By Edward Chaykovsky
Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach is holding out hope that Floyd Mayweather Jr. (49-0, 26KOs) will come out of retirement in 2017 to face Manny Pacquiao in a rematch.
Mayweather retired last September after winning a twelve round decision over Andre Berto. For the moment he has no intentions to get back in the ring. Pacquiao is back on Saturday night when he challenges Jessie Vargas for the WBO welterweight title at the Thomas & Mack Center.
In May of the same year, Mayweather won a dominant twelve round decision over Pacquiao at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Their fight was the richest boxing event in history, with more than half a billion in revenue and 4.6 million purchases on pay-per-view.
Roach and Pacquiao have long claimed that an injury affected the entire fight plan. Pacquiao, who had a right shoulder injury in training camp, claims to have seriously injured the area even further in the fourth round. Pacquiao did undergo surgery a few days after the fight.
Injury or not, Roach and Pacquiao believe they were the rightful winners in the first fight. Roach is confident that a Pacquiao - with no shoulder issue - will beat Mayweather with ease.
"I think [a healthy Pacquiao] will definitely be a big difference. If he fights the way that we trained to fight [Floyd last year], I think he will beat Mayweather — even though I thought he beat him the first time. Mayweather is not the most exciting guy in the world but the thing is, if Manny fights the right style of fight, I feel that he can win that fight easily," Roach told On The Ropes Boxing Radio.
"My biggest disappointment is losing to him and my heart wants that rematch. We would love to fight him again."
In their most recent training camp, Roach says Pacquiao is more fierce, he's punching a lot harder and seems to be more dedicated to knocking his opponent out.
"He’s being more explosive and being more aggressive than he has been in the past. I think he finally realizes that he can’t just tune up to win fights, he has to knock people out to be impressive and for people to want to watch him more. We had a great run back in the day and that’s what made him famous and made him a great fighter. I think he wants to be that guy again," Roach said.
