With Shane Mosley as the likely foe, trainer Freddie Roach wants Manny Pacquiao to train for six full weeks at the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles in anticipation of a great and hard fight.
“People who say this is the easiest fight are crazy. It’s definitely not the easiest fight,” Roach admitted yesterday, adding that Pacquiao needs to stay focused and train hard because Mosley is a threat.
“Manny has speed but so has Mosley. He’ll give us a little trouble because he is also experienced. He is a different type of fighter compared to Margarito. He is a much better boxer. Manny loves guys who come to him but Mosley will box him and come to him much more intelligently.”
Roach, who was among the special guests of Pacquiao when he celebrated his 32nd birthday last Friday in GenSan, noted that Mosley even had Floyd Mayweather Jr. “out for a moment” in their fight several months ago but “kind of let that slip out.”
He also pointed to the impressive pay-per-view numbers when Mosley fought Mayweather, adding that Mosley “did beat our last opponent (Antonio Margarito) also.”
“It’s not an easy fight by any means but whoever Bob puts in front of me I’ll get Manny ready for him,” Roach said.
Sources said the only issue holding up an announcement regarding the Mosley fight set in May is the fact that Pacquiao apparently wants a bigger guaranteed purse than what Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has offered him so far.
This tactic is nothing new, however, and many expect Arum and Pacquiao to eventually come to terms as in the past.
Arum, who also attended Pacquiao’s birthday bash with wife Lovee, is expected to negotiate terms with Mosley on his return to Las Vegas.
The proposed Pacquiao trilogy with Juan Manuel Marquez is out for good according to Arum, because Marquez was asking more than double what he got for the Mayweather fight which he lost early last year.

“That just shows he really doesn’t want the fight.”