Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao thus far have played corporate fighters, saying little bad about each other, and why? They are a warring couple resigned to being richer together than apart.
What the combatants in the May 2 megafight lack in verbal vitriol toward each other, their trainers Floyd Mayweather Sr. and Freddie Roach are most willing to engage.
Roach, who has trained Pacquiao to championships in seven weight divisions since they joined up in 2001, recently said he thinks Roger Mayweather is a better trainer than his brother Floyd Sr.
Roach reiterated last week that he believes Floyd Mayweather Sr. may be a good teacher in the gym but is "a terrible cornerman."
"He's not a good communicator," Roach said. "You only have a few seconds between rounds to talk to your fighter and the pressure gets to him. He starts to stutter, or he tries the tell the fighter too much, and he doesn't get his point across."
Roach's words quickly made it back to Mayweather Sr., of course.
There is little that is quiet or secret about the biggest fight in decades.
"I heard about what Freddie said about Roger's better," Mayweather Sr. said. "He can say that all he wants to say it. You want me to tell you what Freddie wants? He wants Roger in there because he knows I'm the man."
Mayweather Sr. countered that he hasn't scouted all of Pacquiao's fights, though he has honed in on one -- the Filipino's 2012 knockout loss to Juan Manuel Marquez.
"Of course, any time somebody's been knocked ice cold like that, man, of course they can get knocked out again -- quick, fast and in a hurry," Mayweather Sr. said.
Roach said he has been game-planning for a Mayweather fight for five years, and that he has made "a lot of small adjustments" to account for the aging opponent's changing style.
"I actually think Floyd had a better chance of beating Manny five years ago than he does now," Roach said. "I think his legs are a little bit shot and he's slowed down quite a bit. I think we can take advantage of that.
"He says that he wants to exchange with fighters more to make the fans more friendly. That's (B.S.) because he doesn't care about the fans at all. He has to exchange more because his legs won't take him out of the way. When he has to exchange with Pacquiao, I think that's good for us. That's why I think we're going to win this fight."
Mayweather (47-0, 26 KOs) and Pacquiao (57-5-2, 38 KOs) both are in their third weeks of training for a 12-round welterweight unification at MGM Grand in Las Vegas which is projected to shatter boxing's all-time revenue records.
Mayweather Sr. said has son is making good early progress and that he was pleased with the nine-week training period at Mayweather Boxing Club in Las Vegas.
"He's looking good. Everybody his age, when they ain't fought in a while, you've got a few little things, got to get some nicks and knots out. But overall, he's looking good," Mayweather Sr. said.
Roach also was happy that Pacquiao decided to spend the entire camp at his trainer's Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, Calif., and not begin in the Philippines.
Roach said he is running the gym on a need-to-be-there basis.
"I have made a rule this time, if you're a body, and your body isn't doing anything, get the (expletive) out," Roach said.
That rule even extended to comedian Dave Chapelle, who brought some family members by Wild Card Gym for one of Pacquiao's training sessions.
"I had to throw my good friend Dave Chapelle out, and his family, and I felt really bad, but the thing is, that was four bodies that didn't need to be there," Roach said. "So I asked Chappelle to leave. He's a big fan, he's a great guy, but it's about this strategy. This fight is very important."
Roach said the result has been "very good, very concentrated" workouts with "no spies, no people giving me opinions and so forth."
Roach already had one shot at Mayweather as a trainer in the biggest fight of the latter's career to date, but Oscar De La Hoya lost a 12-round split decision in 2007.
"Oscar had a good game plan for the first six rounds," Roach said. "I thought he won the first six rounds. But then he blew the last six rounds. I thought the fight was about even, it was a close fight, but Oscar ... kind of forgot about the game plan."
Roach said the key is "to take Floyd out of his comfort zone" because Mayweather "has to have everything his way."
That includes not biting on Mayweather's feints and attacking the Grand Rapids native when he wants to rest, Roach said.
"We've been working on the game plan," Roach said. "We're working on recognizing when Floyd does set traps, and he's very smart about how he does it. I learned that when I had Oscar fight him. I know that Oscar and Manny are not the same kind of fighters, but I do know how Floyd does set people up and walks them into shots. And every time I make that move, and try to walk Manny into the shot, he knows how to nullify that move now -- and he has not failed it once yet.
"But the thing is, we've got to do this every day. I've got to make that part of his brain. Just every time Floyd tries to walk him into the shot, he makes the right move to take that away from him."
Mayweather Sr. had a shot at beating Pacquiao as a trainer, too, but Ricky Hatton didn't make it out of the second round of a 2009 fight.
Six weeks from Saturday, the trainers will match their most prized pupils in a showdown for the pound-for-pound mantle of this era.
For one of the trainers, it will be ultimate validation for their life's work.
"You're going to find out who knows and who don't know," Mayweather Sr. said. "If I don't know boxing, the world's going to be against me. There's no way I'm talking right now. And if Freddie Roach don't know, it's going to be the same with him. And I'm going to tell you right now, Manny's going to get his ass kicked, and Freddie's going to go sit his ass down."
Article by mLive
source: http://www.mlive.com/mayweather/index.ssf/2015/03/floyd_mayweather_manny_pacquia_8.html