Roach: This isn’t the end for Pacquiao

By Boxing News - 02/03/2016 - Comments

pac63By Chris Williams: Trainer Freddie Roach is holding out hope that his fighter Manny Pacquiao, who obviously pays him very, very well, will continue his pro career beyond his third fight against WBO welterweight champion Timothy Bradley on April 9. Pacquiao will be running for a senate seat in the Philippines in May, and Roach isn’t sure whether he would be able to continue his career if elected into that position.

However, Roach still thinks that Pacquiao won’t be able to resist the idea of fighting while holding office in the senate. He just thinks Pacquiao will continue fighting. You can call it wishful thinking on Roach’s part, because the chances aren’t too good that Pacquiao will continue his career beyond his third fight against Bradley, which few boxing fans want to see.

This is a case of Top Rank and Pacquiao shoving a fight down the throats of the boxing public that they are not too thrilled about. Let’s like playing an old movie from years ago and asking fans to pay to see it in the movie theaters rather than peddling it for free or making people want to see it by giving away junk free if they watch it.

“If he [Pacquiao] doesn’t win the senate race, what will he do? Does he go back to being a congressman?” Roach said to RingTV.com about Pacquiao. “Being a congressman and a boxer is OK. Being a senator and boxer may be a little too much. I do know Manny well, though. He would love to be the senator who defended his title someday. I don’t think this is his last fight for some reason. I just don’t see it because he has a lot left in him. His work ethic is still great. I’d be disappointed if this was his last fight.”

How does Roach know that Pacquiao will want to keep fighting when/if he’s elected into the senate? Roach is just guessing. From what I’ve been hearing from Pacquiao, he seems to be taking his political career very seriously, and he doesn’t seem interested in wanting to continue his boxing career if he gets elected into the senate in May. Roach sounds like he’s just hoping that Pacquiao will want to continue fighting.

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Like I said, Roach is well-paid by Pacquiao as a trainer. Once Pacquiao is gone, I don’t see anyone else paying Roach the same kind of money that Pacquiao was. Besides the money aspect, Roach likely got a lot of different fighters choosing to train with him due to him being connected to Pacquiao. It’s like a giant billboard for Roach.

Pacquiao’s success in the ring has made Roach look like a genius despite the fact that Pacquiao was already a good fighter before he even started training with Roach. Pacquiao walked into Roach’s Wildcard Gym already a guy with great physical tools. It was like Roach won the lottery with Pacquiao joining up with him instead of some other trainer. If Pacquiao walked into the door or trainer Robert Garcia in Oxnard, California, I think he’d have had the same kind of success as he did with Roach, possibly even better. The same goes for trainer Virgil Hunter in Hayward, California.

I agree with Roach that it would be a disappointment if the Bradley fight is his last fight of his career. I wouldn’t be disappointed about Pacquiao ending his boxing career. I would be disappointed in the choice of opponent. To me, that’s worse than going out with a fight against Andre Berto like we saw with Floyd Mayweather Jr. When fight the same guy over and over again, and then look to fight him in your final fight, I think that’s a dull way of ending your career.

At least Pacquiao should have told his 84-year-old promoter Bob Arum that he wanted Amir Khan for his final fight whether the satellite distributors thought it was a good idea or not. If you look at all the excitement that surrounds Saul “Canelo” Alvarez fighting Khan, it makes you wonder why Arum didn’t give the green light to Pacquiao fighting Khan. Canelo is fighting Khan on HBO PPV, and it doesn’t look like the satellite distributors are blocking that fight, does it? That’s the fight that Pacquiao should have ended his career with, not a third fight against a guy that few people want to see him fight.



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