Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach hinted that Manny Pacquiao is seriously considering Robert Guerrero for his next fight scheduled on April 12 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Previous reports suggested that Pacquiao is leaning towards facing Timothy Bradley or Ruslan Provodnikov in his next fight, but Roach told Fighthype that the former pound-for-pound king should go up against Guerrero because of one plain reason -- because "The Ghost" is a former opponent of Floyd Mayweather Jr.
"There's a couple of other guys out there right now that I'm thinking about that are free agents. You look at Mayweather's last like four fights and so forth, if we can fight one of those guys that he went the distance with and knock that person out and be impressive, it puts us even closer to Mayweather because that's the fight we really want eventually," Roach said.
As of now, the Filipino boxing icon wants to go up against Bradley because he wants to avenge his controversial loss to the undefeated American in their WBO welterweight showdown in June 2012.
But if Pacquiao wants to get a shot at Mayweather, Roach said that a knockout win against Guerrero, who had sparring sessions with Pacquiao before, could seal the big-money bout against the reigning pound-for-pound king.
"Guerrero has sparred with Manny many times and he thinks he gets the best of Manny. He's made that public before that he used to beat Manny up in sparring. I see it a different way, but I would love that fight and I think it's a great fight. You know, he went the distance with Mayweather and I think if Manny knocks him out, it puts us even closer to the Mayweather fight," Roach said.
Roach also added that he understands why Pacquiao wants to get a rematch with Bradley, but he warned that a second showdown with the 30-year-old American will not get good pay-per-view numbers.
Pacquiao, who is coming off a sensational unanimous decision win over Brandon Rios in November, is expected to name his next opponent in the coming weeks.
The potential record-breaking showdown against Mayweather is currently out of the picture. The Grand Rapids native stressed out numerous times that he is not interested in facing Pacquiao as long as he is under Top Rank Promotions and Bob Arum.
