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Boxing

21st Feb 2015

Freddie Roach reckons Manny Pacquiao will put Floyd Mayweather “on his backside”

The legendary trainer fancies Manny's chances

Darragh Murphy

Not that we expected anything else from Pacquiao’s trainer but Freddie Roach believes his fighter is able to drop Floyd Mayweather when they meet in the most anticipated bout in over a decade.

Pacquiao (57–5–2) has opened up as a 5/2 underdog against the undefeated Mayweather but Roach thinks that matters little.

“Floyd should enjoy being the A-Side while he can because on May 2 Manny is going to put him on his backside,” Roach said.

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After years of negotiations, the stellar clash was finally announced late last night for the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

And Roach isn’t the only member of Pacquiao’s team to expect an upset victory for the Filipino as promoter Bob Arum, who used to work with Mayweather, also foresees a favourable Pacquiao result.

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“The reason I like my guy’s chances so much is because of his speed, the tremendous number of punches he throws, the quality of his punches and the fact that he is left-handed,” he said.

“We recognised that he [Mayweather] had difficulty handling a speedy, left-handed fighter and that he and his father were insistent that we not match Floyd with a southpaw.”

We anticipate the trash talk between camps to intensify as the summer draws nearer and gleefully await a Mayweather riposte.

H/t to The Mirror

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