Floyd Mayweather Jr. is set to take on Manny Pacquiao May 2, and the verbal sparring has begun. Manny Pacquiao's trainer Freddie Roach has lobbed the first grenade, ripping Floyd Mayweather Sr.'s ability to train his son for such a major fight.
"My whole thing is, Floyd's not going to have his best cornerman in his corner because there's no question in my mind that Roger is the better trainer," Roach said of a comparison between Floyd Sr. and Roger Mayweather, Floyd Jr.'s uncle.
"Floyd got 90 percent of his wins with Roger working with him. Roger is way better. I think Floyd Sr. is a terrible cornerman, I really do. That's going to work to our advantage on fight night because in the corner, I'm not going to be nervous and I'll be able to calmly talk to Manny and make whatever adjustments we have to make."
Roach talked about the importance of those respites in between rounds when a fight between such evenly matched fighters is going on, and thinks "Money" Mayweather will be deprived of help in making adjustments.
"Floyd Sr. can't get his message out in that minute [rest] period. He gets so excited and worked up and he starts to stutter so he can't give his fighter any useful [information]," Roach said.
"He'll get himself prepared for this fight because he always has done that. But in a fight like this, where it's a tighter fight and he's not such a huge favorite, he could use a little advice or suggestion from his corner. But he's not going to get that from his father, so that's another advantage for us."
Floyd Sr. and Roach are not friends. Last fall Mayweather Sr. made some disparaging comments about Roach being a "joke" of a trainer, although he was referring to Roach's work with Amir Khan, and not Pacquiao.
"I didn't get a chance to train him [Khan], so after awhile, they went and got with Freddie 'The Joke Coach' Roach, who wouldn't dare to approach; he's a roach, blowing smoke with no hope. Just like Manny, he went from first class to the coach with the roach, and now he'll be sprayed with Raid and underpaid, and at the end of the night, the title will be gone, just like the roach when the lights come on."
[Yahoo]
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