"I think it's been very clear who didn't want this fight to happen and it's Bob Arum. The fighters, at the end of the day, if you put them in there, they are going to fight. I'm not going to say a guy that has 42 professional fights and over 100 amateur fights and has been in boxing since birth is scared of anyone. I'm not going to say with the experience he has and everything that he has done in this sport, that Pacquiao is scared of anyone as well. So now you have to look at who is controlling the puppet strings. Who is the puppet master? It would be Bob Arum. Who loses the most if Pacquiao loses the fight? Bob Arum. He doesn't have any options on Floyd Mayweather, so if Pacquiao loses, he can't pull that Don King trick where he has options on both fighters and he is in a win-win situation. And he can make other fights. He can make the Timothy Bradley fight, and Pacquiao has been such a phenomenon that he can sell pay-per-views all by himself. You put him in against Timothy Bradley or Marquez again and those fights are going to generate around a million to a million and a half buys, and Bob Arum gets to keep all of the money because all of those guys are house fighters. It's clear and it's been clear for a long time that Bob Arum is the stumbling block...They are playing with fire the longer they let these guys not fight each other. These guys aren't in there 20's; they are in their 30's," stated world-class trainer Ron Frazier, who shared his thoughts on the current status, or lack thereof, on a potential showdown between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. Check it out!
PC: How have you been my man?
RF: Just chillin' man; just watching everything in the world of sports.
PC: We had three young bulls fight recently. What did you think of Adrien Broner, Gary Russell and Saul Alvarez's performances?
RF: I was impressed with all three of them. We will start with Broner. I think he is a terrific young fighter. He looks to have all of the tools to be a dominant champion for a long time. He's so quick, he hits hard, and he's explosive. He's going to be a guy who is hard to deal with and he seems to have a good head on his shoulders, and he is constantly in the gym training. That's going to bode well for his future, and he's such a confident young guy. There is nothing really bad to say about that young man. Gary Russell is the same way. Here is a guy who has been fighting for a long time. Actually, I saw your interview with him and he said he has been fighting for 15 years and he's only 23 years old. He stays in the gym, he stays humble, and he is another one who is very dynamic with his quickness. I think the sky is the limit for this guy. He is going to be a tough guy to handle. It's just a matter of getting him a little bit more experience. He probably needs to step up his competition a little bit, and I don't think that's going to be a problem for this young man. It's something that he alluded to when he talked to you about being in the amateurs, only having a month to prepare for the tournament, and you might see 4 different styles in the tournament that day. So he has been there. He is a very experienced guy from the amateur ranks. He's young in his pro career and he is a very dynamic fighter. Saul Alvarez looked impressive against Kermit Cintron. The problem was it was Kermit Cintron (laughing). That may not bode well in the end for Saul because Kermit looked like absolute garbage. He looked like not only is he a done fighter, but he's also a scared fighter. You cannot go into a fight with a guy like Saul Alvarez scared. He's a heavy-handed guy. He's not as dynamic of a puncher as the other two, but I think he is one of those guys who carries a thud with him from the 1st round to the 12th round, but if you can figure him out and adjust to that, you can pose problems for him.
PC: Do you think it's safe to say Kermit Cintron is just a gatekeeper for guys to look good against and build a younger prospect off of?
RF: Yeah, he's an opponent now. That's what he's become. His best bet, because of his wrestling background, he might want to try to transition into MMA, but if you are a scared fighter, that might not be a good way to go either. I just see bad things ahead. It might be time to call it a day. He put in some good work and he's come a long way for a guy that didn't start boxing until he was 19 years old. He became a 2-time champion and he probably got all that he could get out of his ability as a boxer. It's probably time to move on and do something else. He seems like a nice kid. I would hate to see him go out like that.
PC: Canelo called out Floyd Mayweather, and although that seems very far-fetched, it may not be as far-fetched as some would think. If not Pacquiao, I'm sure Floyd will be looking for a Mexican opponent on Cinco de Mayo to fight. Maybe Alvarez is on to something, but either way, I don't think he's ready for Floyd. What do you think?
RF: Yeah, it's a good move on his part because it will bring him a nice healthy payday and probably his first L (laughing). He's just not ready to fight a guy like Floyd Mayweather and I think he has shown that in a couple of his other fights, and really, if you look at the guys he has fought at 154, it was a lot of little guys. Floyd is obviously a small guy for that weight class too, but the caliber that he is, compared to all of the other guys that Alvarez has fought, is night and day. He's just not ready. He will get picked apart. He's not gonna hit Floyd and Floyd has a good chin despite what Bob Arum says. Shane Mosley hits pretty hard and he rocked him, but he didn't drop Floyd. He has a sturdy beard and I don't see where Canelo would be able to get off.
PC: You know it's been too long since we talked because we haven't even discussed Pacquiao/Marquez. We did a pre-fight, but no post-fight. What are your thoughts on that fight?
