LAS VEGAS – Trainer Freddie Roach said he expects Ricky Hatton to put on 15 to 20 pounds after weighing in at 140 and will be sluggish against Manny Pacquiao in their 12-round IBO lightwelterweight title bout here this morning (Manila time).

“The more weight Hatton puts on, the happier I’ll be because that means he’ll be sluggish and slow,” said Roach. “The way I see it, Manny will knock him out with a body shot. I can’t predict in which round. That prediction of three rounds was just talk. Hatton’s a tough fighter, too, with a lot of British pride and he won’t go away easily but Manny’s in his prime and there’s no way he’s losing.”

Roach said he has no respect for Hatton’s trash-talking trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr.

“What has he done?” continued Roach. “He took over Oscar (de la Hoya) when he was already a four-time world champion. It was his brother Roger who trained his son Floyd to become a champion. All he did was to get Floyd’s mother pregnant. He’s never handled a fighter from Day 1 and brought him up to become a champion. I can’t see how Hatton will change in six weeks with Mayweather. It took us eight years to turn Manny into what he is now – a mature, complete fighter. Manny’s in the best shape of his career, better than he was against Oscar.”

At the weigh-in, Roach said he was appalled by Mayweather’s suggestion to strike a fighting pose for the photographers.

“It’s not about us, it’s about Manny and Hatton,” said Roach. “He told me let’s fight and he’ll knock me out in two rounds. Give me a break. I told him we retired 15 years ago. Who cares about us? The fight isn’t about us.”

Roach promised a “different” Pacquiao will show up in the ring.

“He’ll do a lot of new things,” said Roach. “You’ll see him throw combinations on the back foot. You’ll see him do more counterpunching with Hatton coming forward. We expect Hatton to push Manny to the ropes and throw his left hook to the body. We’re prepared to handle that. We might try to suck him in by going to the ropes then we’ll slide away. The key is keeping our distance, not keeping his distance. We know he’ll want to fight up close. We won’t fight his fight. We’ll fight our fight.”

Roach said Pacquiao won’t come in overconfident even if he’s the betting favorite.

“We had an amazing camp,” continued Roach. “We brought in seven sparring partners and four of them got knocked out. That’s really unusual. I guarantee Manny has more one-punch impact power. Hatton might be bigger but he has no balance and Manny won’t give him a chance to set up. Manny has improved so much from the De la Hoya fight. He doesn’t veer away from the fight plan. You couldn’t say anything more in the gym except he’s just too good. It’s scary how good he can still be.”

As for Mayweather, he brushed off Pacquiao’s speed advantage and said what’s more important is timing.

“You can have speed but if you don’t land, it’s useless,” said Mayweather. “Timing is everything. You can be slow but if you connect, it’s goodbye. Pacquiao won’t only face Hatton. He’ll be facing me, too. And all I can say is he’s in trouble.”

Mayweather said Pacquiao may be stronger in the lightweight division but there’s nobody stronger than Hatton at 140 pounds.

“Ricky’ll probably come in at 154 so he’ll be bigger and stronger than Pacquiao,” said Mayweather. “Pacquiao’s never met a guy like Hatton before. Hatton will be all over him. He’ll overpower him.”

Since he took over Hatton’s training for the Paul Malignaggi fight, Mayweather said the Hitman has become more skilful. “You saw what he did to Malignaggi – he boxed the guy who was a lot taller all night then stopped him,” he went on. “That’s something Hatton didn’t used to do. He’ll do the same thing with Pacquiao.”