By Chris Williams: Trainer Freddie Roach feels that Floyd Mayweather Jr. (44-0, 26 KO’s) may have very little choice but to fight his guy Manny Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KO’s) by next year after Mayweather’s September 14th fight against WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.
Roach feels that Mayweather will be stuck fighting the likes of Devon Alexander after the Canelo bout, and he’ll be better off facing Pacquiao rather than taking fights like that.
Roach said to Fighthubtv “There are not four guys he [Mayweather] can fight without taking a Manny Pacquiao deal. Who’s he going to fight next, Devon Alexander? Come on. If Manny Pacquiao’s performance against Rios is great, I think that fight [Mayweather-Pacquiao] is alive again. He [Mayweather] needs to prove it we’re washed up. Let’s see what he has, because I think he’s a little washed up. Nobody talks about Mayweather-Pacquiao anymore.”
Roach went on to set up a scenario where if Pacquiao looks good in beating Rios, and then knocks out Juan Manuel Marquez in a rematch, then Mayweather will change his mind about not wanting to waste his time fighting Pacquiao.
Roach’s theory sounds fine except that Pacquiao would actually have to do these things in real life, not just in Roach’s grand vision for him. And at this point in Pacquiao’s career, I don’t even think he can get past Rios other than beating him by a controversial decision like in his first three fights with Marquez.
If the fight goes to the scorecards, I see Pacquiao beating Rios no matter what happens in Macao, China. However, with Pacquiao coming off of a vicious knockout loss to Marquez, and with Rios having even better power than Marquez, I think the outcome of that fight will be one where Pacquiao ends up sleeping again face first on the canvas by the 3rd or 4th round.
Marquez has already said he has no interest in fighting Pacquiao again. I think he would change his mind if Bob Arum of Top Rank would give him a 50-50 deal to fight Pacquiao, but that’s never going to happen. As such, Pacquiao will have to fight one of Arum’s Top Rank stable fighters like Mike Alvarado or Tim Bradley after the Rios fight. Beating one of those guys won’t be enough to get a Mayweather fight, because neither of them are considered to be huge talents. Alvarado already got beat, and Bradley was almost stopped in his last fight by Ruslan Provodnikov.
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