Freddie Roach is now aching to get his hands on Manny Pacquiao.
“I expect him to be here (at Wild Card) on the 4th (of March),” Roach told the Bulletin over the phone yesterday from Los Angeles, 69 days left before the Filipino pound-for-pound king tangles with Ricky Hatton of England at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Roach sounded a bit concerned that “instead of the original plan that Pacquiao starts training on March 1” it had to be postponed for a few days owing to a whirlwind promotional tour of England starting this weekend.
“We can?t afford to have another delay in the start of the training,” said Roach, who describes Hatton as “very physical.”
“We are supposed to be back in the States on the 3rd (from England) so we?ll start training the next day,” said Roach, who will join Pacquiao in the tour that will bring them to Manchester and London where Pacquiao and Hatton will come face-to-face.
The tour was supposed to take place in late-January but owing to the prolonged negotiations between Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions (GBP), the two outfits had no choice but to reset it.
The UK trip is very crucial to the success of the fight pay-per-view wise because a chunk of the revenue will come from English TV.
This early, Roach has everything all planned for Pacquiao?s much-awaited return to the Wild Card.
“I have three sparring partners all lined up, talked to one of them last night and I also have one Russian guy who fights very much like Hatton,” added Roach, who anticipates that Pacquiao should be ready to begin sparring by early-third week of March.
Meanwhile, the camp of Hatton is said to be unsure about plans for training camp.
Top fight scribe Robert Morales of the Long Beach Press-Telegram wrote yesterday that Hatton is determined to spend some time in Manchester to be near his loved ones.
Knowing the magnitude of the fight, GBP Chief Executive Officer Richard Schaefer, whose company promotes the Manchester puncher told the Press-Telegram that Hatton wants to train mostly in England.
“I have two comments on that,” Schaefer said. “One, he should talk to Bernard Hopkins. He?d make sure his priorities are straight. The other one is, I?m not really worried about it because the guy who is going to train him is Floyd Mayweather Sr.”
“I can assure you Floyd Mayweather Sr. is going to make him forget his girlfriend and whatever else he has in his life, because Floyd Mayweather Sr. is a trainer who does not accept any of that whatsoever,” stressed Schaefer.
Hatton is coming off a two-week Caribbean cruise and has reportedly gone back to the gym.
