By Rob Smith: Trainer Freddie Roach says he wished that his fighter Manny Pacquiao had selected WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley to fight next instead of facing Juan Manuel Marquez for a fourth time when they meet on December 8th. Roach has made it clear in the past that Marquez is a really tough fight for Pacquiao and he doesn’t see anything to be gained from fighting him yet another time after having already faced him three separate times.
Roach said to Maxboxing.com “I thought the Bradley fight was more interesting but Manny picked the fight for a reason. So that says something to me. So it’s a challenge and we all know we have to win by knockout this time. Manny said so too.”
Some boxing fans feel that Pacquiao is just looking to make as much money as he can before he goes out the door into retirement. That’s understandable because Pacquiao lost his last fight and he showed some slowness and deteriorate in that fight that hadn’t been evident before. There has been some creeping signs of old age setting in with the Filipino, but the last fight with Bradley really brought that out front and center.
You can’t blame Pacquiao for wanting to get the most money he can while it’s still there. He says he chose Marquez because it’s a more entertaining fight than a rematch with Bradley, but it’s been clear from day one that Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum has been leaning in the direction of the Marquez rematch because of how much more money it would make on pay per view compared to another fight with Bradley. What I can’t understand is why Pacquiao doesn’t opt to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. while the opportunity is still available.
Pacquiao won’t be in a position to get the big money for that fight if he keeps losing, and that’s a real possibility because he’s definitely slowing down. However, it could be that Arum sees it better to have Pacquiao take on lesser threats for smaller money so that the Pacquiao gravy train can go as long as possible before he’s too old to beat the top fighters.