While speculation swirls around the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao super fight talks, Pacquiao's trainer Freddie Roach is concerned that time is running short to effectively train his fighter.
"We are getting really close," Roach said of reaching a cutoff date where May 2 is no longer viable. "I need eight weeks. That window is getting smaller and smaller."
Pacquiao is said to already have started training for an upcoming fight, and they are operating under the impression that Mayweather will be the opponent. Roach also said he has done extensive homework on Mayweather's tape, and thinks that his famously impregnable defense can be breached.
"I've done some research on Floyd and on sparring partners. This is going to be the biggest challenge ever but I think my guy can pull it off but it wont be easy. It's a very tactical fight and I have to come up with a great game plan," Roach said.
Of course the most important thing come fight night will be the shape Pacquiao is in, and how prepared he is. That's why time is of the essence to get a deal done.
"I need eight weeks. That window is getting smaller and smaller," Roach said. "The boxing would start six weeks out, because if you go more than six weeks with Manny you'll burn him out because of his work ethic."
The dragging out of negotiations has been a concern for a much longer period of time for Top Rank CEO Bob Arum, who in January had set a deadline of the end of the month. Clearly, the fight is so big that he extended it, but too much longer and Arum fears promotion efforts may be compromised.
"The thing that really concerns me is that we are running out of time for May 2," Arum said. "If you want to drag this out a little longer then move the fight to later in May -- May 30 is a good date -- or go in June. We agreed to go on May 2 because that is the date Mayweather is hung up on, but if we're going to go on May 2 we need to get this done."
[Yahoo!]
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