By Jim Dower: Trainer Freddie Roach said to the Associated Press that the negotiations between his fighter World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao and undefeated Floyd Mayweather Jr. could begin on Tuesday of this week – after the Philippine elections results are in. Pacquiao is currently making an attempt to win a seat in the congress after having failed on his first attempt. Roach says “I think the fight will happen. It will probably be November, maybe October. November’s not a great pay-per-view month, but I think it will happen.
The only question now is whether Pacquiao will be agreeable to the random blood tests that Mayweather wants him to take. Pacquiao, who believes, rightly or wrongly, that that he’s weakened when he has blood taken from his body, only wants limited blood tests up to 24 days before the fight. Mayweather is looking for something a little stricter than that to ensure that he’s not fighting someone under the influence of performance enhancing drugs. Mayweather asked for 14 days to be the stop date for the random drug tests in their failed negotiations in February.
Mayweather has since said that next time he negotiates with Pacquiao, he would ask for the classic definition of the random blood tests. In other words, Pacquiao would have to agree to take the blood tests randomly up until the fight. This is what Mayweather and Shane Mosley did for their recent fight earlier this month. The fighters never knew when they were about to be tested. But if the testing is to be stopped at 24 days before the fight, there are some people who feel that the testing will be worthless. There would be too much time between the last test and the fight for drug use or cycling to be used. If Pacquiao still insists on 24 days, Mayweather will have to make a big decision whether he’s okay with the risk.
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