News Update :

Roach hopes Pacquiao will fight Floyd before retiring

Thursday, March 22, 2012

MANILA, Philippines – Hall-of-Fame trainer Freddie Roach wants his prized ward, Filipino boxing icon Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao, to fight unbeaten American Floyd Mayweather Jr. before retiring from the sport.

Pacquiao said in an interview with DZMM that God told him in a dream to step away from boxing for good.

But Roach told Boxing Scene that he hopes Pacquiao will fight Mayweather first.

"The thing is, we have a big fight coming up (against Timothy Bradley Jr.), and hopefully Mayweather will have a good fight also with (Miguel) Cotto. That will draw them to fight each other," he said.

Mayweather returns to the ring on May 5 against Cotto in Las Vegas, while Pacquiao will fight Bradley on June 9, also in Las Vegas.

"I would like to see Manny fight this fight, then Mayweather, and be over with it. I don’t see any point in going any further than that," Roach said.

A Pacquiao-Mayweather bout will be the most lucrative bout that can be made in boxing today, but negotiations for the mega-fight have consistently fallen apart over various issues.

Most recently, the Pacquiao and Mayweather camps failed to come to an agreement regarding the split of the fight purse.

The boxers ended up facing different opponents, with Mayweather moving up in weight to challenge Cotto, while Pacquiao will defend his welterweight title against the undefeated Bradley.

Bad night

Roach expects Pacquiao to bounce back from a lackluster performance in his last bout, wherein he escaped with a majority decision victory against Mexican rival Juan Manuel Marquez.

"I think Manny is going to come out on fire this time. He's got rid of a lot of distractions in his life that have been overwhelming on him," he said. "I think he's cleaned up his life and it’s going to really help his career."

Roach said that Pacquiao had a “bad night” against Marquez.

"We had a great training camp, we really did. It wasn't nothing wrong with training and so forth. Its just his focus wasn't there the night of the fight," he said, adding that it was the first time in 10 years that it happened with Pacquiao.

Pacquiao did not say how many more boxing matches he intended to fight, though he said he would not stay in boxing for long.

Roach said he will stay with his fighter for as long as he still wants to box.

"If Manny's hungry to fight and wants to fight, I'll help him as long as possible. He asked me, 'When I'm finished, will you be the first one to tell me?' I said, 'I definitely will,'" Roach said.

"I said, 'Will you listen to me when I do?' and he said, 'Yes, I will.'"

Pacquiao is set to begin training for his fight against Bradley on April in Baguio City.

Read more: http://www.fighthits.net/2012/03/roach-hopes-pacquiao-will-fight-floyd.html#ixzz1pppsqp5l
Share this Article on :

No comments:

Post a Comment

 

© Copyright Sports in UK 2010 -2011 | Design by Herdiansyah Hamzah | Published by Borneo Templates | Powered by Blogger.com.