By Edward Chaykovsky
Former champion Brandon Rios (31-1-1, 23KOs) is very motivated to turn back the critics on Saturday night, when he faces eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38KOs) in Macau, China. Rios has heard a lot of talk about being a "punching bag" in the fight and many expect a one-sided beating from the quicker, more skillful and more experienced Pacquiao. But some are not sure if Pacquiao has fully recovered from last December brutal knockout at the hands of Juan Manuel Marquez.
"I saw the belt today, that sh*t is mine," said Rios to Crystina Poncher in a video interview posted on BoxingScene.com. "That punch could have knocked anybody out, so I can't look at Pacquiao based on his last fight, but I am going to test him to see if that knockout still affects. I'm going to test his will to see if he has it in him."
Rios was quickly fired up when discussing Freddie Roach's recent banter about Pacquiao winning by knockout. A few weeks ago, Roach predicted a knockout victory in six rounds, but a few days ago he changed his prediction to a knockout in four rounds - stating that Rios' defense is so bad that he doesn't see any possibility of Rios being able to last beyond four rounds.
"They are intimidated. They are scared. Deep down they are scared and they don't want to admit it. [Mocking Roach] 'oh he's going to knock him out in six, no he's going to knock him out in four.' Man, this guy doesn't know what the f*** he is talking about. When I go four rounds, we're going to see. I'm going to say 'what happened Freddie?' It's not going to happen. I have a chin of f***ing iron. It takes a bulldozer to knock me down. They don't know what they are in for. They think they are in for guy who is going to come forward and just take punches...f*** no," Rios said.
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