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WITH all
the hullabaloo surrounding the marketability of Manny
Pacquiao‘s next foe, trainer Freddie Roach now earnestly
wants the most viable fight for the Filipino icon—Oscar
de la Hoya.
 In
an interview with Sports Radio’s Sports Chat
Thursday morning, not only did Roach say a fight with de
la Hoya will be huge, promotional-wise, but the Hall-of-Famer
American trainer even daringly said Pacquiao is capable
of knocking de la Hoya out.
“When I
trained Oscar he was just having trouble pulling the
trigger and he’s a little bit slow. If Stevie Forbes can
hit him as easily as he did, I know Pacquiao will knock
him out,” said Roach in the daily morning radio show. “I
know my guy. The thing is I would never take a fight
that I didn’t know my guy could win. I would never do
that.”
De la
Hoya publicly stated he will be fighting for the last
time this December although he is still searching for an
opponent. The 35-year-old superstar fought in May in
Carson, California, where he scored a 12-round decision
over long-time welterweight campaigner Forbes. The
nontitle bout was set at 154 lb.
De la
Hoya’s negotiations with one-time tormentor Felix
Trinidad fell through, according to Roach, a development
the trainer believed opened up a possible de la Hoya-Pacquiao
showdown.
Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum recently said he will stage
Pacquiao’s world-lightweight title defense against
Mexican Humberto Soto, who dealt Pacquiao’s kid brother
Bobby a painful seventh-round knockout about a year ago
in New York.
Venezuelan knockout artist Edwin Valero was also
considered, but his medical issue with every state in
the United States except for Texas shot down the match.
“I think
Bob is a real smart guy and he’ll come up with
something. December is a better date than November
because Manny’s right hand is a little sore and I’d like
to let that heal completely,” said Roach. “We need a
long training camp just to work on the styles of how to
beat him because he is a bigger guy, but he does have
trouble pulling the trigger now. He is not the same
Oscar 10 years ago.”
Roach
said he has been asking around and learned that de la
Hoya can fight at 147 lb if a real worthy opponent is
available in that division.
“I want
Manny to weigh 140 pounds and then at fight time he’ll
be at 145, he’ll have his power and speed. I just don’t
see Oscar handling Manny at this point of their
careers,” revealed Roach. “Manny told me he’d love to
fight Oscar and Oscar has made it public he’d love to
fight Manny and I think it’s a big, big fight.”
Pacquiao,
who will turn 30 this December, crowned himself
four-division champion when he stopped Mexican-American
David Diaz inside eight rounds last month to capture the
World Boxing Council lightweight crown. In that fight,
Roach aired his delight in seeing his prized ward use
his right hand effectively.
“That
performance is really what sets me to make that decision
[to challenge de la Hoya]. Because I’ve been working on
Manny’s right hand for a long time. Sometimes it was
there a little bit, against [Juan Manuel] Marquez it
wasn’t there too much,” added Roach.
Another
issue which according to Roach will create more interest
about a de la Hoya-Pacquiao fight, was the fact that the
Filipino fighter, after signing a promotional deal with
de la Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions, eventually hooked up
with Arum’s Top Rank Inc.
“Oscar
is probably upset because Manny’s controversy about whom
he signed with, Golden Boy or Top Rank and the court
settlement that happened, so Oscar seems to be a little
bitter about that,” said Roach. |
