With less than a week before this year?s version of the Super bowl of boxing, a welterweight showdown between pound for pound king, Manny Pacquiao and a former three division champion, Sugar Shane Mosley, team Pacquiao is ready to go. Hordes of Filipino fans from Glendale and Hollywood will send off Pacquiao bus that will depart Wildcard Boxing Club on Monday afternoon and should arrive in Las Vegas the same night. Sold out MGM Grand Garden arena will host this much anticipated event on Saturday, May 7th. It will be televised live by Showtime PPV.
?We?re 100 percent ready for the fight,? said Coach Freddie Roach during a telephone conference last week:? If Mosley brings his best we?re ready for his best. I don?t think there is any room for an upset, but in boxing you never know. We?re 100 percent ready on our end. We?ve done everything we can to get ready for the fight.?
Considered by many one of the top coaches in our sport, Freddie Roach has left no stone unturned preparing his prized pupil for Shane Mosley, a fighter who has managed to surprise a boxing world a few times during his illustrious career. Roach did not get this far by being na?ve.
?You never know with Shane,? said Freddie Roach when I interviewed him earlier this month in Los Angles during a media work out day:? The drug testing. Is he going to be on drugs again? He has in the past. He missed it in the Mayweather fight, of course. I am not going to underestimate this guy. He is dangerous. Whatever he brings, we will be ready for him. It (performance enhancing drugs) will help him a little bit, but it won?t win him the fight, because he can?t beat my guy, regardless.? Advertisement
Mayweather?s request to implement Olympic style drug testing was the reason negotiations for a real mega fight (Mayweather vs. Pacquiao) fell apart early last year. According to reports Pacquiao agreed to Olympic style testing on the second attempt to secure the fight, but it did not take place anyways. Instead Mayweather fought Mosley with Olympic Style testing incorporated. Every one saw what happened. So, are we to expect team Pacquiao to request any additional drug test for this fight? ?No, we can?t, because we refuse to do it ourselves,? said Roach:? So we?d be hypocrites to do that. So we are not going to ask for any special drug test. HDH you can hide it and nobody could find that, not even Olympic style drug testing.?
On a lighter note Freddie shared his philosophy on sweet science.
?I think all fights should end in knockouts so I?m looking for a knockout,? said Roach last week over the phone: ?Shane?s a tough guy, a very durable guy. It would be incredible for Manny to be the first one to stop him and just prove to the world how much better he is than that guy that couldn?t stop him (Floyd Mayweather, Jr.). I think Manny will fight at a fast pace. I don?t know if he?ll (Mosley) be prepared to fight at that pace but we?re going to force the action and we?re going to go for it this time. If it comes, it comes. I think Manny is definitely the guy to do it.?
