“Oooooh, kill em. That’s good. I’m very happy that he thinks [that], man. That means they go in the ring reckless, so when he goes in the ring reckless, I’m gonna catch his ass and knock his ass out. Then I’ma look at Freddie Roach and tell him, ‘What happened?’,” stated former lightweight champion Brandon Rios, who insists that he’s calm, cool, and collected less than 48 hours before he steps into the ring with the toughest challenge of his career, multi-division world champion Manny Pacquiao. According to Rios, he’s not falling for the early knockout predictions by Pacquiao’s trainer, Freddie Roach, and he fully expects to stick to his own game plan come Saturday.
“I’m not really worrying about that. Let Freddie Roach think [that]. You know why? I think what they’re doing, they’re trying to play mind games, but they’re playing with the wrong guy. I don’t play mind games easy, and I think that’s what he’s trying to do,” Rios explained as he answered a series of questions during satellite interviews to promote the bout. “Trying to go, ‘Oh, Freddie Roach says he’s gonna knock me out in 4 rounds.’ So they’re trying to get me out of my game plan to go in there and try to attack to prove him that no he’s not. So you know what? At the end of the day, I don’t really care what Freddie Roach says. I think they’re more nervous than we are, because if you can tell, I’m just relaxed, calm, chill, ready to go.”
In less than 48 hours, we’ll find out if Rios will indeed stick to his game plan and, more importantly, if it’s good enough to defeat Pacquiao.
