HOLLYWOOD—On the heels of what Freddie Roach described as the “best fight Manny Pacquiao has ever fought,” the renowned American trainer felt that the punishment the Filipino ring sensation inflicted on Antonio Margarito marked the end of the road for the game Mexican.
“I really had a hard time wondering what kept (Margarito) up,” Roach said at his Wild Card gym on Monday (Tuesday in Manila). “He really has a lot of heart. I got to give him that.”
Roach said that if he were Margarito’s trainer, he would have “stopped the fight after the eighth or ninth round.
“But I’m not,” the trainer added. “He has a young corner, inexperienced. I would have saved him.”
Roach also believed that Margarito would not fight again.
“He will never be a threat again because the punishment he took was too much to make a comeback (from), I feel,” said Roach.
He noted that Pacquiao got hurt as well, specifically by a Margarito body shot in the eighth round that nearly decked his ward.
Roach said he advised Pacquiao to take six months off.
“Manny needs a nice, long rest, get his eyes off these,” Roach said. “Relax, enjoy your family, enjoy your politics, whatever you do.
“I mean, he’s bruised everywhere. He’s been hit everywhere. He’s got one body shot (from Margarito) and we got a perfect picture of it, and you can see Manny, he almost went down. He sank. But then he went under and out, he tapped his gloves and came back, that’s Manny Pacquiao.”
After the fight, Margarito’s face was a mess—cuts all over, his eye socket fractured, his nose broken, his cheeks puffy.
“I’m really happy Manny beat a guy who’s (at) 165 (pounds), big, strong guy,” Roach said.
“(Margarito) was in great condition, the guy doesn’t get tired, he keeps trying and trying. He paid for it, though.”
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