Roach plays the promoter, Arum is the promoter

Today Manny Pacquiao was honored by the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park with a bobble-head night.

You can watch a bit of the festivities on video at BoxingConfidential.

Pacquiao's trainer Freddie Roach has some strong words for Pacquiao's May 2nd foe Ricky Hatton.

"By fight night he'll be ready to beat Ricky Hatton up," said Roach to the gathering of Filipino fight fans.

It did not stop there for charismatic trainer.

"He will knock Ricky Hatton out."

Those statement are par for the course when it comes to Roach in the build-up for Manny Pacquiao fights, as the long time trainer has become a very vocal mouth-piece within Team Pacquiao.

Some had said that Roach has become more of a promoter in hyping up fights than Pacquiao's promoter of record Bob Arum.

But building up an event with hot button quotes and working the business side of an event are two very different things and Arum showed who makes the dollar and sense for Manny when the event's M.C. asked, "after this fight on May 2nd, what would be your dream fight, or ultimate fight?"

There were murmurs of "Mayweather" from the crowd, as a bout between Floyd Mayweather Junior and Manny Pacquiao has been kicked around by the boxing media and fans during recent weeks.

Instead of letting Freddie say something to pump up a feud between Pacquiao and Mayweather, the grand ole' promoter quickly stepped in and made it clear Ricky Hatton is the only thing on the team's mind.

Smart, why sell a future fight when you have a pay per view a week away to push?

And more importantly, why give Floyd Mayweather Junior a public bargaining chip for future negotiations?

Roach may be the mouth piece, but Arum is the chess player.

Source: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-2850-LA-Boxing-Examiner~y2009m4d21-Roach-plays-the-promoter-Arum-is-the-promoter

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