In this video interview caught by FightHub, Manny Pacquiao's trainer Freddie Roach insinuates that Manny Pacquiao deliberately fibbed about his intentions to retire leading up to, and after, beating Timothy Bradley back in April.
"He told me before the [Bradley fight] that this is not his last fight, so the 'retirement' was kind of...I think he was trying to please some people. His family wants him to retire and so forth, and I think he was just trying to please a lot of people that maybe wanted him to get out of boxing.
"And then he ran for senator and boxing was kind of getting in the way. So running for senator as a retired fighter was easier...like how much time are you going to want off and so forth? I mean, the thing is as a congressman he can get time off, but as a senator, the other senators said 'well if he gets time off, why don't we get time off?' So we were kind of stuck a little bit, so we just had to work through it. I think that he just wanted to get that out of the way and it was easier just to say he was retired but he's never been retired in my mind.
"He's told me before that last fight and after that fight that 'we're not through yet,' and I said 'I know.'
Roach then goes on to tell a story about the time he stood up to Al Haymon:
"I don't really have a relationship with Al Haymon. I've met him twice, one time we had a nice meeting, cordial, and the second time I was in Mayweather's locker room and he told me not to talk to his fighter and I said 'I'm not talking to your fighter, I'm talking to the commissioner' and I said 'why don't you go fuck yourself anyway, I'm not scared of you.'
"He treated me like I was a piece of shit and so I didn't like the way his attitude was right there. So just because I have a fighter with him [Jesus Cuellar], I don't deal with him but Cuellar is a very good fighter and he's doing well."