Roach sees Lamont Peterson as the best choice for Pacquiao

By Boxing News - 12/27/2011 - Comments

Image: Roach sees Lamont Peterson as the best choice for PacquiaoBy William Mackay: Trainer Freddie Roach sees IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Lamont Peterson as the best possible choice for his fighter WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao’s next fight.

Roach had previously stated that he felt that Peterson was one of many good choices for Manny in early 2012. However, now Roach has come out picked Peterson as someone he prefers for Pacquiao over a rematch with Juan Manuel Marquez and Miguel Cotto, as well as a fight against unbeaten WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley.

You would have to wonder why Roach would chose Peterson as Pacquiao’s next fight when the entire world thinks Pacquiao was beaten by Marquez in their exciting fight last month.

It would seem like the logical choice for Roach would be top pick Marquez in a rematch with Pacquiao or the popular Cotto, just brought in a respectable 600,000 pay per view buys for his rematch with Antonio Margarito this month.

It could be that Roach wants Pacquiao to help soften up Peterson for another one of Roach’s fighters, former IBF/WBO light welterweight champion Amir Khan, who Peterson beat by a 12 round decision recently.

Pacquiao will obviously beat Peterson and beat him badly, but it’s still a mildly interesting fight given how bad Peterson made Khan look.

I could understand a Peterson-Pacquiao fight being made if the objective was for Khan to fight the winner of this bout. That would make it perfect, but Khan and Pacquiao have messed things up by becoming friendly with each other to the point where both have said they don’t want to fight each other.

Maybe the ambitious Khan might change his mind and fight Pacquiao. If in the absence of a Floyd Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight, Khan would be a good temporary replacement opponent. Peterson is going to be beat up if he gets this fight, and Khan will have easy pickings if he’s the one that faces Peterson next.



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