By Ryan Burton

Last week an article that was published on BoxingScene.com had a quote from Freddie Roach in which he all but guaranteed that Manny Pacquiao will defeat Adrien Broner when they meet in the ring on January 19th. The fight will take place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and will be distributed by Showtime Pay-Per-View.

“Manny will kill Broner,” Roach told ABS-CBN. “You can bet your house on it. Broner tries to fight like (Floyd) Mayweather but he’s nowhere near the skill level. He even uses the shoulder-roll.”

After working with Pacquiao for 16 years, Roach didn't work Pacquiao's corner for his July knockout victory over Lucas Matthysse.  He is back with Pacquiao for this fight but in more of an advisory role as the Filipino's longtime friend Buboy Fernandez will continue handling head trainer duties.

Meanwhile the 29-year-old Broner is currently in his second training camp with world class trainer Kevin Cunningham down in South Florida.  Cunningham previously guided multi-division champions Cory Spinks and Devon Alexander and also works with Robert Easter Jr, Erickson Lubin and several other fighters.

Broner started slow in his most recent fight against Jessie Vargas but closed the fight strong to earn a draw versus the former two-division champion.

Cunningham wasn't too impressed with Roach's comments, citing the Hall of Fame trainer's reduced role with Pacquiao.

"It’s obvious that Freddie’s not the the trainer that he used to be. Manny has demoted him and promoted his bag boy as head trainer over Freddie. He’s saying Manny’s going to kill AB yet Freddie’s not even in camp with Manny. AB is having a tremendous training camp and he’s preparing to shock the world. Freddie needs to shut the f*** up and carry the spit bucket on January 19th," Cunningham told BoxingScene.com.

Send questions or comments to ringsidewriter@gmail.com You can follow Ryan on Twitter @ringsidewriter