Freddie Roach

All that hype, and it only came down to six minutes of utter domination. If you caught the light-welterweight title fight between Manny Pacquiao and Ricky Hatton last night, you saw more proof that Pac-Man is one of the best boxers to have ever lived. The video is above; watch as Pacquiao opens with a 10-7 first round on the strength of two knockdowns, then delivers the finishing blow at the end of the second. Pac's trainer Freddie Roach had predicted a third-round knockout via left hook, explaining later that Hatton tends to leave himself open when he throws his jab. Turns out, Pacquiao is even better than he thought. Could Money Mayweather be next?

(Is there any situation not improved by sound effects from Super Mario Bros.?  Props: MMA Scraps.)

Freddie Roach has figured out what went wrong for Andrei Arlovski on Saturday night.  It’s simple really.  Fighting the world’s best heavyweight proved too easy.  This bored Andrei, prompting him to try the flying knee that he was not awake long enough to finish:

"He made a young man's mistake," Roach told MMAInsider backstage. "It was too easy for him. He was winning the fight handily I thought, controlling the fight like we planned. He got a little cocky, and he tried the flying knee from too far away, no setup, and he paid for it. … But Fedor swings hard, that's his thing. He probably had his eyes closed, but he just got lucky, I think. If we had followed a more disciplined fight, and kept to the game plan, I think it was going to be easy."

I agree with Roach on one point: Arlovski did make a mistake.  As for the rest of his explanation, it’s just more evidence that Roach doesn’t understand the differences between MMA and boxing.  In the boxing world, a man who wins via one-punch knockout after landing fewer punches than his opponent until that point is almost always the beneficiary of a lucky punch.  Not so in MMA, especially when that man is Fedor.

You can say he got lucky.  You can accuse him of closing his eyes and hoping for the best.  But you can’t explain away his record.  Arlovski may have helped him out with that mental error, but a right hand like Fedor’s sure improves a man’s luck considerably.

("Step 1: Kiss a picture of Manny Pacquiao every night before you go to bed." Photo courtesy of ESPN.)

From a new MMA Weekly interview with Andrei Arlovski's famed boxing coach, Freddie Roach:

Hear that, Tim Sylvia? Angles. If you think that Freddie's "fight us like a man" line implies a lack of appreciation for MMA and its more subtle ground elements, you'd be correct. As he explains, “I think it’s boring. I saw one fight where the guy just laid on the other guy the whole fight and he won.” But Roach understands that Arlovski's opponent could wind up scoring a victory on the canvas:

It must be nice to live in a world where you never have to worry about the armbar (I guess it's called). But I don't live in that world, and you don't live in that world, and Andrei Arlovski sure as hell doesn't live in that world. Can sharp boxing be enough to stave off Fedor's Hydra-like attack? We'll find out on the 24th, but my money's still on the chubby guy.

("It was a big, white, semi-truck. The license plate was JACKLINKS.")

"The ref [Mario Yamasaki] was going, ‘Eh, is [Couture] OK?’ Mario was trying to give him time [to recover]. There’s a fine line between that and [allowing] too many punches. When I saw Randy go back down, I thought we had crossed that line." — Dana White on the stoppage in UFC 91's Lesnar/Couture fight, which some questioned as dangerously late.

"He came in a couple days ago and I introduced him to Manny and the other trainers. We picked out a time...and he's gonna come in and start training with me. I hear he's a great striker and I hope we can help him improve even more." — Beloved boxing trainer Freddie Roach on his new protege, Anderson Silva.

"I'd fight him. The thing about a Machida fight that isn't appealing to me is that stylistically, Machida is kind of a boring fighter. That's not a putdown. He's very, very effective. He's good at what he does. He's constantly backing away and forces his opponent into mistakes, and that's how he catches you. In order to beat him, you really have to fight an intelligent fight, and I think that by not overcommitting yourself on things, it's going to create a situation where you're not putting on a fight that's really exciting for the fans." — Rich Franklin stating the obvious regarding a potential rematch with Lyoto Machida. Machida gave Franklin his first career loss via TKO at the Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye Festival in 2003.

(Props: Sherdog via BloodyElbow)

When Andrei Arlovski steps into the cage with Roy Nelson tomorrow night at EliteXC: Heat, one thing is guaranteed — his hands will be ready. The Pitbull has been training with boxing guru Freddie Roach at Wild Card Boxing Club since before his Affliction: Banned bout against Ben Rothwell. The above video features Roach discussing his star MMA pupil, claiming Arlovski could have a successful boxing career and lauding his willingness to learn: "My best champion Manny Pacquiao has great work ethic and Andrei's right there with him, and that's why they're world-class fighters." Will Arlovski be able to execute Roach's "punches in bunches" philosophy en route to a win over Big Country? (Answer: Yes, probably.)