Manny could beat Floyd with one arm behind his back!
LEGENDARY TRAINER ROACH HAILS PACMAN
THE bravest man in boxing will be inside the ropes only for those tense 60- second intervals which separate the rounds during the richest fight of all time. One of the most forthright personalities in the hardest game will spend those fleeting minutes galvanising and guiding Manny Pacquiao to what he believes will be the ruination of Floyd Mayweather.
Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s trainer, is as honestly outspoken as he was courageously foolhardy during the gloved wars of his youth, which have left him battling with the most pernicious opponent to confront any boxer.
Parkinson’s disease, the affliction which has silenced Muhammad Ali, cannot muzzle Roach. If his Filipino PacMan devastates America’s Money Man, the master trainer will anoint the protege he loves like a son as the monarch of all he surveys.
‘Manny wins this and he will be king of the
KLITSCHKO TO FIGHT FURY
TYSON FURY is next in line for a shot at world heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko. Klitschko won a unanimous points decision over American Bryant Jennings in New York and said afterwards he is prepared to take on the Brit in his homeland. ‘The way it looks, Fury will be my next challenger,’ said Klitschko, who holds the WBA, WBO, IBF, IBO and Ring Magazine belts. ‘Obviously a fight is not going to be in the States. Fighting in Germany or Great Britain, that’s something we have to figure out.’ world,’ says Roach. ‘And he will deserve the roar of the people. But Triple G is the best pound-for-pound boxer on the planet.’
Triple who? Pacquiao did not recognise Gennady Gennadyevich Golovkin when the Kazakh with the highest knock- out ratio in middleweight history walked into Roach’s fabled Wild Card gym in Los Angeles the other day.
‘Manny doesn’t watch boxing,’ says Roach. ‘Of course he was as courteous as always but he had no idea who this visitor was. Golovkin is the pound-forpound man of the moment. But what Manny will do in Las Vegas on May 2 is prove himself the greatest fighter of his generation.’
It is an even more profound achievement that Roach will be in the MGM Grand Garden and therein lies the richest of ironies.
Boxing itself is enabling Roach to defy the ravaging condition which resulted from taking too many blows to the head.
It is the pounding from Pacquiao’s concussive punches to his hand-pads and body protector, the sweating exertions in that gym ring, which he credits for his ability to lead a relatively normal life.
‘My physical therapy,’ he calls it. ‘Boxing is now my salvation.’
Roach wakes each morning at 5am. He drives to the gym in time to prepare for the 6.30 arrival of Miguel Cotto, the Puerto Rican idol he is also preparing for world championship hampionship action.action Pacquiao Pacquiao, usually after running early, arrives between two and four in the afternoon, according to his work programme for the day.
Between the two of them Roach puts in up to 15 rounds on the pads and presides over sparring.
Back home, he watches TV alone and takes to his bed between 9.30 and 10pm. He says: ‘I don’t have any trouble sleeping.’
Pacquiao is a southpaw, one of that breed who carry their most explosive bombs in their left fist. Roach remembers how he worked for days ‘on the right hand with which Manny shocked Ricky Hatton with the first two knockdowns and set him up for the second-round finish with the left’.
Now, given Mayweather’s ingrained practice of rolling up his left shoulder to protect that side of his jaw, Roach has devoted numerous hours to ‘Manny only punching with his left’ in sparring.
‘ That’s where Floyd i s most vulnerable,’ he says. Mischievously he adds: ‘We’re at the point where Manny could beat him with his right arm tied behind his back.’
Roach harbours no doubt who will win what is being called The Fight of the Century, adding: ‘Floyd likes to flow around the outside of the ring. He prefers the ropes to the middle so he can wait, set traps, suck you in and pick you off with his counters.
‘Especially that very good, very straight right. The old Manny might have walked into that. Not now. He will close him down, catch him with two or three hard punches but then move. Floyd will throw back all right but Manny won’t be there. Floyd doesn’t have the power to hurt him.’
The real work, however, has been applied down the years, to developing Pacquiao during his ascent to an unprecedented eight world titles in different weight divisions. Pacquiao shares the affection which almost all engaged in boxing feel for Roach. So much so that, out of concern for his trainer’s well-being, he wants him to retire when he does so himself, probably two years and three fights after the imminent duel in the desert.
‘He keeps telling me to go out with him,’ says Roach. ‘I’m still 55 so what would I do? Maybe cut down a bit on the hard slog in the ring and oversee more. But not when I’m still having fun.
‘Anyway it’s not me I worry about. It’s Floyd. That big zero on his unbeaten record means everything to him. More than the flash cars and all that jazz. So what happens when he loses it? When Manny beats him. When suddenly he’s just 47-1. What will become of him?’
To hell with Parkinson’s. Mr Roach’s mojo is still working.
PACQUIAO v MAYWEATHER 5 DAYS TO GO