Roach says "Manny will fight shane at 142 not 147"

[blegit]

You guys are so full of it! Weight advantages are just part of the game. Some play the game better than others. As a clear example "Paul Williams" has been fighting "welterweight" two weight-classes below where he should have been beating smaller guys. Hatton is another example of a fighter that has been taking advantage of smaller fighters. Unless the 24-hour weigh-in is changed to a 2-hour weigh-in then the weight thing will be an advantage some fighters can use. Roach is playing hard in the negotiations, because Mosley campaigning hard for Mega bout. Catch weight is the best Mosley can do and Roach already said after the De La Hoya fight 144lbs.

I honestly can't understand what you're trying to say in the bolded sentence.

However, to address your other point: weight-advantages have always been a part of boxing, obviously. However, there is a huge difference between fighting smaller fighters at a higher weight-class (ie. Hatton - Lazcano) and fighting a weight-drained opponent. Your post seems to demonstrate that you don't understand how much being weight-drained affects a fighter, it has a much greater impact than that of a fighter competing well above his natural weight, though both are detrimental. If Pac is fighting guys (particularly older opponents) at a weight in which they haven't been able to fight for years, it very much detracts from the victory as it would be contested in a vastly uneven way. If Pac fights and beats (or even looks good in losing) fighters like Cotto and Mosley, I'll give him a ton of credit. However, if he forces them to meet at a completely unfair catchweight, then in my mind it negates much of the glory associated with the victory.

Ok, the Italic is my bad. I originally posted over a week ago that I heard a radio report that Roach told Mosley to come down to 142, but no one responded. I skimmed though this post in a rush on my way out the door and caught crap like "bullshit", "avoid Mosley". and didn't really pick up on your point of being weight-drained. I used Williams as an example of the obvious advantages some fighters have using weight to illustrate it's part of the game. I don't hear anyone saying Williams gets no respect for winning over guys at welter when his a more natural middle weight.

All Roach is doing is his job, which happens to include the issue of weight and negotiating around the terms of a Mega fight. Exactly what Mosley wants. Same as Dela Hoya / Pacquiao. When bargaining you start low, get a high counter offer and meet somewhere in the middle. 2 or 3 pounds below 147 shouldn't weigh-drain Mosley and will probably help him size wise over Pacquiao. Since Pacquiao has never come into the ring above 150. I never heard or read Pacquiao wouldn't fight Mosley at 147. I only heard him say 140 was a good weight for him.

I think Cotto is a better match up for Pacquiao than Mosley. Mosley has a huge reach advantage. If I were Roach, I'd do exactly the same thing. If Mosley wants the fight so bad, make him come down. It's just part of the game.

You make good sense but there are a lot of things in boxing that are just a part of the game that should be criticized and that is why so many people are criticizing Roach's bullcrap moves. The public wants to see good fighters make weight effectively. It warrants criticism by the masses. What if PBF said he would only fight Cotto at 140, Mosley at 142, and Williams at 143? People would shellack him with overwhelming criticism. These are welterweights fight them at 147 or stay in your division. Roach wants the name of the fighter and the fighter himself to be a shell. And Roach has said that he will not let Pac fight at 147 again. So according to his word there will be no fight at 147. What people are getting mad about is that Roach will let Pac fight at 147 but only if it is a junior middleweight or higher coming down. This in essence is saying that Pac will not fight a notable guy unless we have our way and our way is not just all the money but a weight drained fighter also. We might as well just skip the games and go to Pac/JMM III. Unless Roach feels like actually fighting more than one calculated guy at either 135,140, or 147. And Williams is not a natural middleweight he didn't even have to cut weight for his middleweight fights. Williams is just a freak of nature. A guy 6'2" with a heavyweight reach. He has to eat more during training camp when he fights at middle because he'll be too low. He usually comes into his fights around 157.