CARSON, California – Rumor has it that, yes, Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. are in touch and talking about a rematch.
“These are rumors. But I heard they’ve been talking,” Freddie Roach told Filipino scribes Tuesday inside his Wild Card Gym in Hollywood.
“I’ve been hearing these rumors,” he said.
British star Amir Khan said he’s pulling out of his talks with Pacquiao’s promoter, Bob Arum, after being told that the Filipino wants to fight Mayweather next.
Pacquiao is still recovering from a shoulder injury but he told Roach when they spoke on the phone 10 days ago he will fight when he’s ready.
“Bob gave me four names for Manny to choose from. They’re Amir Khan, Kell Brook, Juan Manuel Marquez and Lucas Matthysse before Matthysse lost,” said Roach.
“But Manny told me he will be the one to decide whom he wants to fight,” Roach said.
It seems that Khan has pulled himself out of the race.
“I’m really disappointed in Manny and his team,” the 28-year-old Khan told The National, a newspaper based in Abu Dhabi.
“They aren’t playing ball. All that was left to do is sign the contract. But they are stalling. I have pulled out of the negotiations. I am no longer fighting Manny Pacquiao,” he said.
Khan, also seeking a fight with Mayweather but couldn’t get it, said he will fight someone else, and that he’s “not going to wait around for Manny like I did for Mayweather.”
Arum is in New York to join Pacquiao who received the Asian Society Game Changer award at the United National Headquarters the other night.
There’s no word from the Big Apple.
Unless Khan changes his mind, Roach said Pacquiao has fewer options left, and if the American trainer could have his way he’d fight Marquez a fifth time.
“I didn’t want the fifth fight with Marquez because it’s old news. But I asked everybody in the gym whom Manny should fight next, the majority decision was Marquez,” said Roach.
“It’s the fight that can make the most money,” Roach added.
Unless a Pacquiao-Mayweather rematch happens.