Roach thinks that Mayweather is scared of Pacquiao

By Dave Lahr: Freddie Roach, the trainer of Manny Pacquiao, says that he thinks that Floyd Mayweather Jr. is afraid of Pacquiao. In an article at The Telegraph, Roach says “I’m convinced the more I at this that they [Mayweather and his team] are scared to fight us.” Roach may be seeing things through his distorted prism, because Mayweather has made it clear all he wants is random blood tests to take place before he fights Pacquiao. I don’t see how that translates into Mayweather being afraid to fight Pacquiao.

Mayweather was willing to accept that the random blood tests stop 14 days before his March 14th fight with Pacquiao. However, Pacquiao and his team wanted the testing to stop at 24 days. At this point, the negotiation ended. I don’t agree with Roach that it was because Mayweather was afraid. Maybe he didn’t have a lot of trust in Pacquiao, which is why he wanted the random blood tests to take place.

I suppose there was a little fear behind that, but I don’t think Mayweather is just afraid to fight Pacquiao. If Pacquiao agreed Mayweather demands of blood testing all the way up to 14 days before the fight, I have no doubts that Mayweather would then take the fight with Pacquiao. Mayweather wants this fight. This will give him a huge payday of $40 million possibly, and he could then retire again if he wants.

Roach says “What I don’t like in this fight not happening is that both parties will lose a lot of fans. People are fickle. I want this fight to happen. I want to be the first one to beat Mayweather. If they don’t fight each other, there is a hole missing in the big picture.” I agree. Boxing fans will be turned off towards both fighters if this fight doesn’t come off.

Plus, a great deal of potential boxing fans will be lost as well. We’re talking about fans that have yet to discover who Pacquiao and Mayweather is. If this fight doesn’t happen, they won’t be able to learn about them and it will be a lost opportunity for each of them. This is why Roach needs to make a big effort to get Pacquiao to try and meet Mayweather half way in the negotiation process.

In some cases, Roach seems to take a hard line stance towards Mayweather and you have to wonder whether this is rubbing off on Pacquiao. That certainly can’t be helping. To make the negotiation work, you need to have some cooler heads in there that are willing to work on bridging the distance between the two of them and not give ultimatums.

I personally thought that the initial negotiations were done poorly from what I read about them. I thought it could have been worked out if they had stayed at it and kept at it. Instead, we have Pacquiao fighting Joshua Clottey at the Dallas Cowboy stadium instead of Mayweather. That’s cool if that’s what they want, but it sure hasn’t please too boxing fans who were hoping to see Pacquiao fight Mayweather. Pacquiao may end up getting beaten up this fight and for what?

Source: boxingnews24.com