In this May 2, 2015 photo, trainer Freddie Roach, left, listens as Manny Pacquiao answers questions during a press conference following his welterweight title fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in Las Vegas. AP File Photo
If Freddie Roach was allowed to call the shots, boxing’s most lucrative fight could not have happened last May 2.
As per BoxingScene.com, Roach said he “regrets” not pulling Manny Pacquiao out of the fight and let the Filipino boxer recover from the injury. However, he said he knows a fight with that magnitude could never happen again.
“I always regret [not pulling him out of] that because I was one of the ones who wanted to cancel the fight because of the injuries,” Roach told Radio Rahim of BoxingScene.com. “But everyone else thought that if it don’t happen now it would never happen and there was so much money involved and so for.”
On boxing’s richest day, Roach’s student Pacquiao lost to Floyd Mayweather Jr. via a unanimous decision in what proved to be a dud of a fight.
Before the fight date, Pacquiao was nursing an injury on his right shoulder. Furthermore, he was not allowed to get an anti-inflammatory before the bell rang.
“I know my heart was in the right place. He wasn’t going to win that fight one-handed, and I think we should have waited until he was healthy and we would have had a better shot, but that’s how things go in boxing.” RAM
RELATED STORIES
Pacquiao: I knew I would lose one month before Mayweather fight
Khan most likely final opponent of Pacquiao