RF: I thought that Marquez won the fight, and I think I texted you at some point during the fight and I said no matter what happens, Marquez could flat out fight. I knew that; it wasn't like it was a surprise to me for the fight. I knew he would present problems for him. My only concern going into the fight was would he be able to handle the weight. He didn't look like he was going to be able to handle the weight against Floyd Mayweather. Obviously Floyd was a bigger guy, but he just didn't look good and he didn't look good when he fought at a little bit heavier weight than 135. It was a concern that he might not be able to carry that into this fight and I thought that could be his downfall. I figured Pacquiao would be able to out-hustle him in the end or maybe get a late-round stoppage. I knew...I mean, he fought 24 rounds with this guy, so I knew he wouldn't be overwhelmed in 2 or 3 rounds like Freddie Roach or Ariza was saying. I didn't see how that could be possible. I could just see, if he couldn't handle the weight, getting worn down and the referee deciding that's enough or something like that. But getting back to the fight at hand, he did what he had to do. He counter punched and showed he's the more skilled boxer than Manny Pacquiao. I had him winning 7 rounds to 5, and you could probably make an argument for 8 rounds to 4. I mean, you can't make an argument with me, from what I saw in that fight and people would have to point it out to me, how Manny Pacquiao won 7 or 8 rounds. I just don't see it.
PC: Harold Lederman's cards have definitely been off as of late. He had it 8-4 I believe.
RF: Yeah, Harold was talking about effective aggressiveness. Yeah, he was effective, but he was getting countered. I don't think you could award somebody points for coming forward and getting hit. How do you get points for that? I just don't understand. And the Compubox thing where everybody says Pacquiao won the Compubox stats, well, Marquez won the Compubox numbers on the first two, so are we gonna go back and change those decisions? If you look at Pernell Whitaker when he fought Oscar De La Hoya, Pernell Whitaker won on Compubox. But what people don't understand about Compubox, those guys do a good job, but they are at a fixed position at press row. I sat right behind them and I believe they are 4 or 5 rows back, and when those guys have their backs towards them, they don't know if those guys are getting hit or not. They kind of have to look at the screen and see if they have the right camera view to see if the punches land. So everything that Compubox put out isn't exactly how the fight went.
PC: You have been saying Mayweather/Pacquiao is not going to happen because of Bob Arum for a very long time now; seems that some people out of Pacquiao's camp are starting to share those same sentiments. What do you make of some of the things coming out now?
RF: I think it's been very clear who didn't want this fight to happen and it's Bob Arum. The fighters, at the end of the day, if you put them in there, they are going to fight. I'm not going to say a guy that has 42 professional fights and over 100 amateur fights and has been in boxing since birth is scared of anyone. I'm not going to say with the experience he has and everything that he has done in this sport, that Pacquiao is scared of anyone as well. So now you have to look at who is controlling the puppet strings. Who is the puppet master? It would be Bob Arum. Who loses the most if Pacquiao loses the fight? Bob Arum. He doesn't have any options on Floyd Mayweather, so if Pacquiao loses, he can't pull that Don King trick where he has options on both fighters and he is in a win-win situation. And he can make other fights. He can make the Timothy Bradley fight, and Pacquiao has been such a phenomenon that he can sell pay-per-views all by himself. You put him in against Timothy Bradley or Marquez again and those fights are going to generate around a million to a million and a half buys, and Bob Arum gets to keep all of the money because all of those guys are house fighters. It's clear and it's been clear for a long time that Bob Arum is the stumbling block. And it's funny how they say Floyd Mayweather has ducked all of Top Rank's fighters. You hear people talk about he didn't fight Margarito. Well, Margarito is a Top Rank fighter. He didn't fight Cotto, but Cotto is a Top Rank fighter. I even hear people say now that he avoided Kostya Tszyu and he avoided this fighter and that fighter. The thing about it is you're trying to convince me that the guy that would have been favored in each one of those fights is the one afraid? Somewhere, that doesn't make sense. He would have been favored against Stevie Johnston, he would have been favored against Kostya Tszyu, he would have been favored against Miguel Cotto and Margarito, but he never wanted to fight any of those guys? I don't understand it.
PC: I don't think Marquez has the power to knock Pacquiao out. Therefore I think each time they fight, the result will be inconclusive. With that being said, does Ron Frazier want to see a 4th fight between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez?
RF: I do not want to see a 4th fight between those two guys unless it's after Manny Pacquiao fights Floyd Mayweather or Sergio Martinez or something like that. The thing is this, if he fights Floyd and loses, you still can make a 4th Marquez fight, so why not go out there and make the fight that everyone wants to see? And if Pacquiao wins, you can still make the Marquez fight.
PC: Yeah because when you look at that third Marquez fight, I mean, that decision goes the other way and the Mayweather fight is dead in the water.
RF: It's absolutely dead in the water. I mean, these guys are getting older. If you don't make it soon, there is a good chance this fight never happens. If Floyd fights long enough, as great as he is, he's going to lose. It's going to happen. Only Rocky Marciano walked away an undefeated champion. I mean, nobody does that; and Ricardo Lopez. Everybody else has lost, so if he stays around long enough, he will lose. Obviously Manny Pacquiao has been in 3 life and death fights with Marquez and all three fights could have gone the other way. They are playing with fire the longer they let these guys not fight each other. These guys aren't in there 20's; they are in their 30's.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]