By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach is very interested in having Pacquiao fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. next, as long as Mayweather wins his next fight against Shane Mosley on May 1st. However, Roach’s attitude remains negative about the Olympic style random blood testing that Mayweather has been insisting on for Pacquiao to take before he will fight him. In an article at the Lasvegassun, Roach says “I don’t think Floyd is big enough to make the rules. We’re not going to do any rule he says. It’s like giving away the first two rounds to him [Mayweather]. It gives him confidence and we won’t do that.” Roach goes on to say that he is hoping that Mayweather finds himself in a bad situation financially to the point where he really needs money badly.
At that point, Roach thinks that Mayweather will come looking for Pacquiao and his management team to try and set up a fight. So in effect if Mayweather wants to fight Pacquiao, he’s going to have to do it without the random blood testing, as long as the commission doesn’t say that both fighters have to take blood testing.
This is disappointing because it was hoped that Pacquiao’s team would at least give in and agree to some kind of limited blood testing for the fight with Mayweather, but Roach seems to be saying that it’s going to have to be Mayweather who gives in and comes to them without the blood testing. Somehow, I don’t think Mayweather is going to do that.
Roach says that Pacquiao would be weak for three days after giving blood. However, if the blood taken is two weeks before the fight, it shouldn’t matter how weak Pacquiao is after that. He would then have two weeks to recover. If Pacquiao feels weak during his work outs for three days, I fail to see how Roach loses Pacquiao for three days. He’s still going to be there training, and will be as good as new three days later if what they say is true. That should be good then. Pacquiao, unless gets badly sick from having given blood, should be okay within three days. I don’t see the problem.
If Pacquiao wants to make the kind of big money that would come with a fight against Mayweather, he should work with Floyd on the blood testing issue so that the fight can be made. This is the only way the fight is going to happen, and Roach has it wrong in his head by thinking that Mayweather is trying to make the rules. Testing for drugs isn’t someone trying to make rules. Mayweather asked for this to be included in his contract for a fight with Pacquiao.
The $10 million penalty for every pound overweight that Pacquiao and his team came up during their negotiations with Mayweather wasn’t standard either, yet Mayweather agreed to it. Roach should realize this and work on trying to get his fighter Pacquiao to agree to the blood testing. At least that way we would have a fight between Pacquiao and Mayweather.
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