Filipino boxing star Manny Pacquiao has admitted in an interview during the Beijing leg of his ongoing media tour to promote his fight against Brandon Rios, he got careless and made a mistake in his knockout loss against Juan Manuel Marquez last December. Anyone who had watch his last fight against Marquez would agree that he indeed got careless and maybe overconfident as he was leading in the judges scorecards when he was knocked out seconds before the end of the sixth round. But observers who had followed Pacquiao’s career since he tapped Freddie Roach as his trainer and coach, believe that his defensive stance and skill leave much to be desired. But Roach may have disregarded calls for him to pay more attention on Pacquiao’s seemingly flawed defensive fighting style. Instead of enhancing Pacquiao’s defense, Roach concentrated on enhancing his right hand power which he did successfully in succeeding years. Still, Roach may have forgotten that Pacquiao’s defense needs to be enhanced and altered if necessary. Pacquiao has been on a 15-fight winning streak since his loss to Erik Morales in 2005 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Last year, Pacquiao suffered two straight losses, the first against Timothy Bradley via a unanimous decision and the second was a knockout loss against Juan Manuel Marquez Pacquiao’s offense has been awesome and his speed and power have been unequaled in the sports. But in three of his four encounters with Marquez, the Mexican counter-puncher has carefully studied and later discovered that he can hit Pacquiao on his unguarded moments and he prove it in the last second of the sixth round of their last fight. In his previous statements, Pacquiao said it was a lucky punch thrown by Marquez that put him down. Now he admits he got careless. ?I got careless and made a mistake, being in the wrong place for him to land that final punch,? Pacquiao said Without doubt, Roach has done wonders for Pacquiao after the last decade of mentoring but the one thing that he needs to enhance or even change is Pacquiao’s seemingly flawed defensive style. With the painful lesson learned from the Marquez experience, everyone expects Roach to devise a fight plan for Pacquiao with specific emphasis on improving his defense once he joins Pacquiao’s training camp in October. Armed with a carefully polished fight plan with particular emphasis on defense, there is little doubt Pacquiao will rise again as he promised his fans.
