Like many fight fans, Roach watched the rhetoric explode between the camps after Mayweather’s 87-day jail sentence on a domestic violence plea was deferred from Jan. 6 to June 1 so he could fulfill an obligation to the MGM Grand in Las Vegas for a May 5 fight against an undetermined opponent.
A few days later, Mayweather called out Pacquiao on Twitter. Since then, the camps have gone back and forth in the media, arguing over a variety of things, including the date — Mayweather wants May 5, while Pacquiao and his promoter, Top Rank’s Bob Arum, say they would accept the fight later in May or in June (impossible if Mayweather is behind bars).
However the saga plays out, Roach wants the fight now and said he has wanted it for the past two years, which is how long the fight — likely boxing’s richest ever, if it happens — has lingered.
On Tuesday, Mayweather directly called out Pacquiao with a pair of tweets:
“Manny Pacquiao I’m calling you out let’s fight May 5th and give the world what they want to see,” read Mayweather’s first tweet.
One minute later, Mayweather followed with this: “My Jail Sentence was pushed back because the date was locked in. Step up Punk.”
Roach is glad Mayweather did it.
“It was typical,” Roach said. “We’ve been chasing him for two years. All of a sudden he gets his get-out-of-jail-free card and wants to call the shots. Tweeting people and promoting fights through Twitter is very common now, trash-talking through Twitter. I found it kind of humorous. But just because you call someone out, there’s still a lot of negotiating to do. At least he called us out, though. I’d like Manny to call him out too. Since Mayweather has been so bold, I hope Manny is just as bold back.
