Freddie Roach claims Floyd Mayweather will want to face Manny Pacquiao vs Adrien Broner winner
The trainer believes the exhibition bout against Tenshin Nasukawa was a way of warming himself up
FREDDIE ROACH believes Floyd Mayweather boxed Tenshin Nasukawa as a way to prepare for a potential fight with Manny Pacquiao or Adrien Broner.
On New Years Eve Mayweather boxed 20-year-old kickboxer Nasukawa in an exhibition bout that lasted two minutes.
Mayweather dropped Nasukawa three times before the fight was called off, though the result will not go on his record as it was an exhibition with no judges scoring the bout.
Trainer Roach told Mayweather was using the bizarre $9million bout as a way to warm himself up for the winner of Pacquiao or Broner, who fight on January 19.
Roach said: “He wants to be on TV so badly. He misses it.
“He’s actually a normal person and a nice guy when you’re one-on-one, without a camera on him. But you give him a camera, he’s not the nicest guy in the world.
"I’m sure Mayweather will wanna fight the winner of this fight. That’s why we definitely have to win this fight. We know that, and we’re ready to do that.”
Mayweather has twice defeated a boxer Roach trains, firstly against Oscar De La Hoya in 2007 and then against Pacquiao eight years later.
Pacquiao was outpointed by Mayweather in May 2015, and the Filipino has vied for a rematch ever since.
In the Mayweather’s latest outing, not only did he fight a boxing novice, he outweighed Nasukawa by three stone.
The fight took place at the welterweight limit of 147lbs, meaning Nasukawa had to come up from featherweight (126lbs) and only managed to weight in at 137lbs.
Although Mayweather outmatched Nasukawa in every department, Roach praised the 41-year-olds performance.
While he also predicted Pacquiao will have to perform like he did in his last fight, which saw him knockout Lucas Matthysse for the WBA ‘regular’ welterweight world title.
“Mayweather looked really good knocking that little kid out.
“The thing is, Manny needs to be impressive in this fight. I feel he’s right there. I watched tapes of his last fight and I watched it live on TV.
“He fought a very, very good fight – one of the best fights he’s fought in a long time. He just has to duplicate that, and that’s definitely possible.”