Roach: Pacquiao and Mayweather are going to have to fight each other

By Boxing News - 04/03/2014 - Comments

pac12587By Allan Fox: Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) has a lot on his plate in the form of WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s) coming up in less than two weeks from now on April 12th in Las Vegas, Nevada. But while the fight is incredibly important for Pacquiao, it’s one that his trainer Freddie Roach is already looking past it towards a much bigger fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr.

That’s a fight that Roach can’t seem to get out of his mind, and he confesses he’s even had dreams of the fight. In Roach’s mind, Mayweather doesn’t have much of a choice about the Pacquiao fight. He pretty much has to take it due to there not being enough big fights to finish out the remaining fights on his 6-fight contract with Showtime/CBS.

“I’ve thought about it [Pacquiao vs. Mayweather] so much, I’ve had dreams about that fight,” Roach said via supersport. “The pool is very small for both guys. Somewhere they’re going to have to fight each other. His [Mayweather] record looks good, but if he’s so good, why didn’t he fight Pacquiao?”

You can flip the argument around and ask the same question about Pacquiao. He’s got a great record, but he failed to agree to the random blood testing that Mayweather asked for when he attempted to make a fight against Pacquiao in 2010. Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum chose to match Pacquiao with Joshua Clottey after the negotiations stalled over the blood testing, and that was the end of any serious negotiations between Mayweather and Pacquiao’s management. The bridges were pretty much burnt with Mayweather from these failed negotiations, because the two sides haven’t come close to making a fight since that time.

There is a small pool for Mayweather to pick his opponents from, but he doesn’t really need Pacquiao because he’s making so much money for each fight. If all Mayweather does is fight the following fighters then he’s going to be alright: Marcos Maidana, Amir Khan and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.

A fight between Pacquiao and Mayweather will likely never happen because Arum tends to have his opponents for Pacquiao picked out well ahead of time, along with the fight dates. There’s never room for Mayweather to insert himself into the equation because Arum is frequently planning Pacquiao’s moves ahead of time like chess pieces. For instance, Pacquiao hasn’t even faced Bradley, yet Arum has already got the winner of the Mike Alvarado vs. Juan Manuel Marquez fighting Pacquiao next September if he beats Bradley.



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