LOOK WHO'S TALKING?

Manny Pacquiao (right) checks on trainer Freddie Roach at the Wild Card gym

By Gerry Ramos

HOLLYWOOD – Unbeaten world five-time champion Floyd Mayweather Jr called Manny Pacquiao a one-dimensional fighter.

So, look who’s talking, according to Freddie Roach.

“Well, let’s fight and see,” said Roach on a busy Monday afternoon at his Wild Card gym here, two days after Pacquiao stopped Miguel Cotto on his tracks in their World Boxing Organization (WBO) 12-round welterweight title showdown at the MGm Grand Garden Arena.

“If that’s the case, all he does is run. He’s one dimensional too, run, run, run. We’ll attack, attack, and attack, and that’s what makes it a big fight.”

Roach was reacting on a Mayweather Jr’s. interview over British sports channel Skysports, where `Pretty Boy’ referred to the Filipino boxing superstar as a `good puncher, but just one-dimensional.’

“The thing with Pacquiao is that I don’t see any versatility as a fighter,” said Mayweather Jr.

Asked about it, Pacquiao lets out a big grin.

Anong magagawa niya, e yun ang style ko,” he told Manila-based sportswriters, with whom he had a small chat after making a late afternoon visit at Roach’s famous gym.

The Filipino ring icon stayed at the Wild Card for just 20 minutes, and then hurriedly left to have his swelling right hand x-rayed at a nearby hospital.

“Check up lang naman,” he said of the heavily-bandaged hand. “Pero at least, itong tenga ko at least, hindi na makirot.”

Mayweather’s remark though, only fired up Roach, the man long credited for turning Pacquiao into the fighter considered one of the greatest – if not the greatest – of all time.

Roach admitted a fight with Mayweather means less action, the American ring superstar having been known not as a toe-to-toe fighter, but a very good counter-puncher.

But being the match up everybody is all waiting for, the three-time Trainer of the Year concedes a Pacquiao-Mayweather showdown will definitely be a big hit.

“It (fight) would be more exciting for the people. It would be the biggest Pay-Per-View of all time. It will be watched by more people than anyone ever,” Roach said.

“But, Cotto came to fight, and Mayweather comes to run,” Pacquiao’s trainer stressed. “He makes a boring fight, but a lot of people will buy tickets to see him lose. It would be a huge fight, I agree, but it would be less exciting than any other Manny Pacquiao fights.”

In the event the bout, perceived to be the biggest of the century, pushes through, Roach made it clear that Pacquiao should have a big say on the terms of agreement, specifically on the weight issue and the prize money.

“We need to negotiate for the money and the weight, but I want the fight at 145,” Roach said. “Just because his last fight (against Juan Manuel Marquez) made a million buys, let’s face it, 90 percent of those buys were for Marquez, because he’s popular now after the Pacquiao fight.

Mayweather still doesn’t have that huge audience. I would go for 60-40 Manny and hopefully, we could make it happen.”

Should the Mayweather fight be sealed, Roach said Pacquiao needed to be in the perfect shape of his career.

“We need time to get ready for that (fight). We have to come out with a real different style. It’s a whole different ballgame,” he added.

Roach also said should they able to come to terms with the Mayweather camp, the former 1996 U.S. Olympian wouldn’t definitely be Pacquiao’s next assignment in March.

Pacquiao’s trainer even suggested a March fight for the world’s top pound-for-pound wouldn’t be possible if the Mayweather agree to climb the ring with him.

“If we get Mayweather, why risk losing that (March) fight,” Roach said. “I’d say he rest for a while, enjoy the holidays, run for elections, and Congressman Manny Pacquiao will kick Mayweather’s ass,” he said.