When it comes to handicapping Saturday’s fight, the vast majority of the viewing public has sided with Manny Pacquiao over Shane Mosley – despite Mosley’s supreme confidence that he will score a knockout.
Equally confident is Pacquiao’s trainer, Freddie Roach. According to the L.A. Times, Roach is expecting his fighter to completely destroy Mosley.
“It’s all there,” Roach said backstage on the arena floor. “My true gut feeling is that we’ll win every round and the knockout should come.”
That last part would be a bit of a feat, since Mosley has never been knocked out in his career. Although his last couple of fights against Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and Sergio Mora would suggest that he’s ripe to get KO’d by Pacquiao.
Of course, Pacquiao has a habit of laying back and testing his opponents just to see what they’re offering up. If he does the same tonight, Mosley will have every opportunity to serve up something fierce. The question is whether at 39 years old, he still has the ability to land a finishing shot.
If Mosley beats both Pacquiao and the 8-to-1 odds that will follow he and Rick Ross into the ring, it would likely destroy any chances of seeing a very compelling third fight between Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez. Then again, a Pacquiao-Marquez fight would just be filler until we get the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight we all really want…if we ever get it.