Roach wants Ortiz, Khan, Mayweather and Senchenko for Pacquiao

By Boxing News - 10/24/2011 - Comments

Image: Roach wants Ortiz, Khan, Mayweather and Senchenko for PacquiaoBy Chris Williams: Freddie Roach likes the idea of Manny Pacquiao taking on Victor Ortiz, Vyacheslav Senchenko and Amir Khan in the near future. Roach just so happens to train both Khan and Senchenko, which probably makes it all the better.

Roach, of course, also wants Pacquiao to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr., saying to the Philstar.com “There’s nobody out there for Manny anymore. Manny might just end up fighting Mayweather after all.”

Gee, does this mean that Pacquiao will agree to take the random blood tests for performance enhancing drugs like Mayweather has been asking him to do for ages? If not, then Roach needs to pipe down and let Bob Arum continue to match Pacquiao against fighters in his Top Rank stable over and over again. Lately, Arum has been picking out old guys for Pacquiao. He just finished fighting 40-year-old Shane Mosley and now Pacquiao is fighting 38-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez.

I can’t see the interest for Roach in seeing Pacquiao fight Victor Ortiz, but that’s someone Roach wants Pacquiao to fight for some reason. I guess it’s the continuing trend of Pacquiao facing Mayweather’s leftovers. We saw that with Ricky Hatton, Oscar De La Hoya and Shane Mosley. And we could see that with Ortiz if Roach gets his way. Roach likes Ortiz because he handled Pacquiao in two days of sparring not too long ago. Ortiz used his power and size to give Pacquiao a lot of problems and I guess Roach wants to prove that it was just a fluke. Anyway, Roach can wish all he wants but I can’t see Pacquiao being allowed to fight Ortiz. The reason why we probably won’t see that fight is because Ortiz fights for Golden Boy Promotions. Enough said.

Senchenko, the WBA welterweight champion, is seen as a paper champion by a lot of hardcore boxing fans. Why Roach likes a fight between Senchenko and Pacquiao is beyond me. Senchenko has no following in the U.S whatsoever, and other than being trained by Roach, I can’t see the upside in Pacquiao being matched against this guy.

As for Khan, Roach points out that he’s a close friend of Pacquiao but since there are fewer and fewer options for Pacquiao, Roach sees Khan as a possibility for the future.



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