Right after Floyd Mayweather announced he is facing Victor Ortiz on Sept. 17, Golden Boy Promotions (GBP) CEO Richard Schaefer denied the match is being staged in preparation for a possible fight with Filipino boxing star Manny Pacquiao next year.
The unbeaten Mayweather and WBC welterweight champion Ortiz are being promoted by GBP.
Schaefer said,"If you want to prepare for Manny, of all people, you would not fight against Victor Ortiz."
"It would be [a bad decision] to choose someone so difficult, so physical, so strong, and so young as Victor, in order to prepare for a fight with Pacquiao," he said.
"Mayweather is in for a tough fight against the left-handed Ortiz," Schaefer added.
But Pacquiao's trainer Freddie Roach believes Mayweather is indeed preparing for a bout with Pacquiao, saying southpaws like Zab Judah gave him trouble in the last fight.
"I'm just figuring he'll give us a good blueprint to fight him, how Floyd handles fighting a southpaw," Roach said of Ortiz, who won the WBC 147-pound title with a narrow unanimous decision over Andre Berto in April, a certain candidate for Fight of the Year," S.I.com reports.
"Some left-handers have given him trouble," Roach said. "Judah gave him trouble but couldn't maintain the pace. Guys like Victor Ortiz, Manny Pacquiao, they can maintain that pace. And I do think the southpaw stance gives him trouble."
After about two years of speculating whether Mayweather will retire without facing Pacquiao, boxing fans have suddenly found a reason to rejoice with his announcement to face Ortiz, who is a southpaw.
Mayweather's choice of Ortiz gives credence to Freddie Roach's assessment that indeed Mayweather is preparing for a bout with Pacquiao.
Regardless of the result of his upcoming fight, Mayweather's fight plan based on his choice of Ortiz being a southpaw, seems to indicate that it is indeed a tune-up exercise for the most awaited clash with Pacquiao next year despite the denial of Schaefer that it is a tune-up.
A provision for a rematch will most likely form part of the agreement which could stretch out into a trilogy in case of a tie score after the rematch.
Should there be a trilogy, the last fight would not happen until 2013. By then Pacquiao and Mayweather would be at least $150 million each richer.
Source: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/749414-floyd-mayweather-jr-whos-next-foe-after-victor-ortiz
Majandra Delfino Malia Jones Malin Akerman Mandy Moore Maria Bello
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