CELEBRATED trainer Freddie Roach accused Top Rank promoter Bob Arum of promising Filipino ring idol Manny Pacquiao the world, but said he hasn’t “delivered anything yet.”
World Boxing Council founding secretary-general Rudy Salud, who first initiated the talks between Arum and the camp of WBC featherweight champion In Jin Chi through us, also said he suspected the planned April 28 fight in Macau fell through because Arum couldn’t pay Pacquiao the $5-million purse he had promised.
Roach also claimed in an interview with Lisa Scott of Fight News that in the planned fight with undefeated Jorge Solis, Pacquiao is going down from the biggest fight of his life in his third encounter with Erik “El Terrible” Morales to “fighting an unknown opponent on a small PPV show in Texas.”
The American trainer also noted that Pacquiao is the co-main event with the hugely popular Mexican fighter Jorge Arce.
He said Arce, not Pacquiao, will be the draw because of the tremendous Mexican community in Texas and that in his opinion, the Pacman is “taking a back seat to Arce.”
The trainer, who honed the skills of Pacquiao and elevated him to what Roach believes is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world today, said the Solis fight appeared to be “a big step down for him [Pacquiao].”
Roach blamed whoever was advising Pacquiao now of not doing their job.
Roach said Solis was accepted as an opponent even without seeing a tape of the Mexican, who has a record of 32-0-2 with 23 KOs. He said he has no idea, who Solis is and claimed no one knows who he is.
“What Arum did was unethical,” said Roach, who added Arum should have sent him a tape because “I’m the trainer and I usually decide, who we accept or don’t accept.”
