Pacquiao will fight in November—Roach

The super showdown between top pound-for-pound fighters Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and Manny Pacquiao is still up in the air, but trainer Freddie Roach assured that his ward will fight this year.

“I don't know what's going on. I'm staying out of it. I just know Manny will be fighting someone in November,” Roach was quoted in a BoxingScene.com report by Ruslan Chikov.

Negotiations for the Mayweather-Pacquiao bout have been revived but nothing has been finalized as of posting.

“We hope the opponent is Mayweather. If not, we'll fight someone else and we'll be ready,” added Roach.

Mayweather and Pacquiao were supposed to slug it out last March 13 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena but they disagreed on the drug testing protocol after the Filipino refused to give in to the American’s demand for Olympic-style blood testing.

Recently, the newly-elected Sarangani Province congressman Pacquiao agreed to have himself blood tested 14 days before the fight.

But Mayweather’s camp has been silent since Pacquiao’s pronouncement.

Despite the cancellation of the March 13 fight, Pacquiao and Mayweather went on to win their bouts via unanimous decision against Joshua Clottey and Shane Mosley, respectively.

Roach, for his part, commented on Mayweather’s performance in his match against Mosley last May 1 at the MGM Grand.

“You can see in the Mosley fight that his legs are not there. He's [Mayweather] a very good fighter, but my guy is better and I know my guy can beat him,”

Pacquiao earlier beat Clottey on March 13 at the Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. He followed this up with his political victory in the May 10 elections.