British world champion Amir Khan has predicted Manny Pacquiao will knock out Antonio Margarito in Saturday’s super welterweight bout, even though he is nearly six pounds lighter than his Mexican opponent.
Khan, who retained his own WBA super lightweight title in May, is a regular sparring partner for Filipino Pacquiao and they are both trained by Los Angeles-based Freddie Roach.
“I was quite surprised to see his weight at 144.6 pounds,” Khan told Reuters after seven-time world champion Pacquiao officially weighed in on Friday well below Margarito’s 150 pounds.
“But the power he hits with, it’s easy for him to hurt anyone.”
Khan, who will defend his title against Argentina’s Marcos Maidana in Las Vegas on Dec. 11, believes Pacquiao’s less-than-expected weight is part of a plan hatched by Roach to counter Margarito’s size advantage with blinding speed.
“Manny’s going to use his footwork and speed, move in and out, and he’s going to plaster him with so many shots that the referee’s going to jump in and say no more,” Khan said.
“Pacquiao’s going to be that much faster and Margarito is going to be hit with combinations that are going to rip his face. Margarito won’t catch him. He’s slower than Manny and he won’t be able to hit him flush.”
Khan recently trained with Pacquiao in the Philippines to help him prepare for Saturday’s fight and he appeared to dominate the Filipino in one public sparring session.
RUMOURS ESCALATED
That sparring session escalated rumours that Pacquiao was out-of-sorts during a chaotic training camp but Khan dismissed those concerns.
“When we spar, we spar at about 60 percent because of the training we do in the morning, the running, swimming and everything,” Khan said.
“So maybe I caught Manny on a bad day or something. At the end of the day, Manny’s going to come into this fight much more hungry than anything.”
Khan forecast that Pacquiao would defeat Margarito in much the same way as the Filipino dominated 10-times world champion Oscar De La Hoya over eight rounds in Las Vegas in December 2008.
“It’s going to be like the Oscar fight,” the Briton said. “Manny weighed the same for that fight as he does for this one, and you saw the power he had.
“Oscar had to quit on the stool but if Oscar didn’t quit on the stool, I think the referee would have had to step in (and end the fight).”
Pacquiao, already acknowledged as the best pound-for-pound fighter, will be bidding for an eighth world title in an unprecedented eighth weight class on Saturday.
