Hall-of-Fame trainer Freddie Roach and Strength & Conditioning coach Alex Ariza have both expressed concern about Manny Pacquiao's motivation to face Timothy Bradley. Although on paper, the relatively unknown but undefeated Bradley looks like he has the credentials to motivate any opponent, both Roach and Ariza are worried that he may not present a worthy enough challenge for 8-division world champion Pacquiao, who's faced a Who's Who list of opponents and conquered much bigger foes in the process. With Pacquiao already talking retirement, it's a legitimate concern for the men whose responsibility is to mentally prepare him for an opponent who has everything to gain and nothing to lose.
"It looks like Bradley at this point, but the thing is, I worry about that sometimes, because can Manny really get up for guys like that," Freddie Roach would first tell Manila Standard when news first broke that Bradley would get the assignment. Not long after, Ariza would echo those sentiments in a separate interview, saying, "The thing is, how do you get motivated for Bradley? The guys we're sparring in the gym are better than Bradley. I really don't know."
According to Ariza, Pacquiao sounded much more excited when there was a possibility of facing Miguel Cotto in a rematch, so much so that he contaced Ariza personally to already begin discussing the game plan to prepare for the bigger man. "When the idea of Manny fighting Cotto was out there, I got a call from Manny talking about, 'What are we going to do? How are we going to change everything? Come out here a month early, let's start focusing on my strenght and conditioning again.' You know," Ariza explained. "It was all about that talk when he was going to fight Cotto. But that's Cotto."
Now that the focus has shifted to Bradley, there's been very little talk from Pacquiao about the fight. In fact, as reported by FightHype's own Ben Thompson, Pacquiao has yet to even sign the contract to face Bradley, despite the fact that Bradley already signed his contract nearly a week ago. The one time that Pacquiao did comment on the fight, he didn't sound like he was expecting much of a fight from Bradley. "He will run," Pacquiao simply remarked, making you wonder just how motivated he really will be come June 9th.