For all the bragging of Top Rank Inc., president Bob Arum about his fighter Juan Manuel Marquez, the reigning WBA/IBF featherweight champion being “the best featherweight today”, ace trainer Freddie Roach said yesterday he learned that Marquez “doesn?t want to fight Manny Pacquiao”and that HBO was looking at Paulie Ayala as a possible opponent for the flamboyant Filipino.
In an overseas telephone conversation with Viva Sports, Roach said a decision will have to be made after Pacquiao?s business manager Rod Nazario gets out of hospital where he underwent surgery for removal of a stone in his kidney, early Wednesday at the Manila Medican Center. Doctors said the operation was successful and Nazario would be out of the hospital tomorrow. Nazario and Pacquiao were scheduled to fly to New York on January 15 to discuss Pacquiao’s next fight with promoter Murad Muhammad, top officials of HBO and Arum who handles both Marquez and Ayala.
