The date that every fight fan had circled on their calendar was March 13th. That’s when Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao were supposed to fight in one of the most anticipated fights in recent memory. It would’ve been a chance for the fight world to finally see who is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Well, the debate will have to go on for at least two more months or until the two finally step between the ropes. So now instead of getting to see Mayweather-Pacquiao on March 13th fight fans have to settle for Joshua Clottey against Manny Pacquiao. No offense to Clottey. He has an impressiveresume and an impressive record of 35-3. But I have no interest in seeing Pac fight Joshua Clottey. Especially not on the same date that I was supposed to get to see Pacquiao fight Mayweather.
No fight fan really wants to see that fight. Everyone wants to see Mayweather-Pacquiao. They don’t like each other, there have been verbal jabs thrown back and forth between the two camps and because Manny Pacquiao did not want to take a blood test that was not required by anybody except Floyd Mayweather and his father, the fight is off for the moment. This is not good for the sport of boxing. This fight would’ve been huge. In a day and age where MMA is growing more and more and has stepped ahead of boxing in terms of popularity, this would’veput boxing right there with MMA again or even put it over the top.
Freddie Roach joined 790 the Zone in Atlanta to talk about the Mayweather fight being cancelled, how good Floyd Mayweather is as a fighter, how much this fight not happening will hurt the sport of boxing, and whether or not he thinks the fight against Mayweather will ever happen.
On whether or not he is disappointed that the Mayweather is not going to happen:
“Me and Manny are both disappointed. We wanted this fight badly. I’’ve been studying tapes for the last month of Mayweather trying to come up with the perfect game plan. Just everything fell apart, but the thing is we’re not going to sit around and wait for Mayweather. He doesn’t make the rules. We’re gonna move on and fight Joshua Clottey. A very tough fight, a very good action fight, but not the Mayweather fight, the fight that everyone wants to see.”
On how good Mayweather is:
“He’s great at what he does. He’s really, really a hard puzzle to defeat. He doesn’t have too many flaws, he makes very few mistakes. He’s not perfect, but he’s a very good fighter. He’s very technical and his counterpunching style is very effective for him.”
On why Manny Pacquiao wasn’t willing to give blood close to the fight:
“Everyone acts differently when giving blood. Some people pass out, some people need to eat something, and some people feel weak for a little while. Manny, I lose him for three days. He doesn’t feel well for about three days. Blood doesn’t bother me at all but again it’s the individual. The thing is they can’t guarantee me that they won’t take blood the day before the fight than I say ‘well we can’t go with your deal.’ Then I decided that Mayweather doesn’t make the rules up. We go by the Nevada Commission rules and the sanction and body rules only. We don’t work for Mayweather and we’re not going to do a blood test because that’s not required in the bylaws of the Nevada Athletic Commission. The thing is, I did talk to some people about saliva and urine tests, they’re more complete than blood. The only thing blood is good for is comparing year to year. This is a one fight deal. There is no comparison with Olympic athletes when you have long-term testing. If they wanna fight, they’ll show up. If not, we’ll just move on, we’ll keep moving. We’ve got Shane Mosley and (Andre) Berto coming up and I think we’ll fight the winner of that next.”
On whether or not this was Mayweather’s back door out:
“It definitely was his back door out. He’s afraid to get that loss on his record. He’s very proud of his undefeated record. And I think he had second thoughts about this one.”
On how bad he wants the fight against Mayweather:
“Really, really bad. I don’t even care about the money. There’s a lot of money involved in course, I’d do this one for free. I just want to show who the best fighter in the world is today and I know it’s my guy Pacquiao. Mayweather struggled with Oscar (De La Hoya) and he struggled with (Ricky) Hatton for a little while and Manny destroyed both of these guys. I know he can get in there with the right game plan and he can destroy this guy too.”
On how bad boxing needs this fight:
“Boxing really needs this fight. These two guys not fighting is gonna hurt our game. I think it was just gonna put us over the top of MMA again. Boxing really needs this fight. That’s why I hope after this next fight maybe the fight will be even bigger I guess. The thing is I think it has to happen and me and Manny definitely want it to happen.”
“On whether or not he thinks the Mayweather fight will ever happen:
“Yeah. And I think in the near future. Once Floyd realizes that he can’t make the money that he needs to make with anyone else in the world, he’s gonna have to fight us. I think this fight is definitely gonna happen and this controversy maybe will build it up but by that time he will be fighting Congressman Manny Pacquiao.”
