By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach has recently said that Pacquiao would be moving down to 140 to campaign as a light welterweight. Roach believes that Pacquiao will have more power a 140 compared to what he had at 147.
Roach feels that one of the reason why Pacquiao’s knockouts have dried up is between he’s fighting in the wrong division. Roach thinks that once Pacquiao moves down to light welterweight, the knockouts will suddenly start to appear.
Indeed, Roach has been saying that once Pacquiao moves down to 140, he’ll have a wider variety of fighters to face in that division. Roach isn’t saying who they are but obviously one of them would be Jessie Vargas, one of Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum’s Top Rank stable fighters.
When asked if Pacquiao will be moving down to 140, Arum said “No.”
This is big news, because there were a lot of boxing fans who were under the mistaken impression that Pacquiao was moving down in weight. If Arum is saying Pacquiao won’t be moving down then that pretty much means that he’ll be staying put at 147, because Arum manages Pacquiao’s career. If he’s saying Pacquiao isn’t going to be moving down in weight then it’s safe to say that he’ll be staying at 140.
You can understand why Arum would want Pacquiao to stay at welterweight. If he stays in this weight class then there will always be the possibility of a fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. Obviously the chances of that fight taking place are slim given Arum’s stance on Mayweather fighting on the Mexican holidays. If Arum is going to refuse to match Pacquiao against Mayweather on the Mexican holidays then he could be closing the door on that fight ever happening.
It’s good in a way if Pacquiao doesn’t fight Mayweather. By not fighting Mayweather, Pacquiao can avoid a potentially embarrassing loss that will likely further cripple his pay-per-view numbers. If you think Pacquiao’s PPV numbers are bad right now then just imagine what they’ll be like if/when Mayweather beats him by a lopsided decision and totally clowns. I don’t think there’s any coming back from a loss of that kind for the 36-year-old Pacquiao. He’s too old to get back where he was before in my view.
By staying at 147, Pacquiao can potentially be in position for fights against Miguel Cotto, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Amir Khan, Kell Brook and additional rematches with Tim Bradley.
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