By Keith Idec
Freddie Roach says he would’ve allowed Manny Pacquiao to face Terence Crawford on April 9.
Pacquiao’s trainer claims, however, that he was informed by Pacquiao’s promoter, Bob Arum, that the Crawford fight wasn’t available for Pacquiao’s return from his loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. That, Roach says, was what led to making a heavily criticized third fight against Timothy Bradley, whom Pacquiao has, for all intents and purposes, soundly defeated twice.
The 37-year-old Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs) and the 32-year-old Bradley (33-1-1, 13 KOs, 1 NC) will fight April 9 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas (HBO Pay-Per-View).
“We did say yes to the boy from Omaha,” Roach told On The Ropes Boxing Radio during an interview posted Monday, referring to Crawford. “And I heard he said yes, too, but I think Bob might be protecting him a little bit right now because he might be his next ace in the hole, might be the next future fighter.
“Crawford is a very good fighter. I like him a lot and so forth. But I just don’t feel he has the experience to beat Pacquiao right now. And we did say yes to that fight also, and they told us it wasn’t available. So we went to Bradley.”
The 28-year-old Crawford contends he wasn’t upset when a lucrative showdown with Pacquiao didn’t materialize around Christmas. Crawford (27-0, 19 KOs) instead was left to sign for a defense of his WBO super lightweight championship against Philadelphia’s Hank Lundy (26-5-1, 13 KOs), a February 27 fight in The Theater at Madison Square Garden that generally is regarded as a mismatch.
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.