Trainer Freddie Roach at the center of the storm during a Manny Pacquiao media day on April 15, 2015. Photo by Chris Farina/Top Rank.

If not for Freddie Roach, and his periodic missiles aimed at Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Team, this would be the tamest lead-up to any superfight in recent memory, it must be said.

Maybe because so much revenue is being generated, folks are on their best behavior … but only Roach seems to be in a fighting spirit a couple weeks out from the May 2 clash for da cash at the MGM.

Select quotes from the combative Mr. Roach went out after he got a load of Floyd’s late arrival to his scheduled media workout on Tuesday night. Get a load of some greatest hits and zings from the man from Dedham, Massachusetts, who was a pretty fair banger as a pro pugilist and is at the top of the trash-talk heap among trainers today.

“I am so glad that Mayweather is big on Shots (the social network app Mayweather uses) because he is going to be taking a lot of them from Manny on May 2,” said Roach. “That is why he has been avoiding Manny for so long. He didn’t want this fight. He can pretend it was a strategy to build up the fight’s value but that’s not true. For once Mayweather wasn’t able to handpick his opponent. He was forced to take this fight – by Manny, the media and the fans. His excuses for not making the fight haven’t held water for years and Manny finally exposed him. Mayweather ran out of road.”

Ouch … Roach knows Floyd is sensitive to public perception, and thinks we get it wrong when we the media blame him for this thing not getting done. Floyd has said for a spell that it was Manny’s refusal to do PED testing as predicated by Floyd that kept the bout from achieving liftoff earlier, not his feet-dragging …

“Mayweather may have been the ‘A Side’ during the negotiations, but once he signed the contract he became the ‘B Side’ just like he did when he fought Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton, Miguel Cotto and Canelo Alvarez,” Dedham Freddie continued, his flurry hard and aimed at the chin. “That is why he prolonged announcing the fight for as long as he did. He wanted all the attention. Mayweather is a different ‘A Side’ now and you can guess what the ‘A’ stands for.”

Oh snap, that’s a solid slap, being that Floyd did make the assembled wait on Tuesday night …

“He was late for his media workout, leaving major media outlets scheduled to go live with dead air,” said the spirited tutor, who has presented this faceoff as a good vs. evil proposition. “How selfish is that? It doesn’t take a lot to figure out why everyone is rooting for Manny. Just look at which fighter has the most endorsements going into this fight and why. When Manny beats Mayweather it won’t only be about unifying the welterweight titles, it will also be a public service to boxing.”

Roach has taken some flak on Twitter, with Floyd rooters not caring for his pot-stirring. But I say at least he’s showing a proper degree of fire, and not acting like this is just a business deal …

“Mayweather may be two victories shy of tying Rocky Marciano’s record (49-0) but I can assure you Mayweather’s party will end on May 2 and Marciano’s record will remain just that – the record. And Mayweather will forever be known as Mr. 47 and 1.”

I do expect that Mayweather might get into counterpunch mode, and/or a surrogate might step up and fire back at Freddie come fight week … but as of now, Roach is up 8-1 or so on the cards.