LAS VEGAS – Floyd Mayweather Jr. calls Leonard Ellerbe his advisor, but Manny Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach calls him a go-fer, whom he likens to Pacquiao’s longtime friend and assistant trainer, Restituto Fernandez, nicknamed Buboy.
“Who’s Leonard Ellerbe?’’ Roach said Thursday during a roundtable with the trainers in the build-up to Saturday’s third fight between Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez at the MGM Grand. “He’s the go-fer guy. He’s Buboy. Where’s Floyd Mayweather?’’
Translation: Roach didn’t believe Ellerbe last week when he said that there’s a good chance the long-awaited Pacquiao-Mayweather fight will happen on May 5.
Roach called Ellerbe’s comment a big tease. Actually, Roach used more colorful language than that. But you get the idea. For Roach, there’s no fight until he sees Mayweather, hands taped and gloves on, step through the ropes and answer an opening bell.
In what ranks as a mild surprise, Roach’s rhetorical slap at Ellerbe was one of the few references this week to the Mayweather-Pacquiao possibility, which has dominated — ad nauseam — the boxing conversation for the last couple of years. Perhaps, talk about Mayweather has subsided because a few people are beginning to give Marquez a real chance in this second rematch.
Marquez’ confidence is as evident as his rebuilt upper-body, which has sparked controversial speculation about his strength coach, Angel Hernandez, who went by a different name, Angel Heredia, when he admitted in testimony involving BALCO that he supplied performance-enhancers to Olympic track-and-field medallists Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery.
Marquez believes he was robbed of victory in a 2004 draw and a 2008 loss by split decision in the first two bouts. He has the style to beat Pacquiao, he says. But style can be fickle. It’s in the eyes of the beholder, or in his case the judges. Style also changes. Neither Pacquiao nor Marquez is the same fighter either was three years ago. But the basics are still there, says Marquez trainer Nacho Beristain. It’s in their personalities.
“Pacquiao is a guy who comes to fight,’’ said Beristain, who didn’t say – and didn’t have to – that Mayweather would not engage him in the kind of the battle he prefers in a 2009 loss. “In Pacquiao, he has found a guy with a willingness to fight.’’
But Roach is confident Marquez will regret what he encounters this time, in part because he has added weight and in part because he angered Pacquiao with T-shirts at a media stop in the Philippines proclaiming that he won the first two bouts.
“Manny has been a little meaner to his sparring partners,’’ Roach said. “He didn’t take well to those T-shirts Marquez wore to the Philippines. He won’t say anything. But I can tell by his work ethic that he has a little more fire in him.’’
In adding muscle, Roach believes Marquez is sacrificing quickness and abandoning his best weapon, the counter-punch.
“You don’t add muscle to counter-punch,’’ said Roach, who forecasts that Marquez will pursue an early stoppage. “He feels he wants to exchange with Manny. I would’ve gone back the other way, back to the counter-punches that gave Manny trouble.’’
A lot already has been said about Pacquiao’s acquisition of a powerful right hand since his last meeting with Marquez when he relied on his left.
“His right hand is my baby,’’ Roach said. “I said I’ll only be satisfied if it is as good as his left. And it is.’’
Another difference, perhaps more subtle, might be critical. It’s in Pacquiao’s feet. In his last few fights, he has moved across the canvas, at times almost like a spinning top.
“Manny’s footwork is the key to the fight,’’ Roach said. “He has improved immensely with his footwork. Thing is, you don’t whether he’s coming or going. He’s hard to judge.’’
Hard to beat, too, although Marquez has other ideas.
