Manny Pacquiao says Brandon Rios is ‘an extremely dangerous opponent’

In the build up to his Nov. 23 fight with Brandon Rios in Macau, Manny Pacquiao will be blogging his thoughts about the fight each week. A portion of his second blog appears below, courtesy of HBO. In it, Pacquiao discusses his thoughts on Rios as an opponent.

“Brandon Rios is an extremely dangerous opponent. He is young, strong and has no quit in him. I raced him up the steps of the Great Wall. He’s a competitor.

“I have seen Rios fight and I am confident that I will win the fight. One of my advantages is my experience against better opposition. A more diversified opposition.

“Rios is an aggressive fighter. He likes to fight on the inside and toe-to-toe. He likes to fight, period. It will be a very entertaining fight for the fans. It will be all action. A real fight and not a track meet. I am 100% confident of winning this fight. The focus of this camp has been on speed and footwork, which have been my advantages in previous successful fights. I’ll be more careful to avoid the careless error I made against Márquez.

“I want to prove to everyone that I still can fight like the old Manny Pacquiao. I need to restore the public’s confidence in me and my abilities. It’s important that this be an impressive victory. I have already begun to visualize my fight with Rios.

“My game plan for Rios will be similar to the one I had for Ricky Hatton. That fight didn’t go long enough for me to unveil everything. Maybe this time I’ll be able to show more of that plan. Maybe.”

Pacquiao versus Rios will take place Nov. 23 on HBO pay-per-view beginning at 6 p.m. PST.

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