Mayweather vs. Pacquiao: Freddie Roach Wrong to Paint Fight as 'Good vs. Evil'

Manny Pacquiao's legendary trainer Freddie Roach is going above and beyond to hype the May 2 superfight between his fighter and Floyd Mayweather Jr. Frankly, it's unnecessary. In what looks like an effort to create a deeper narrative or to generate a mean streak in his fighter, Roach has crossed the line with his approach.

Roach has served as Pacquiao's mouthpiece throughout the pre-fight hype, and I can only hope he's misrepresenting his fighter.

Per Martin Rogers of USA Today Sports, Roach has described the fight as a clash between "good against evil." The notion is ridiculous, even when Roach attempts to back up his concept by mentioning Mayweather's history of domestic violence.

Roach spoke for his fighter, saying: 

"Manny is really against domestic violence. It is a big issue maybe in the Philippines for him and being a congressman he can control some of that stuff. That is a big plus for me that Manny does not like the guy, I think the killer instinct is going to come back a lot faster."

If we didn't know any better, it sounds as if Roach is attempting to use something as serious as domestic violence as a motivating factor for an athlete in a sporting event. As Roach spoke further, there's no question that's exactly what he's been doing.

"(I see the fight as) good against evil, yes. I have even thought about bringing a couple of the metro cops from Vegas in to tell Manny how many times (Mayweather) has been arrested and how bad of a guy he is, but I decided I can't go that far. He already doesn't like him; I think we are OK."

Mayweather's past transgressions are troubling, but also completely irrelevant to the bout on May 2. This isn't a presidential election where one candidate tries to smear a rival's name in an effort to gain an edge with voters, or to disqualify a competitor. None of this is going to help or hurt Pacquiao in the ring, thus it should be omitted from the pre-fight hype. All it does is make things awkward. 

If anything, it causes people to look closely at Pacquiao's personal life. Pacquiao reportedly nearly lost his marriage partly due to various infidelities, per a 2012 article by Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports. Obviously, domestic violence is a crime and infidelity is seen as immoral as Pacquiao's wife Jinkee was none too happy about Pac-Man's behavior.

Essentially, these aren't even issues we should be discussing when talking about a boxing match. Yet, this is the Pandora's box that is opened when Roach and others bring these elements into focus.

Stephen Dunn/Getty Images

This fight is so big from a pure boxing standpoint, there's no need for the extras. We're talking about the two biggest names in the sport over the last 20 years. Pacquiao and Mayweather are the two fighters that every person knows, even if they aren't a boxing fan. Believe it or not, this is the type of fight that promotes itself.

Perhaps the folks who are usually in charge of such tasks aren't comfortable with that fact, but it doesn't make it any less true. Come May 2, it would be great to discuss the strategy, approach, in-ring results and other things that are boxing related.

We'd all be better served simply enjoying this bout as the historic match it's set up to be, and not the potential circus it could turn into.

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