Freddie Roach: "Miguel Cotto is a Complete Fighter"

Trainer Freddie Roach views WBO welterweight champion Miguel Cotto as the toughest and most dangerous fight of Manny Pacquiao's entire career. They clash on November 14 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. He views Cotto as a complete fighter with very few flaws.

"Even with Shane Mosley, he knows how to handle speed. He's very intelligent. His keeps his distance and timing pretty well. So we have to figure out way to throw that off. He's in his prime. He's a complete fighter. He has one loss on his record and that's kind of questionable at this point," Roach told BoxingScene.com's Ernest Gabion.

Roach is not counting on a knockout. He plans to train Pacquiao for a twelve round fight. He says Cotto is way too dangerous to hunt for a knockout like Pacquiao did with some of his past opponents.

“That's why we are going in there looking for twelve hard rounds. You can't look for the knockout with this guy because he's very resilient. If the knockout comes, it comes. But we are looking to win every round,” Pacquiao said.

Roach is not too concerned with Pacqiuao’s decision to hold his training camp in Baguio City. The last time Pacquiao held his training camp overseas, he was preparing for his 2007 rematch with Marco Antonio Barrera. Some thought Pacquiao appeared a bit flat in the fight. Roach says his Filipino charge took it easy on Barrera.

“I asked Manny about that. I said 'why didn't you knock him out Manny' and he said that 'I didn't want to embarrass him.' That's what he told me. Manny became friendly with him in the first fight so I don't think we can judge by that. I don't think it will be a problem,” Roach said.

Source: http://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=22443