By Chris Williams: Trainer Freddie Roach says he’s not angry that his fighter Manny Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 KO’s) has never been able to get a fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. (45-0, 26 KO’s), but Roach still seems to be less than happy about it. He mentions Mayweather continually, and it clearly bothers him that Pacquiao hasn’t faced him yet.
With Pacquiao now stuck in what looks to be a long cycle of rematches for remainder of his career, Roach would love for him to be able to get a fight against Mayweather.
“We’d love to fight Mayweather but there have been so many excuses,” Roach said to The Telegraph. “He really doesn’t seem to want to fight us, but we want that fight. I think my guy [Pacquiao] beats him. I’ve stopped getting angry about Mayweather refusing to fight my guy, but we’ve agreed top everything – a 60/40 split of the purse, blood testing, whatever it is, and then he comes up with something else.”
It would be interesting to know if Roach honestly believes that Pacquiao would beat Mayweather, or if he’s merely saying this because he wants the big payday that a Mayweather fight would bring him and Pacquiao. In looking at Pacquiao struggle to defeat an injured Tim Bradley last Saturday night, I don’t see how Roach could think that Pacquiao would have any hope of ever beating a talented fighter like Mayweather.
Pacquiao was staggered in the 4th round by the light hitting Bradley. If it were someone with better power than Bradley, Pacquiao would have likely been left face down in the canvas fast asleep. Pacquiao would have all kinds of problems against a fighter like Mayweather. It would be too big of a step for Pacquiao, and he’d likely get knocked out or at the minimum badly clowned by Mayweather.
You can pretty much blame the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight not getting made in the past on Pacquiao’s side, because they could have had the Mayweather fight in 2010 if they had simply agreed to the random blood testing that Mayweather wanted to detect performance enhancing drugs. That was the missed opportunity on Pacquiao and Roach’s part.
Pacquiao can still make the fight happen with Mayweather if he listens to what he’s been saying in laying down the path for Pacquiao to follow to get a fight against him. Pacquiao just needs to keep on winning, and then move on when his contract with Top Rank expires at the end of 2014. If Pacquiao wants the fight with Mayweather, then that’s what he’ll do. If he re-signs with Top Rank like Tim Bradley did recently, then that’ll be a pretty good sign that they’re not going to ever get the fight.
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