ROACH: "IF THERE WAS A STEROID FOR MANNY PACQUIAO, IT IS GOD"

By Andre Zurbrug | January 13, 2010

"If there was a steroid for Manny Pacquiao, it is God. He believes in God and God will decide who wins the fight and that's his outlook on sports. He's not that type of guy who would ever use an enhancing drug," commented 2009 Trainer of the Year Freddie Roach, who is now putting the controversy regarding blood testing behind him as he and Pacquiao begin training for the March 13th title defense against Joshua Clottey.

In a recent interview with the OnTheGrind Boxng Team, Roach shared his final thoughts on Mayweather's controversial request for Olympic-style blood testing:

"The thing is everyone in the world acts differently to giving blood. Some people pass out, some people feint, some people feel dizzy and some people don't feel anything. I'm one of those people, I can give blood and I feel fine, but, the thing is Manny Pacquiao, when he gives blood, I lose him for like 3 to 4 days because he doesn't feel well. And the thing is I'm not going to have my fighter go into a ring in the biggest fight of his life knowing that he might not feel 100% because he had to give blood 4 days or 3 days or 2 days or 1 day before a fight. It's just not going to happen. It's not in the rules. A urine test and a saliva test will show the same as blood. Olympic-style blood testing, when they save blood, it's to compare the blood from year to year. This is a one-fight deal. They're not going to save the blood and compare it from year to year because the enzymes change and if it was an enhancing drug, it may not showing anything in the blood that urine and saliva won't. That's Olympic-style training and Olympic-style training goes year by year by year because they test these amatuer athletes for 10 years straight because they can be in 2 or 3 Olympics and all of that. So, it's not relevant. I mean, I called one of my best friends, who works for the NFL, and one of the head drug persons with the OIC told me that saliva, hair and urine shows exactly the same as blood. I mean, HGH can't be detected by any tests, so there's always something."

"We've never tested positive. We don't have any symptoms of steroids. He doesn't break out in pimples, he doesn't get moody, he's always smiling, he has no symptoms of steroid use at all, but all of a sudden, Paulie Malignaggi and Floyd Mayweather, instead of just saying he's a good fighter, say that he's on drugs because he's so good. You know what? That's a slap in the face. Why can't they just say he's a good fighter. I mean, becuase you know what, Floyd Mayweather, he's a very good fighter, he's great at what he does, you know, but he's scared of my guy."

And with that, Freddie Roach has now closed this chapter on blood testing and Floyd Mayweather Jr. At least for now, the 2009 Trainer of the Year can look to the future and start focusing on the task at hand on March 13th, a task that won't be easy, but such is the case when you're training the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.

Source: fighthype.com