By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach sees Floyd Mayweather Jr’s trainer/father Floyd Sr as being the weak link in their team, and he thinks they’ll have an advantage over Mayweather Jr on May 2nd because of him.
Roach sees Roger Mayweather as the better trainer, and he’s happy that he’s not going to be working the corner for the Mayweather-Pacquiao mega-fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
What Roach doesn’t seem to understand is that Mayweather Jr is pretty much on cruise control in his fights regardless of who his trainer is. Whether it be Roger or Floyd Sr, Mayweather Jr is in the zone in between rounds, and he’s not someone that needs a ton of advice like we see Roach dishing out for Pacquiao to help him make adjustments.
Mayweather makes his adjustments on the fly without needing to be told. That’s why you don’t really see a lot of advice being given to him in between rounds. Mayweather makes his own adjustments as soon as things start going badly for him.
“Luckily Roger won’t be running the corner for Floyd. His dad will be in the corner,” Roach said via Rappler.com. “I think Floyd Sr makes it an easier fight for us. The dad’s not as good a trainer. He’s not as good a fighter. He keeps telling me how great he is, but it takes him 10 minutes to say one world in the corner.”
I see this as little more than gamesmanship stuff by Roach to try and get into the heads of Mayweather and Floyd Sr. If he can get them upset, then Roach probably thinks this is something that can possibly help Pacquiao squeak out a win. We already know Pacquiao is going to need as much help as possible to get a victory on May 2nd, and if Roach can help make that possible with his trash talking, then it’s all good for Pacquiao.
I think this is only the beginning of the mind games we’re going to be seeing from Roach in the run up to the fight. I think he’s going to keep trash talking Mayweather and his trainers as much as possible, because he’s going to need to look for that edge.
Roach also will need to talk trash because Pacquiao rarely says anything negative about his opponents. If Pacquiao is going to be playing Mr. nice guy for the next two months before the fight, then it’s putting the pressure on Roach to take over as the lead trash talker to try and drum up interest in the fight while at the same time getting into the heads of Mayweather, Floyd Sr and Roger.
If you look at Mayweather’s fights, Floyd Sr and Roger don’t have a lot to say in between rounds. They’re mostly making sure that Mayweather is hydrated and greased up for the rounds. They’re not telling him how to fight like Roach is with Pacquiao, but then again they don’t need to. Mayweather already knows what to do, and he only rarely needs Floyd Sr to point out something that he sees that needs fixing.
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