Freddie Roach intends to lock down the Wild Card Boxing Club not only to onlookers but to the media as well when he starts working with Manny Pacquiao next week, according to the South China Morning Post.
Roach is in Macau to help Zou Shiming win the world flyweight title and as soon as he shows up for the buildup for Pacquiao’s May 2 showdown with Floyd Mayweather, “the whole Wild Card will be shut down and we will work out Manny’s best strategy and nobody will watch it.”
“The cameras are only allowed after the sparring and after mitts because the gameplan is very important in this fight,” added Roach, who turns 55 tomorrow.
The only press conference that will be staged before the final one during fightweek for the May 2 welterweight war between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather will take place on March 11 in a venue in Los Angeles that will soon be determined.
The event won’t be open to the public and only media outlets given credentials will be allowed to cover the momentous occasion.
Owing to the magnitude of the fight that will held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, the promoters decided to get rid of the traditional multi-city press tour.
The only other time the media will be allowed to ask questions aside from next week’s event will be during fight week when the second and last press conference is held at the MGM Grand.
In the runup to their previous fights, Pacquiao and Mayweather had to travel cross-country and outside the US to promote their fights.
Dennis Canete, a high-ranking official of ALA Boxing, the country’s premier promotional outfit, believes that deep down, Floyd Mayweather, is extremely wary of Manny Pacquiao.
“I still believe that this is a fight that Floyd doesn’t really like but he has no choice,” said Canete.
It’s not that Mayweather is afraid to face Pacquiao, noted Canete.
“It’s just that, Manny Pacquiao is a fighter who Floyd knows has a very strong chance of beating him.”
Through the years, Mayweather has feasted on either light-hitting or custom-made opponents with the exception of onetime Pacquiao victim Miguel Cotto of Puerto Rico and Argentine slugger Marcos Maidana (in the first fight).
Maidana gave Mayweather plenty of trouble the first time in may last year but the US fighter easily beat the rugged Maidana in the rematch a few months later.
Cotto also gave Mayweather a taste of hell when they fought in May 2013.