By Dave Lahr: Trainer Freddie Roach seems to be totally obsessed with trying to get Floyd Mayweather Jr. to fight Manny Pacquiao all of a sudden. It seems really strange when you look at how Roach is acting now and compare it to the way he acted before Pacquiao’s fight with Joshua Clottey in March. Back then, it was as if Roach could care less if the fight between Pacquiao and Mayweather was put together. Roach talked tough about the negotiations about the drug testing, you name it. My impression at the time was that I felt Roach didn’t want the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight to happen at the time.
I figured that Roach might have been afraid to see Pacquiao possibly beaten, which would put a damper on his recent string of successes. How, however, with Pacquiao talking about wanting to fight one final time before he hangs up his gloves, Roach is all of a sudden sounding desperate to get the fight between his fighter Pacquiao and Mayweather. It’s kind of unsettling to see Roach sounding so focused on wanting the fight to happen instead of turning around and looking why it isn’t. Instead of going after Mayweather, Roach should talk to his fighter Pacquiao and try to convince him the importance of agreeing to take the random blood tests that Mayweather wants.
It’s useless for Roach to be talking about how he thinks Mayweather is afraid of Pacquiao and how he thinks Pacquiao would beat Mayweather. That’s a primitive approach to trying to get Mayweather to take the fight if you ask me. A more analytical way would be for Roach to ask himself the question, ‘what does Mayweather want before he’ll fight Pacquiao?’ If he’s honest with himself, he’ll come to the quick conclusion that Pacquiao will need to agree to the random blood tests, not the 14 day garbage from the past negotiations.
Roach may come to the conclusion that Pacquiao may have to drop his lawsuit as well if he wants to fight Mayweather. After all, who want to fight someone who is suing you for millions of dollars? Mayweather could end up losing a lot of the money he makes by fighting Pacquiao. Beyond that, Roach would have to think about the purse split as well. Maybe Mayweather isn’t interested in a 50-50 deal anymore. Maybe he wants a bigger slice of the piece. If Roach wants to be part of this mega fight, he might have to talk to Pacquiao about that as well.
Mayweather is the fighter to fight and is the star of the boxing world after his win over Shane Mosley. Naturally, Mayweather should and probably will expect to get the bigger slice of the financial pie. Roach may be just a trainer but these are areas that will prevent the fight from being made unless there’s some give on one side or another. Given that Mayweather just showed how great he is by beating Mosley and getting the bigger pay per view numbers than Pacquiao did in his fight with Joshua Clottey, it’s only natural that Mayweather should want the bigger money. If Roach wants the fight to be made, this is where he needs to start speaking to Pacquiao about.
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