Roach, who has trained Pacquiao for over a decade has an agreement with the eight-division world champion that the moment he sees him slowing down even for just a bit, he will ask him to retire.
“I do have some concerns over his age. I put all the factors together and so forth and I have a deal with Manny,” Roach told Reuters. “I tell him, ‘When you start slowing down just one step, I’m going to tell you to retire.’ he added.
In third fight against Timothy Bradley which was billed as Pacquiao’s farewell fight, Roach was expected to tell Pacquiao it was time for him to retire. But the seven-time trainer of the year was surprised to see Pacquiao stepping up as he delivered his finest performance in his post-Mayweather fight.
“We have an agreement that he will retire when I tell him but I haven’t seen that step lost yet. In his last fight, he fought a very good fight. We saw a lot of aggressiveness come out of Manny,” he said.
Roach noticed that Pacquiao’s killer instinct is coming back as he watched Pacquiao knocked down Bradley twice en route to a unanimous decision win.
“He has the killer instinct coming back and I like that a lot. With his religion, it (the killer instinct) got away from him for a little while but he is very dedicated to his religion also and that makes the training a little more difficult.”
Now that Roach is convinced that his 38-year-old fighter has improved tremendously after his shoulder surgery, Pacquiao said he loves boxing and enjoys every time he starts training for a big fight.
“Why am I going back to boxing? Well, sabi ko naman when I announced my retirement, I just wanted to feel what it is to be a retired boxer,” he recalled. “Noon wala pa kong (before I had no) idea because I had not experienced being retired.”
“Ngayon alam ko na. (Now I know) Masaya din, specially(I am happy especially when I was elected senator. Mas marami akong napagsisilbihan, hindi lamang mga constituents sa Sarangani,” (I am able to serve more other than my constituents in Sarangani) Pacquiao asserted. “Enjoy ako. “But the excitement of boxing is different,” he added.
When asked if the Vargas bout will be Pacquiao’s last fight, Roach said: “No. he will definitely fight a few more times after November 5.”
Roach is expected to join Pacquiao in the Philippines where most part of the training for the Vargas fight will take place in the next couple of weeks.
