By Ryan Dunn: In a recent interview with KTLA Los Angeles, reporter Cher Calvin stepped into the Wild Card Gym, where Manny Pacquiao is training for his March 13 bout against Joshua Clottey, for a few words with the P4P king himself. During the interview, she asks him to address the steroids accusations, and at the end, Freddie Roach proposes quite an interesting offer to Team Mayweather.
While shadow boxing inside the ring. Calvin tells Manny: “People want to know if you’re using steroids,” at which point Manny stops what he’s doing and replies “No, I don’t know what [Mayweather’s] talking about. I’m willing to do a medical, or blood test or whatever, to [prove I’m] clean.” This is an interesting statement, considering the very reason this fight is not happening has to do with Manny’s refusal to accede to Mayweather’s demand for random blood testing. Granted, Manny’s answer here doesn’t really explain the conditions under which he will agree (random vs. announced, how soon before fight, etc.), but it still makes you wonder whether the PR machine is gearing up to make a fight with Floyd Jr. happen after all.
Roach furthers Manny’s assertion by stating: “We have no history of drugs. We’ve never flunked a drug test. We never will flunk a drug test. Manny Pacquiao, I have trouble giving him protein shakes.” Roach goes on to lay down a gauntlet to Mayweather, his camp, and his promoters: “We’ll fight him for free. For free, I mean, you know, we take… winner take all.”
It will be interesting to see whether Team Pacquiao pushes this offer further. And if they do, what will Team Mayweather say in response? All I know is that Bob Arum must be cursing Freddie Roach right about now. I do give Roach points for putting out a “warrior’s challenge,” and a fight where the winner takes the purse and the PPV earnings, leaving the loser to ponder their mistakes, would be a spectacle no doubt. My only request is that if Mayweather and Pacquiao fight, that the promoters dub the fight “Bad Blood”.
For those of you with a knack for searching for such things, video of the segment referenced here can be found on Youtube.
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