“Brandon Rios can be the first guy that really beats him up for 12 rounds,” stated world-class trainer Naazim Richardson, who shared his thoughts on the anticipated November 23 showdown between multi-division world champion Manny Pacquiao and former lightweight champion Brandon Rios. According to Richardson, the blueprint to defeat Pacquiao has been out ever since he worked with future Hall of Famer “Sugar” Shane Mosley for their clash with the Filipino icon back in 2011. Although they lost that fight, Richardson believes it was the start of a tough final leg of Pacquiao’s career.
“I told them a while back and they thought I was wrong when I said it, but one is, when he fought Shane, I said, ‘He will never have another easy fight and his days are numbered.’ And I wasn’t hating because I am a Pacquiao fan,” Richardson explained during a recent conversation with FightHype’s own Percy Crawford. “I gotta admit, I really really like this guy. I told you that before we fought against him. I said, ‘Yo, if you don’t like him, you must don’t like boxing.’ He gives you everything that you want to see in boxing: one-punch knockouts, speed, power, he takes his shots, he’s exciting, he’s rough, and he never takes the easy way out. Anything you are a fan of in boxing, he is.”
That being said, all of those traits could be Pacquiao’s downfall when he steps into the ring with a younger, hungrier, hard-hitting Rios, especially considering that it will be Pacquiao’s first fight back after suffering a devastating knockout loss to Juan Manuel Marquez. Pacquiao is definitely taking the hard road back, as Rios is not the type of easy opponent one would expect for a fighter who was knocked out cold in his last bout.
