Roach says Pacquiao vs. Canelo offered to him

By Boxing News - 05/10/2016 - Comments

roach65By Dan Ambrose: Trainer Freddie Roach said he was asked by Top Rank promoter Bob Arum if Manny Pacquiao could fight Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Roach said he wanted to see how Canelo did against welterweight Amir Khan first before he made the decision in the Pacquiao-Canelo fight.

Now that Roach has seen Canelo’s fight last Saturday night, he didn’t see anything in his game that Pacquiao couldn’t handle as long as he stays disciplined for 12 rounds. Roach says he had Khan up five rounds to zero at the time that Canelo knocked Khan out in the 6th round.

Roach says a fight between Pacquiao and Canelo can get made if they get Canelo to agree to a rehydration limit that would keep him from weighing more than 165lbs on the day of the fight. This is the only way a fight between Canelo and Pacquiao can be fair, says Roach.

There’s talk that Canelo rehydrated to 180 pounds last Saturday night for the Khan fight. Roach says that won’t work for a Pacquiao-Canelo fight because he’s not going to let his fighter be outweighed by a huge amount of weight. Pacquiao would likely come into the fight in the low 150s. If Canelo rehydrates to 180 on the night of the fight, it would give him almost a 30 pound weight advantage over Pacquiao. That would be a ton of weight unless Roach could get Canelo to agree to come in no heavier than 165.

“I was offered that fight for Manny and I didn’t say no,” said Roach to esnewsreporting.com about a fight between Canelo and Pacquiao. “I wanted to watch that fight [Canelo vs. Khan] first and see how he did, and he [Khan] won the first five rounds. I know Manny can stay disciplined for 12 rounds. He [Khan] can only stay disciplined for five, it seems like. He walked right into that shot. It was a good setup. So if Manny does decide to fight again and Mayweather doesn’t want to come to the table, we could go that way [towards Canelo fight]. I have no problems with Manny out-boxing big guys like that. I know he’s [Canelo] strong. Maybe we’ll have to put a cap on how much he can gain in between, because they like catch-weights. He’s [Canelo] used to it. Maybe he’ll only gain 10 pounds to make it a bit more fair size-wise. Manny has told me in the past that he does love fighting those big, slow guys, because his speed is too much for them. It’s definitely a possibility. We have to have a cap in how much he can gain. I’m going from the weigh-in at 155. He can only to 165, max. That’s the only way to keep the fight fair,” said Roach.

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Pacquiao retired last April after his fight against Tim Bradley last April. Pacquiao is going to be working in the senate in the Philippines. For him to continue his boxing career, he’ll need to be allowed to take six to eight weeks off his job in the senate in order to get ready for the Canelo fight.

I don’t think Canelo will ever agree to a rehydration clause of 165lbs. A fighter like Gennady Golovkin could do it because he rehydrates to only 170, but if Canelo is rehydrating to 180 nowadays due to his growing body, I think he’s not going to ever agree to keep his weight down to 165. That would be as much as 15 pounds under Canelo’s normal fighting weight. I don’t think Canelo can win or even function if his weight is at 165.

If Canelo can get a fight against Pacquiao next September, then I don’t see him even trying to negotiate a fight against Golovkin. I think Canelo and Golden Boy Promotions will make a ridiculous offer to Golovkin and his promoters at K2, which they’ll likely reject. Canelo and Golden Boy will then almost surely walk away from the negotiations to sign for the bigger and more winnable fight against Pacquiao. No way do I see Canelo taking the fight against Golovkin if there’s any chance whatsoever to get a big money fight against Pacquiao.

If Canelo is going to be fighting welterweights, then he really needs to do his utmost to start fighting at least the junior middleweight division instead of continuing to fight at catch-weights at 155.