By Ronnie Nathanielsz
 
Celebrated trainer Freddie Roach says he believes Bobby "The Sniper" Pacquiao should win his ten round battle with US-based Mexican Fernando "The Thief" Trejo at the Morongo Casino & Spa in Cabazon, California today.
 
In an overseas telephone conversation with Viva Sports/Manila Standard Today, Roach said the younger brother of Filipino ring idol Manny Pacquiao had been "doing well" in training at the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles and that Trejo doesn’t have an impressive ring record. He is 30-12-4 with 18 knockouts. Pacquiao’s record isn’t also that impressive at 27-13-3 with 12 knockouts.

The southpaw weighed in at 134 pounds while Trejo tipped the scales at 133 during the official weigh-in yesterday.
 
Pacquiao is coming off two successive defeats. He was knocked out in the seventh round by Humberto Soto laat June 9 and was disqualified in the eleventh round against Hector Velasquez for repeated low blows. He had earlier lost his WBC Intercontinental Americas lightweight title when he failed to make the weight.
 
The two setbacks came after an impressive fourth round knockout over former world champion Kevin Kelley on June 10, 2006 although Kelly was clearly a shot fighter at that time.
 
While Roach may downplay the chances of Trejo, his record shows a tenth round TKO victory over Jose Armando Santa Cruz who recently lost a hugely controversial decision in a title fight against Joel Casamayor resulting in the WBC ordering a rematch.
 
Trejo is coming off back-to-back wins in which he defeated Sean Plessis over twelve rounds to capture the vacant IBO Intercontinental super featherweight title on January 26 and prior to that scored a ten round unanimous decision over Juan Ramon Cruz on September 14, 2006.