No truth to Roach claim of Mayweather sparring beating

It's the event Freddie Roach has been waiting for all his life.

And now that it's here, the veteran trainer is not only readying Manny Pacquiao for a May 2 championship match with Floyd Mayweather, he's also taken an early role as the showdown's preeminent mouthpiece.

Roach broke the vitriolic ice at the official press conference with a promise of "we're gonna kick his ass" toward Mayweather two weeks back, and he's not eased up on the gas lately -- responding to reports that "Money" has been dominant in sparring sessions with his own verbal counter punch.

"He knocked out a couple of girls," Roach told the Boxing Channel. "The thing is I got a report from one of my friends in Mexico that one of his Mexican boys beat the [expletive] out of him two days in a row."

Problem is, his south of the border claim may not hold any truthful water.

Upon being told of the trainer's latest jab, a CBSSports.com source close to the Mayweather team in Las Vegas replied simply "not even close."

True or not, though, the chatter isn't likely to stop anytime soon.

Roach has long been a full-throated quote fountain on the way to spotlight events, memorably suggesting that former client Oscar De La Hoya could no longer "pull the trigger" prior to announcement of the "Golden Boy's" matchup with Pacquiao in 2008, which the Filipino won after eight rounds.

Ricky Hatton was in the crosshairs five months later when Roach promised his man would stop the Englishman – a reigning world champion who'd never lost a fight at 140 pounds – in three rounds.

Pacquiao floored Hatton in the first round and stopped with a vicious left hook in the second.

Roach trained De La Hoya against Mayweather in their May 2007 showdown, which Mayweather won by a split decision. The trainer told CBSSports.com that he thought De La Hoya won the first six rounds, then "kind of blew it after a while because he just got too caught up in the fight."

He told Boxing Channel that the De La Hoya experience would help him, as would the reality that Mayweather is not unbeaten in his entire boxing career -- simply as a professional.

"I'm very confident I have the guy to beat this guy," Roach said. "Everyone says the guy's undefeated, but remember this guy lost in the Olympics, he lost in the amateurs. He wasn't the best amateur in the world. He's tasted defeat before and he'll taste it again."





SOURCE: CBSSPORTS