Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao chill, trainers pump up volume
While trash-talking by the two fighters has been at a bare minimum ahead of Saturday’s welterweight showdown between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, their trainers engaged in a war of words on Thursday.
Pacquiao’s corner man, Freddie Roach, complained that the Mayweather camp had not yet submitted gloves for testing before his opposite number, Floyd Mayweather Sr., countered by saying that the Pacquiao camp was simply running scared.
Roach and Mayweather Sr. have got on like oil and water over the years and, hardly surprisingly, there was no eye contact between them as Roach ended his news conference and passed by Mayweather Sr. on the media centre stage at the MGM Grand. “I don’t hate Floyd Mayweather Sr, I just hate his poems,” Roach said of his fellow American, who frequently recites pithy poems about his fighters’ opponents. “But he doesn’t get under my skin.”
Roach, who declared that he and Pacquiao had developed “a winning formula” to beat Mayweather Jr., was unhappy that their opponent’s gloves had not yet been tested. “I just asked the (Nevada Athletic) Commission if both gloves will be weighed,” said Roach. “Their gloves are hand-made. I just want to make sure the weight is fair, but his gloves haven’t showed up yet.”
Mayweather Sr. scoffed when asked why his fighter’s gloves had not been submitted. “The gloves are not an issue because Manny has put on the same kind of gloves,” said the 62-year-old trainer. “Fear, that’s all it is. (The Pacquiao camp) keep talking about how scared Floyd was for five years, but they were scared. We weren’t scared.”
Mayweather Jr. will put a 47-0 professional record on the line against Pacquiao, an eight-division world champion, and his father claimed the fight was as good as over. “I don’t think it’s going to be much of a fight, the fight is already won, trust me,” he said, before adding that a knockout was on the cards. “It ain’t going to be no sucker punch. It’s going to be the real shot.”
Roach predicted that Pacquiao would win on a 12-round decision. “That’s what my game plan is,” said Roach. “If (Mayweather) stays in the pocket too long, he will get hit. If he wants to run, we will cut the ring off. I’ve been studying (Mayweather) for five years. I know a lot about him. I think we have a winning formula.”
All eyes on Bayless, judges
The third man in the ring on Saturday night has been in more big fights than Mayweather Jr. and Pacquiao put together. The three judges for the richest bout in boxing history also have made hundreds of big decisions during lengthy careers at ringside.
The Nevada Athletic Commission went with proven veterans when it assigned these four men to the highest-profile show in several years in boxing’s capital city. Kenny Bayless is the most respected referee in boxing, with two decades of title fight experience and a reputation for fairness.
The bout will be judged by three prominent names as well: Dave Moretti, Glenn Feldman and Burt Clements have all been in the business for more than 20 years, and none has a consistent history of head-scratching decisions.
Some fans and commentators have suggested Bayless’ style could favor Mayweather. And Clements once made a scoring error that cost Pacquiao a decision. But Pacquiao trainer Roach is confident the officials won’t be the story at the MGM Grand Garden. “I think we have a great referee,” Roach said. “I think we have some good judges, people that I’m familiar with my whole life. I think they’ll give us a fair call, and I trust this will happen.”
Bayless has been refereeing professional bouts in Las Vegas since 1991, rising to a long-held place among the sport’s top referees. Even in a profession that makes anyone ripe for constant second-guessing, the 64-year-old grandfather with a master’s degree in education administration from UNLV has far more admirers than detractors among fighters and trainers. “When he was learning to be a ref, I used to let him around my young fighters,” Roach said.
“He’s always been fair to me, and I expect a fair fight. I thought he was the best referee for the job.”
Bayless was in the ring for the two biggest pay-per-view cards in boxing before this bout, officiating Mayweather’s win over Oscar De La Hoya in 2007 and his victory over Canelo Alvarez in 2013. He has officiated five of Mayweather’s previous fights and seven featuring Pacquiao, who has shrugged off numerous questions about the choice in the last few days.
If Bayless has any influence on the fight, it might be in his eagerness to keep it clean. Bayless officiated Mayweather’s rematch with Marcos Maidana late last year, and some fans and commentators thought the referee stepped in too aggressively when Maidana attempted to hit Mayweather from close range. Maidana couldn’t fight on the inside as he did in their closer-than-expected first fight. Mayweather won the rematch comfortably while Bayless repeatedly broke their clinches, sometimes an instant before they began.
Pacquiao and Roach plan to throw a heavy volume of punches at Mayweather in hopes of connecting with enough of those shots to win rounds. Bayless theoretically could stop the Filipino fighter before he lands extra punches.
Yet Roach and Pacquiao have given no public credence to that theory. Pacquiao usually doesn’t like clutching and grabbing, and he uses unorthodox angles for his combinations. “We have a good referee, so don’t worry about it,” Pacquiao said. “We focus on the fight.”
(Including AP inputs)
