Roach: Pacquiao Helped Design Mayweather Game Plan

By Ryan Burton

Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada - Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach dropped an interesting tidbit on Tuesday when he met with the media along with his fighter Manny Pacquiao and Top Rank CEO Bob Arum.

Pacquiao returns on Saturday night against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in a WBA/WBC/WBO welterweight unification at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Roach said that for the first time, Pacquiao asked to watch film with him and that they worked on the game plan for the fight together. Roach said that the 36-year-old Pacquiao usually leaves the planning up to him but that he took a more hands on approach to what will be the biggest fight of his career.

"Manny is definitely ready for this fight," said Roach. "We have a great strategy.  We actually worked on this together. Manny took me into the changing room a couple of times and showed me tapes on how Mayweather has fought certain people."

"This is the first time he has ever asked me to watch tape with him.  He usually doesn't watch tape.  Usually he leaves that to me but this time it was a group effort.  I think this is the best training camp that we have ever had.  He wanted to show me some things and I liked what he showed me so we worked together really hard on it and I think we are perfect for this fight."

Send questions or comments to  ringsidewriter@gmail.com . You can follow Ryan on Twitter @ringsidewriter