MANILA, Philippines – Freddie Roach has admitted that rising star Terence Crawford presents a tough challenge for Manny Pacquiao right now.
The multi-titled trainer believes the undefeated Crawford would be difficult to beat that he does not want Pacquiao to face him any time soon.
Roach personally witnessed Crawford’s mettle when the latter dominated Viktor Postol in their super lightweight title unification bout last Sunday in Las Vegas.
The bespectacled trainer worked the corner of Postol – who interestingly was a former sparring partner of Pacquiao – and saw him get outwitted and outpunched by Crawford.
The Omaha, Nebraska-based boxer floored Postol twice in the fifth round en route to a lopsided decision victory to become the WBC and WBO super lightweight champion.
Based on what he saw, Roach thinks Pacquiao won’t have an easy time with Crawford.
“It [Pacquiao-Crawford fight]’s a very tough matchup,” Roach recently told Steve Kim of boxingscene.com.
“Crawford showed that he can move for twelve rounds, he can run for twelve rounds. But you know, in between the running and so forth, when he does land punches he does land really powerful punches. He hurt my guy a lot. I know Postol's got a pretty good chin,” he added.
Pacquiao will reportedly fight again on November 5 in Las Vegas, and Crawford – also a Top Rank fighter – heads the list of potential opponents for the Filipino icon.
But Roach isn’t receptive to the thought of his prized ward testing Crawford, whom he even likened to Floyd Mayweather Jr., the last fighter to convincingly defeat Pacquiao.
“So Crawford's a pretty good puncher, he hits hard and he moves very well and emulates (Floyd) Mayweather quite a bit, I think. I think he's like a young Mayweather, right now,” Roach continued.
If he would have his way, Roach said he wants Pacquiao to take interim fights before facing Crawford.
“You know what, with Manny in the senate and I have to go to the Philippines and so forth to train him and with all the confusion going on – I don't think I'm going to accept that fight or want that fight right away,” he said.
“I mean, give me one warm-up fight and give me a fight right after that and we can talk.”