Pacquiao is set to do his second fight following his shoulder surgery a few days after his historic fight against Floyd Mayweather last year.
Pacquiao’s first post-surgery fight was against Timothy Bradley last April 9. For longtime trainer Freddie Roach, it was Pacquiao’s first test to find out if the surgery was indeed successful.
The 37-year-old fighting senator from the Philippines did very well against Bradley, knocking him down twice enroute to a unanimous decision victory last May at the MGM Grand in Last Vegas. Now Roach wants to validate Pacquiao’s performance over Bradley by taking another test fight against Jessie Vargas on Nov. 5.
While Roach is impressed with Pacquiao’s performance over Bradley in their third encounter, he wants to know if Pacquiao can do better against Vargas before finally deciding on Pacquiao’s future fights.
Before he moved to Manila two weeks ago to start formal training for the Vargas fight, Roach said he believes Pacquiao will continue fighting and will fight anybody including Terence Crawford and Canelo Alvarez until the Mayweather rematch becomes a reality.
But now he wants to be doubly sure that Pacquiao is completely healed from his surgery when he collides with Vargas in less than a month.
To Roach, it will be Pacquiao’s final test fight before he gives him the green light to continue fighting as long as he keeps on winning.
On Nov. 5, Roach wants Pacquiao to score his first KO win in seven years against Vargas. Roach is confident Pacquiao will go for it knowing he has fully recovered from his surgery as shown in his last fight against Bradley. Read more
Meanwhile Pacquiao is set to move over to Wild Card Gym in Hollywood from his present training camp in the Philippines on Oct. 22 when the Philippine senate where Pacquiao is a neophyte member go on recess, to resume his training for the Vargas fight.
