By Chris Williams: Trainer Freddie Roach loves to give a good quote. You put a microphone underneath his mouth and he’ll just start talking. In an article at the Star.com, Roach says he thinks that his fighter WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao will agree to the random blood tests that Floyd Mayweather Jr. wants in order to call his bluff. The thinking here is if Mayweather is really serious about wanting to fight Pacquiao, then he would in turn immediately agree to the fight.

However, Roach doesn’t specifically mention the purse split and that’s something that is rumored to be one of the areas that are holding the fight up from moving forward in the negotiations. I think Roach is talking about the drug testing, and that’s just one of the issues. I seriously doubt that Pacquiao will agree to take the small percentage and wind up with only 40%.

Roach says “At this point I feel that Manny is going to agree to everything. That’s out bluff. We’re going to call his bluff. We’ll see…I can’t speak for Manny, I can’t speak for Arum, but I feel the fight will happen because Manny is going to call his bluff and say ‘let’s do it.’ Manny’s a congressman. He’s going to agree with everything Mayweather wants. That’s why I think the fight will happen.” That sounds like a lot of wishful thinking on Roach’s part.

I really wonder if he’s even checked this stuff out with Pacquiao or if he’s just talking from the top of his head, hoping that Pacquiao will call Mayweather’s bluff. After all, it’s not like Roach doesn’t get something out of Pacquiao fighting Mayweather. He’ll get his normal huge trainer fee. I don’t see Pacquiao calling Mayweather’s bluff. I don’t see that happening at all. Not only do I see Pacquiao standing firm at the 14 day cutoff window that he agreed to for the random blood testing for performance enhancing drugs, but I don’t think Pacquiao will ever agree to anything less than a 50-50 deal in terms of the financial cut.

It would be a pity if the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight doesn’t take place, because this is a fight that the entire world wants to see. But I don’t think Roach knows what he’s talking about. I can’t see Pacquiao, with his ego, giving in on the blood testing and no way will he agree to take less of the purse, even though 40 to 45% would still be by far the biggest payday of Pacquiao’s career. He sees it as a fairness issue, and probably won’t want to knuckle under and let Mayweather get his way.

But, yeah, as a congressman, it would be a nice move for Pacquiao to give the people what they want and just give in to whatever Mayweather is asking for. I think none of this will happen. Roach’s vision seems like a pipe dream to me. What I see happening is Pacquiao digging his heels in the sand and refusing on both the random blood testing within 14 days and also refusing to take less than 50% of the pay cut, even though Mayweather has been shown to have the better PPV numbers in the past few years.

I then see Pacquiao fighting Miguel Cotto or maybe Antonio Margarito next. The Cotto fight will probably happen. After that, Mayweather might agree to Pacquiao’s requests knowing that Pacquiao is on the verge of retirement.