Question For Roach: Will Cotto Spar Pacquiao?

It might make sense, wouldn't it, for Manny Pacquiao to spar with Miguel Cotto, being that both are trained by Freddie Roach, and both have fights coming up? But no, that's not gonna happen, sorry LA gym rats who thought about popping over to Wild Card to get a gander at that spectatcle.

Cotto will be hitting LA in two weeks, Freddie Roach, the Hall of Famer trainer of The Congressman told me today, but that will be too close to Manny's April 12 fight with Tim Bradley, so the sparring concept is kaput.

“He could help us with speed, but it's too close to the fight,” the Massachusetts native said.

The two men faced off for moolah in 2009, with Pacman achieving a stoppage in round 12. Apart from the timing aspect, Roach said the two men are friends, so, the implication is, it might be better to find people with whom Manny doesn't have such a fondness for to utilize for battering practice. He didn't mention that Cotto could be a bit beefier than Pacman, who'll be fighting at 147 versus Bradley, lighter than the 159 or less Cotto is contracted to weigh for his June 7 fight with Sergio Martinez.

Cotto will also jet to Vegas, and be present for the last five days till the April 12 fighnight. The Puerto Rican is getting mad frequent flyer miles; he's in NYC tonight, for a screening of the new “Game of Thrones” season opener, at HBO.

SPEEDBAG Roach will be training Denis Lebedev to rematch with Guillermo Jones. The cruisers tangled last May, with Jones notching a KO11 victory. They'll rumble again April 26, in Russia.

—New Roach client Antonio Demarco will be back in two weeks to the Wild Card to help Cotto get a look at quick foe. “It's back to back fights, one camp into another and that's the way I like to work,” said Roach.

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