By Esteban Garduno: Freddie Roach seems to be conflicted about wanting Manny Pacquiao to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. On one hand, Roach can’t stop talking about how much he wants Pacquiao to fight Mayweather next, and yet in the next breath, Roach is saying that Mayweather doesn’t make the rules in boxing. Roach, of course, is talking about the Olympic style random blood tests that Mayweather wants Pacquiao to take before he’ll fight him. For some strange reason that I’ll never understand, Roach sees this as a case of Mayweather trying to throw his weight around and push Pacquiao to do something he doesn’t want to do.
In an interview at Boxing Fanhouse, Roach says, speaking about why Pacquiao will be fighting little known Joshua Clottey instead of Mayweather, “We took Clottey because we’re still chasing after Mayweather…We’re not going to kiss his [Mayweather] backside. He doesn’t make the rules in boxing. If the sanctioning body wants testing, we’ll do it. He [Mayweather] doesn’t make the rules in boxing.”
Man, I wish Roach would make up his mind. Why does Roach keep talking about Mayweather all the time about wanting a fight for Pacquiao when he’s not willing to accept the fact that Mayweather has said it repeatedly that Pacquiao has to agree to random blood tests before he fights him. I fail to see what the disconnect is for Roach.
He’s like someone that wants to attain something but instead of doing what he has to do to get it, he just complains without stop and wastes time wishing and hoping. Roach has been sounding even desperate recently, saying how he hopes that Mayweather will come to the bargaining table if Mayweather loses all his money. In other words, Roach is saying that Pacquiao isn’t going to be taking the random blood tests and the only way that he’ll be fighting Mayweather is if Mayweather drops completely his wish for the blood tests.
That’s a pipe dream if you ask me. Roach might as well be wishing he can become the president of the United States, because it’s not going to happen. I don’t understand why Roach isn’t approaching this in a more reasonable manner. It would be better for Roach, if he’s going to stubbornly stick to his resistance for Pacquiao to take the blood tests, not to even be considering a fight with Mayweather.
Roach needs to be thinking beyond that fight if he’s not willing to have his fighter Pacquiao take the prerequisite blood tests that Mayweather is asking for. Maybe Roach is thinking that if he mentions Mayweather enough in the media, it will have a shaming effect on Mayweather and he will drop his demands for Pacquiao to take the blood tests and will come slinking to the negotiating table with Pacquiao with his tail between his legs. That’s not going to happen.
Roach needs to be realistic about it and focus on whatever fighter besides Mayweather he can match Pacquiao with. Maybe someone like Shane Mosley. It won’t matter if Mosley gets beaten by Mayweather, because Pacquiao has been beating fighters recently who were recently beaten themselves like Ricky Hatton, Miguel Cotto and now Joshua Clottey. It won’t matter if Mosley gets beaten, because he’ll have lost recently just like Cotto and Hatton.
Roach says “The next thing you know it, he’ll [Mayweather] say we fight too many rounds. We’re [Pacquiao] not going to give him [Mayweather] anything. The fight will happen on fair terms with the commission’s rules.” What Roach is saying is that the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, if it takes place at all, will only occur without the blood tests that Mayweather wants unless the commission all of a sudden adds blood testing to their rules. They won’t, which is probably the only reason Roach is mentioning them.
In effect, the only way we’ll see a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight in the future is if Mayweather drops his demands for random blood testing, although I’m pretty sure that Pacquiao’s management’s request that Mayweather pay $10 million for every round he comes in over the limit will be part of the contract. This effects both fighters, but it’s something that would hurt Mayweather more because he came in over the limit in his last fight against Juan Manuel Marquez.
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