Maybe fans are on the verge of watching one of the biggest upsets in recent years, when Manny Pacquiao defends his World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight championship against 2012 Australian Olympian Jeff Horn (16-0-1, 12 KOs).
The fight takes place on July 1 in Brisbane [July 2 in Australia], with over 50,000 fans expected at the Suncorp Stadium.
Horn, who has Ali Funeka and Randall Bailey as his best wins, is a massive underdog in the fight and even his countrymen are picking against him. The only advantage Horn has on his side is youth at 29 years of age, and Pacquiao is nearing the age of 40 - but he still looked like an elite fighter in his last outing when he easily defeated Jessie Vargas last November for the WBO belt.
Roach was very disappointed after arriving to the Philippines on Sunday and observing Pacquiao's training at the Elorde Gym in Five Ecomm. Building.
The Hall of Fame trainer appeared to be frustrated and now has reservations about a knockout prediction for Pacquiao's next fight. Pacquiao has not scored a knockout win in eight years, since stopping Miguel Cotto in November of 2009.
Based on Pacquiao's training, Roach actually retracted his knockout prediction.
“We are far behind. Those five rounds of sparring were the worst I have seen him spar,” said Roach to the Manila Times. “Overall, the second day of sparring was not great I didn’t expect him to be good. But I think he’s getting there."
“Manny has not done any knockout for a long time. He got to show here in the sparring that he wants to knock him down. So I don’t know, I cannot predict that anymore."
According to Josef Ramis, Pacquiao (59-6-2, 38 KOs) engaged in a five-round sparring session on Tuesday, two rounds with lightweight Leonardo Doronio and three rounds with junior welterweight Sonny Katiandagho, before hitting the mitts, punching bag and the speedball.