LOS ANGELES ? Who else but Manny Pacquiao? Freddie Roach insists that even if he?s not the trainer of Pacquiao, he still believes that the Filipino southpaw deserves worldwide recognition as 2006?s best fighter following three breath-taking victories against high-grade opponents.
“It?s not because I train Manny but you can see what he did this year,” said Roach.
Pacquiao started the brand new year with a big bang and closed it in similar fashion.
On January 19, Pacquiao exacted payback when he bludgeoned Erik Morales to a 10th round knockout defeat at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas.
Six months later on July 2, before screaming fans at the Araneta Coliseum, the Filipino southpaw toyed with the dangerous Oscar Larios.
But what differentiated the two wins was Pacquiao?s third-round destruction of Morales over the weekend also at the 19,000-seat Thomas and Mack, a triumph that he made look so easy you?d think the one getting beat up was not a Mexican legend.
The biggest stumbling block on Pacquiao?s quest to be named boxer of the year is American welterweight star Floyd Mayweather Jr., who fought only two times.
The unbeaten Mayweather packs a 37-0 ledger with 24 knockouts.
While Pacquiao had three bouts this year, Mayweather fought and won two on points, not in the same way Pacquiao got the job done.
Mayweather outpointed Zab Judah last April and early this month, he showed too much class for the rugged but slow Carlos Baldomir of Argentina.
Ringsiders thought he would walk through the South American with ease but Mayweather needed 12 full rounds to carve out win No. 37.
There?s been no Filipino slugger since Pancho Villa (in the 1920s) who has mesmerized the US audience like Pacquiao.
Top Rank owner Bob Arum has been widely quoted saying that if you want to fall asleep, you watch Mayweather fight.
But not with Pacquiao, whose sensational showing was cited by New York Daily News boxing writer Tim Smith (formerly of the NY Times) in a column that came out a few days ago.
Roach, 46, has been Pacquiao?s trainer since mid-2001, having missed only two (against Fabbrakob Rakkiatgym and Serikzhan Yeshmangbetov) of Pacquiao?s last 14 fights.
