• Welterweight

Roach urges Pacquiao to face Floyd before retiring

ESPN staff
March 20, 2012
Freddie Roach has been credited with turning Manny Pacquiao into one of the world's finest fighters - if not the best © Getty Images
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Trainer Freddie Roach thinks his star pupil, WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao, should have two more bouts before walking away from boxing for good.

Pacquiao said recently that he had been told by God in a dream to retire from the sport, fuelling speculation he would do exactly that after his meeting with Timothy Bradley during June.

Pacquiao is a Congressman in his native Philippines, and because of outside interests such as that one, he has hinted on several occasions that his ring career may not have long to run.

However, Roach will urge him to take on long-time rival Floyd Mayweather Jnr before hanging up his gloves.

"The thing is we have a big fight coming up and hopefully Mayweather will have a good fight also with [Miguel] Cotto [during May]. That'll draw them to fight each other. I would like to see Manny fight this fight [Bradley] then Mayweather and be over with it. I don't see any point in going any further than that," Roach told boxingscene.com.

"If Manny's hungry to fight and wants to fight I'll help him as long as possible. He asked me, 'When I'm finished, will you be the first one to tell me?' I said, 'I definitely will' and I said, 'Will you listen to me when I do?' and he said, 'Yes, I will.'"

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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