LOS ANGELES ? Is there something wrong with the line between Los Angeles and Puerto Rico?
With the fight closing in, the question yearning for an answer is whether or not Manny Pacquiao could, would or should have trainer Freddie Roach in his corner on April 14.
Roach, in Puerto Rico training the great Oscar dela Hoya for a May 5 showdown with Floyd Mayweather Jr., has repeatedly said he?ll be at the Alamodome when Pacquiao takes on Jorge Solis.
Roach insisted that Pacquiao already knows about it.
“There is no doubt,” Roach told boxingconfidential.com from his new hideout in Puerto Rico. “I told both Manny and Justin (Fortune) I will be there. I am coming in on the day before the fight.
“They both know for sure, no doubt, that I will be there to do my job just like I always do,” said Roach, adding that he?s been speaking to Pacquiao almost every night while he?s in Puerto Rico.
But listening to Pacquiao or Fortune would say otherwise.
“Well, Freddie chose the bigger fighter (dela Hoya) and he can?t have both,” said Fortune Friday after handling Pacquiao?s training the way he?s done over the last three weeks.
Is Fortune saying that it would be better for everybody if Roach stays in Puerto Rico instead?
“I am just as much in the dark as you are,” he told secondsout.com. “I have no idea whether he is coming in. One minute he is coming, the next minute he is not, so I really don?t know.
“I have put a couple of calls in, but I haven?t got through to him yet,” added Fortune, an ex-heavyweight who?s been doing a terrific job handling Pacquiao?s training at Wild Card, which Roach is the owner.
Even Pacquiao isn?t quite sure whether Roach is coming over.
“He is not really sure,” Pacquiao was quoted as saying. “Justin will be in the corner and he will be the trainer in this fight.”
