Manny Pacquiao wants to prove Timothy Bradley wrong by scoring a knockout win, but the former pound-for-pound king is expected to fight smart in their upcoming rematch on April 12 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach told BoxingScene that Pacquiao will preach patience against Bradley, saying that the Filipino boxing icon will follow a fight plan similar to what they had during the Brandon Rios bout in November last year.
Pacquiao snapped his two-match skid with a unanimous decision win over Rios, but most experts were hardly impressed, saying that Pacquiao showed no signs of having the ability to knock opponents out again.
Roach dismissed the notion, reiterating that Pacquiao just fought a smart fight, and he could have knocked Rios out if he decided to go for the kill.
"In his last fight, he fought a very smart fight," Roach said. "He might have been able to finish him. He hurt him a couple times, but we didn't jump in so quickly this time. So we did learn something from that (Marquez) fight. But we're going to fight our fight."
There is a growing concern, though, that Pacquiao could absorb another decision loss if he can't knock Bradley out like what happened during their first showdown in June 2012, wherein Bradley escaped with a controversial split decision victory.
"One bad decision doesn't change everything in life," Roach said. "It doesn't change our game plan. We're going to fight a similar fight to our last fight - very busy with combinations. We're not going to make any adjustments for who the judges are or anything like that because that's really out of our control."
Pacquiao echoed Roach's statement, saying that while he is itching to score a knockout win, the 35-year-old former champion that he will just stay aggressive and just wait for a knockout to come.
"We're not focusing on the knockout," Pacquiao said. "Our focus this time is to put more aggressiveness and throw a lot more punches. If the knockout comes, it comes. I just want to prove I still have the hunger and killer instinct."
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