International promoter Murad Muhammad hit back at Ring Magazine/International Boxing Association featherweight champion Manny Pacquiao?s trainer Freddie Roach and his new management team headed by Shelly Finkel for ?grabbing at straws and trying to discredit me.?
Muhammad accused the two of peddling lies, which were unfortunately being lapped up by journalists, who knew little about the business of boxing.
He accused Roach and Finkel?s team of ?playing dirty,? even as he listed a litany of failures of Roach in Pacquiao?s fight against Erik ?El Terrible? Morales, who won by unanimous decision at the MGM Grand Garden Arena last March 19.
He charged that Pacquiao was ?not trained properly for this fight? referring to some 20, new-found hangers-on, who took away the fighter?s focus and the hundreds, who crowded Roach?s Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles and regrettably disrupted Pacquiao?s training and his concentration.
The American promoter also took issue with Roach?s strategy of having Pacquiao spar some 160 rounds, often against heavier opponents. ?Manny kept fighting big guys and knocking them down. He left his fight in the gym.?
He claimed that in the past, both he and business manager Rod Nazario had offered to have Pacquiao live in a nice apartment but he had refused, saying that Vagabond Inn was ?lucky.?
Muhammad said ?the kid was superstitious,? but this time, was taken out of there by his new management team.
?If this continues, we are not going anywhere. Manny fought with all his heart but he was a victim. He needs a new trainer,? said Muhammad.
Muhammad accused Roach of making statements aimed at discrediting him.
?These are a smokescreen to hide his (Roach) own failures just like the issue about the gloves,? said Muhammad, who added that even former undisputed light-heavyweight and World Boxing Association heavyweight champion Roy Jones Jr. had said the gloves didn?t make a difference.
He added that Pacquiao was not disadvantaged by using the much more expensive ?Winning? gloves from Japan instead of the ?Cleto Reyes? gloves from Mexico, which were preferred by Pacquiao.
Muhammad said ?speed and timing,? were the key to scoring a knockout and used such greats as Joe Louis and Sugar Ray Robinson as example to prove his point. He disclosed that despite using the better-padded Winning gloves, Pacquiao?s left hand was swollen even on the day after the fight.
The American promoter also said that Morales had Pacquiao ?in trouble at least twice during the fight and only the courageous heart of Pacquiao helped him through. It is quite possible that if Morales wore Reyes? gloves, Pacquiao may have been knocked out.?
Muhammad tore into Roach for ?the worst corner ever,? in the fight and accused him of not giving way to renowned cut-man Lenny De Jesus to work on the nasty gash suffered by Pacquiao due to an accidental head-butt.
?De Jesus was forced to work on the cut by leaning in and going around Filipino trainer Restituto ?Buboy? Fernandez, when Roach should have moved aside and given Lenny the center spot because it was a terrible cut,? revealed Muhammad, noting that Roach and Finkel had earlier wanted De Jesus replaced by a cheap $1,000 cut-man from Golden Boy Promotions, who handles Marco Antonio Barrera.
