floyd about two years ago, I thought it?s about even. Now I think Manny will knock him out. Floyd can?t run like he used to, he can?t move, his legs are shot, he?s a washed up, old fighter,? said Roach. Arum is feverishly working on the long-delayed super fight by meeting with CBS/Showtime head Les Moonves in his bid to get Mayweather in the negotiating table. Mayweather has a live six-fight contract with CBS/Showtime and has two more fights left. The unbeaten American has not responded to calls for him to accept Pacquiao’s challenge but he has shown interest in the fight by posting photos of Pacquiao’s stunning knockout loss to Marquez in 2012.
