Celebrity Hot Shots in the Philippines

MANNY Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach is confident that the most awaited fight of the century will with Floyd Mayweather Jr. will happen this year
Rick Reeno of boxingscene.com reported that Roach laughed off the comments made by Mayweather adviser Leonard Ellerbe, who was quoted by David Mayo of the Grand Rapids Press as saying: “Ain’t nobody thinking about Manny Pacquiao, Bob Arum or Freddie Roach. Floyd isn’t thinking about none of them, and there ain’t no negotiations starting, period. Floyd is just coming off a great win. He’s not thinking about any of them.”
But Roach thinks otherwise.
“Come on, we all know what he’s thinking about. He knows Arum was in the Philippines talking with Manny. The fight is going to happen this year. I can’t see it not happening. Arum and (Richard) Schaefer are great negotiators…they will work it out.”
Arum earlier told Manila Standard that he will disregard all comments until he gets into a room with Mayweather’s representatives to negotiate.
“I am not going to tip my hand and I’m not going to attack him and say that’s absurd. That doesn’t get us any place. This is a negotiation that I’m going to go into hoping that I can make this happen,” Arum said.
The Top Rank promoter said both the Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Texas and the MGM Grand in Las Vegas are available for Nov.13, which he confirmed will be the date of congressman-elect Manny Pacquiao’s first fight.
The Filipino ring icon scored a stunning upset by defeating his wealthy rival 6-year-old Roy Chiongbian for the lone congressional seat in Sarangani province.
Despite his desire for Team Pacquiao members to stop discussing a possible Mayweather fight, Roach continued to talk. “It’s going to be a 50-50 split. No doubt about it. This won’t be an issue because that part of the negotiations was already settled.”
Talking about the random drug tests demanded by Mayweather, which resulted in previous negotiations for a fight falling through, Roach told boxingscene.com: “I think we’ll meet them halfway on the testing. It’s going to happen.”
Mayweather demanded a 14-day cutoff for the random drug tests conducted by the US Anti Doping Agency, while Pacquiao agreed to a 24-day cutoff.
Theoretically, a halfway point would be a 19-day deadline, but there’s been no indication that Pacquiao would change his original stand.
Roach said Mayweather fought flat-footed, he was hittable and a bit slower on his feet against Shane Mosley in a recent fight which he won unanimously. He still feels Mayweather has very fast hands, but doesn’t consider them to be quicker than those of Pacquiao. If Pacquiao hurts Mayweather in the same manner as Mosley, Roach doesn’t see Mayweather being able to escape to the next round.
“He’s (Mayweather) hittable and anyone Manny can hit I have no fear of. I don’t see no good defense. He makes the same moves every time in the same way. He’s very predictable. He’s fast, but Manny is faster,” Roach told Reeno.