Manny Pacquiao is hoping that his decision choosing Top Rank over Golden Boy will not in any way affect his relationship with his trainer Freddie Roach.
“I?ve told him before ?Coach, whatever decision I make, I hope you understand,?” said Pacquiao yesterday when asked how his American trainer of five years would take this latest development.
“And he told me he would respect my decision,” added Pacquiao.
Roach, who had preferred Golden Boy?s Oscar dela Hoya over Top Rank?s Bob Arum as Pacquiao?s promoter, said he would stay with Pacquiao even if the latter had gone to Top Rank.
“I will probably stay in Manny?s corner,” said Roach in an exclusive interview with Michael Marley, a former writer at The Las Vegas Sun, and now with Boxing Confidential.
But Roach, a humble, soft-spoken fighter himself, still believes that his 28-year-old ward would have been better off fighting under the Golden Boy umbrella.
“Arum said to me, ?I know what you did, Freddie, but we will work with you.? I said, ?Hey, Bob, if you were offered two deals and one was much better would you take the bad one?? Bob didn?t answer that,” Marley wrote.
“Manny got a good deal from Golden Boy. He got a good deal in their offer and Manny himself negotiated to make it even better. In Arum?s deal,.the split on the money from promotions is 50-50.
“In Golden Boy?s deal, the split is 90-10 in favor of Manny. With Golden Boy, they gave him the Filipino TV rights exclusively for all their shows, not just for Manny?s fights. It is for every show Golden Boy does.”
Roach was in the country two weeks ago to attend Pacquiao?s grand birthday bash in Gen. Santos City. Briefly, he said he told Pacquiao that signing a contract with Top Rank was a mistake.
“Manny told me, ?That was a mistake, I know.? I told him you?ve got to fix that mistake,?” Roach added.
It just turned out that Pacquiao never did.
