Freddie Roach talks Mayweather-Marquez and Cotto-Pacquiao

World-renowned trainer Freddie Roach has slowly but surely become one of the sport's biggest and loudest talkers. And he's using the voice he's earned as the man behind Manny Pacquiao's unbelievable transformation from action star to pound-for-pound king to take shots at the upcoming Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Juan Manuel Marquez showdown on September 19.

Speaking with FightHype, Roach had this to say about the fight itself:

"The styles just don't match up. Styles make fights. People know the styles of both by nature are counter-punchers. Marquez has changed his style somewhat; he's more offensive [now], but still, his best fight is as a counter-puncher. That's why he did so well against Pacquiao, because Manny is so aggressive and he's used to attacking so much that [Marquez's] counter-punching style is great for that. When he doesn't have a guy that comes to him, he's not as effective."

The last time Marquez lost was the still-debated rematch with Pacquiao, and before that it was in 2006 against featherweight titlist Chris John, a slick counter-puncher. The Marquez camp has long made noise about being robbed in that fight, but he undoubtedly struggled with John either way you look at it.

Since then, he's 6-1 with four stoppage wins. He has beaten very limited brawler Terdsak Jandaeng, a highly overmatched Jimrex Jaca, Marco Antonio Barrera, Rocky Juarez, Joel Casamayor and Juan Diaz. I felt the Casamayor fight was very close until the 11th round Marquez TKO, a very impressive stoppage considering Casamayor had never been beaten inside the distance before then. Diaz and Barrera came at him, and Juarez might've tried to if Marquez had ever let him get out of the starting blocks.

There's no Mayweather guy there. This is one thing that's really starting to bug me when it comes to JMM's chances in this fight: He has NEVER beaten a guy as good as Mayweather, or someone with the pure ability Mayweather has.

Roach also says he's heard some unfavorable reviews of Mayweather's training camp, saying, "I hear Mayweather is not looking that great."

He also doesn't believe their PPV is going to be a success:

"They've already given up on the pay-per-view audience [referencing the news that Mayweather-Marquez will be shown in movie theaters]. They know it's not going to sell. Someone's going to take a bath in that fight."

But Freddie is also somewhat concerned about his own fighter, Manny Pacquiao, as he is waiting for Pacquiao to get his head into the fight game:

"I now hear that Manny wants to train in the Philippines. I think it's a mistake. I think it's too many distractions for him. This is the toughest fight of his life. Cotto's a big 147-pounder, strong guy, beat Shane Mosley..."

Before I continue quoting Roach, I just want to say this: Miguel Cotto is not a big 147-pounder. Miguel Cotto is actually quite small at 147 pounds. Cotto and Pacquiao are basically the exact same size.

"I talked to Mike Koncz yesterday. I said, 'Where are we going to train?' He said, 'I haven't asked Manny yet.' I said, 'You haven't asked Manny yet? What do you mean you haven't asked Manny?' He says, 'He's busy making a movie.' I said, 'What the hell? You're scared to ask Manny?' These guys are petrified of Manny because they're just there for a payday and I'm pissed off about it."

The Pacquiao entourage and lawyers and advisers were given some guff by Top Rank promoter Bob Arum and by Roach before the Ricky Hatton fight, as they attempted to bully Hatton in negotiations before everyone realized Ricky Hatton wouldn't back down from the share he wanted. So this isn't the first time that Pacquiao's crew has been called out for something like this.