Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Pacquiao picks Mosley, Roach chooses Mayweather


American trainer Freddie Roach and his prized fighter, Filipino 7-division world champion Manny Pacquiao, failed to agree on who they think will win on May 1 when “Sugar” Shane Mosley takes on Floyd “Money” Mayweather, Jr.





According to Joaquin Henson of The Philippine Star, Roach predicted that Mayweather (40-0, with 25 KOs) will remain undefeated as he will beat Mosley by decision.

“Shane’s my friend and I hope he wins but he has trouble with speed and movement and likes guys to come to him so it’s going to be difficult,” Roach said in a guest column on London’s Boxing News as quoted in The Philippine Star article.

Pacquiao, on the other hand, has been saying that Mosley would prevail over Mayweather.

“I’m for Shane Mosley,” the pound-for-pound king said in an article by Abac Cordero of The Philippine Star.

“He must do the right preparation. If he does, then he has a very good chance against Mayweather,” he said of the World Boxing Association (WBA) super welterweight champion who has 46 wins (with 39 KOs), 5 losses and 1 no contest.

FightFan.com earlier reported that Pacquiao said on the Krystal Hart Show that he thinks Mosley will win.


“I think Mayweather vs. Mosley will be a good fight,” he said ahead of his March 13 bout against Ghanaian Joshua Clottey.

Pacquiao, who was originally slated to fight the undefeated Mayweather, defeated Clottey via unanimous decision at the Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. He retained his World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight belt.

Mosley, for his part, vowed to crush Mayweather, adding that their fight will be better than the lopsided Pacquiao-Clottey clash.

'The better Mayweather'

Negotiations for the Pacquiao vs Mayweather blockbuster match crumbled after the former refused to give in to the latter’s demand for Olympic-style blood testing.

Pacquiao even filed a defamation complaint against Mayweather, his father Floyd Sr., uncle Roger, and Golden Boy Promotions executives Oscar dela Hoya and Richard Schaefer after they alleged that he was taking performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs).

Roach reacted, “I get upset that some people can’t accept that Manny’s just a great fighter.”

The American trainer, for his part, said that Floyd Jr. has been respectful of him: “I like Floyd as a person ...out of the Mayweathers, he’s one of the better ones.”

But he noted that he will not allow Floyd Jr. to dictate his terms for the fight.

“I let him use my gym when he was doing ‘Dancing With The Stars’ before the Ricky Hatton fight and I’ve known him since he was a little kid. He’s not a bad guy. But the only way the fight with Manny is going to happen is we go by the commission drug-testing rules,” said Roach.

He also wished for “Pretty Boy Floyd” to stop making his own demands because “Floyd doesn’t realize that he’s killing his own sport.” – With a report from The Philippine Star

source: abs-cbn news.com