Freddie Roach: ‘The Big Surprise for Mayweather After the Maidana Fight Is That He Retires’

9
1532

Freddie-Roach-001Manny Pacquiao’s trainer, Freddie Roach was on hand yesterday at the AT&T Park in San Francisco as part of a special media day to promote his fighter’s upcoming matchup with New Yorker Chris Algieri.

Roach talked about the fight and made a comparison between Algieri and one of Pacquiao’s previous opponents Oscar De La Hoya. “He (Oscar De La Hoya) was a much better fighter at this point. Algieri is still young and he has a long way to go. They both have good left hands. Oscar was left handed and he had a great jab and a great hook. This guy has a good jab and his hook is okay but he has some similarities. They are about the same height.”

Shortly after this fight was finalized, it was announced that Pacquiao would be holding the majority of his training camp in Macau, China. Roach sees this as an added bonus and an advantage for his fighter. “General Santos makes more sense because it’s on the same time zone as China and we don’t have to deal with jet lag. Jet lag is very difficult to deal with, especially since China is a sixteen hour time difference, so it’s really hard to adjust to. That’s one of the things that Algieri is going to have to cope with and that’s something that we won’t have to cope with because the Philippines and China are in the same time zone,” he explained.

This will be the second time that Roach will be going up against Algieri. He was in the corner of former WBO Junior Welterweight Champion Ruslan Provodnikov when he fought Algieri this past June. Provodnikov was the heavy favorite going into that fight and was supposed to win and get the next shot at Pacquiao but Algieri spoiled that plan, scoring the monumental upset. Roach explained what went wrong that night. “I couldn’t get my guy to follow the instructions because after he had so much success in the early rounds, he was just looking for a one punch knockout. I still think he won that fight. I still think he got robbed. The fight was close, but I don’t think Algieri did enough to take the title.”

One name that always seems to come up at just about every Pacquiao press conference or media event is Floyd Mayweather and this time was no exception. Roach was once again asked about a potential match up between his fighter and Mayweather, and he went on to say, “It doesn’t matter. I know we are doing everything possible to make that fight happen. If it does happen I look forward to it because I love challenges, and he is a little bit of a challenge, but I think his legs are gone and the big surprise for him after the Maidana fight is that he retires.”