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Philippines, 26 Apr 2024 |
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PACQUIAO: THE SAGA CONTINUES, PART II By Ronnie Nathanielsz PhilBoxing.com Sun, 19 Aug 2007  Pacquiao was upset with the media reports that speculated on the reasons for his return, his alleged quarrel with Roach and that after a couple of days he was returning to LA. When, in the quiet of the Wild Card Gym office we leaned over and spoke to Manny asking him not to keep anger or hate in his heart because it would eat him up inside, he insisted “I’m not angry. I don’t hate anybody. But the media should not print lies and make up stories. That’s not right. They can criticize me. I don’t mind. Just tell the truth.” We had invited Bulletin sportswriter Nick Giongco to join us on our visit to the Wild Card in the hope that we could somehow persuade Pacquiao to drop his P30 million suit filed against Giongco in GenSan. They sat at opposite ends of the rather small room but hardly looked at each other. They had long been good friends and Giongco was perceived as one of Manny’s favorite boxing writers but when he wrote a story that referred to Pacquiao as “a compulsive gambler” it was too much for Pacquiao to take. “All I want is to make sure they follow the law” he told us. Nothing more. We left the effort at reconciliation for another time. Indeed, Pacquiao’s beef with the media’s reportage which he finds negative or libelous in his assessment prompted him to request Gerry Garcia of “In This Corner” to print out a couple of articles including one in which the headline spoke of De La Hoya asking him to reform. He instructed his chief-of-staff to call his lawyer in Makati and after a quick shower following his workout, Pacquiao got dressed, signed autographs and posed for fans who had crowded the gym before driving off in his Porsche for an appointment with his lawyers. To date there’s no word on whether he is pushing through with his threat to file a second libel suit against another well-known sportswriter/columnist although indications are he will not and that he has simmered down. Joson even took issue with us over a Manila Standard story that said our World Cup boxing team felt abandoned when Pacquiao failed to show up in Sacramento but eased off when we told him that’s how the fighters felt and that was the truth which, we gather from our eminent lawyer and longtime friend and mentor Rudy Salud, is the best defense against libel. Salud earlier expressed surprise over the libel suit filed by Pacquiao against Giongco saying he often saw them together at the cockpits and the two were obviously good friends. We have always, like many who know him rather intimately, cared for Pacquiao despite his faults because he is basically a kind-hearted individual. Ever since he was a 16 year old skinny kid we have, through the years, helped nurture his career on the weekly boxing show ”Blow by Blow” which was a project of men steeped in boxing - Rod Nazario, Lito Mondejar and Moy Lainez. In fact it was Vintage Sports and later Viva Sports that promoted Pacquiao’s career and covered most of his local, regional and world title fights all the way up to the November, 2003 encounter with Barrera when Solar Sports stepped in, dangled a huge rights fee of some $200,000 for three fights which was twice as much as the $30,000 per fight that we had agreed to before. We were disappointed and even hurt at what happened but never took it against Pacquiao. Our friendship has stood steadfast despite our occasional critical stories mainly about his gambling and late nights which we sincerely believe will eventually take its toll and are aimed to make him realize that he is a national treasure whom millions of Filipinos look up to for the joy and shared pride he brings us and should stay away from the vices that could hurt his exciting career as the world's No.1 pound-f0r-pound fighter today. Right now it seems that Pacquiao has gotten a hold of himself and is training in earnest for his October 6 battle with Barrera. He claims his sudden and unexpected decision to return home and train in the Philippines was part of a new strategy for his coming fight and to prevent Barrera's people spying on him during workouts at the Wild Card Gym in LA. Even Roach played along by saying the rematch with Barrera is going to be “the toughest fight of our lives and that’s why I’m here.” Roach said the original plan which was subsequently junked and revived again was for Pacquiao to train for the first half of his camp in the Philippines and then move to the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles for the second half. Pacquiao told us last Monday that he had spoken to Roach and the celebrated trainer was arriving on Thursday. At the airport Roach laid out the plans. “I plan to spend a month here in Cebu getting ready for the fight and then the last two weeks we’ll go back to LA and start tapering off. One week in LA, one week in Vegas. I want to go fourteen days before the fight just to get acclimatized to the time change. We need to get started right away so I am flying to Cebu in a half hour and we are training today. Its just work as usual. Manny’s got a little bit of workout done under his belt already but I’m really going to start pushing him today and then on Sunday we have three sparring partners coming in – Jose Armando Santa Cruz, Urbano Antillon and Dave Ravello. Three tough guys.” Santa Cruz is taller than Barrera and stands around 5’7” and is a light welterweight with a record of 25-2 with 14 knockouts while Antillon who is also a light welterweight is undefeated in 19 fights with 12 knockots. Roach described Antillon as “the workhorse. He presses the action and will push Manny and make him work to improve his condition of course.” Meantime, reigning WBC super featherweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez gave Pacquiao what Roach classified as “the best advice." In a conversation which Marquez had with our colleague James Blears of Boxing Scene, the Mexican champion warned Pacquiao that he shouldn’t take it easy in his preparations for the Barrera fight because it won’t be an easy fight. Roach confessed that he gets “really, really mad when people tell Manny he’ll knock this guy out, this is an easy fight. That’s the furthest thing from the truth. Barrera has revenge on his side, he hates the way he lost to Pacquiao. I think he may have taken Pacquiao a little bit lightly in their first fight. One thing about Barrera – he’s come out after a loss to Junior Jones before and got knocked out and we thought he was all done but then came back. He came back from a loss to Erik Morales. This guy has a lot of pride on his side, has his countrymen on his side and he wants to beat Manny Pacquiao. He hates Manny Pacquiao. He’s a nice guy who’ll never show that but you know what, I can see it in his eyes.” “This is the toughest fight of our lives so far, believe me” said Roach prior to boarding his flight to Cebu. Roach added, “if Manny doesn’t get into great shape for this fight, we’ll lose, plain and simple. That’s why I’m here. We got to get started.” ABS-CBN’s Dyan Castillejo who has covered Pacquiao extensively and is a friend of Roach tried to persuade him to go to the giant broadcast network’s studios in Quezon City along with newly crowned WBO bantamweight champion Gerry Penalosa and Diosdado Gabi but after Jake Joson checked with Pacquiao by phone, he said he was going to train at noon and there was no way Roach could take a later flight. Roach himself was eager to get to Cebu and check on Manny right away. Roach checked in at the Waterfront Hotel where Manny and Buboy Fernandez are staying and after a quick lunch went over to the newly refurbished RWS Gym of “Wakee” Salud where Pacquiao worked out for some two hours. We briefed Roach on his arrival about Pacquiao’s condition. We told him that shortly after he arrived from LA he drove to Ayala Alabang where he played a pick-up game of basketball along with some friends who included former PBA superstar Jerry Codinera and TV commentator and Manila Standard Today columnist Anthony Suntay who was amazed at the condition Manny was in considering he had just gotten off a plane after a long and tiring flight. We also told Roach that when he worked the punch mitts at the Nazario Wild Card gym his power was there although because of the layoff since his last fight against Jorge Solis was last April, his timing was a little rusty but considering there were some s even weeks to go before the Barrera fight, he was doing fine. Roach and Pacquiao buckled down to work at the RWS Gym of Salud in the afternoon Freddie arrived which also says something about Roach’s condition and his commitment to Manny. It was a solid workout and Roach estimated that Pacquiao was where he wanted him to be at this point in his training. However, Roach was taking over and insisting on tight security at Salud’s gym. He wants the fans to be kept away while Manny is working out. He doesn’t want to see the distractions at his own Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles when Filipinos and Fil-Ams and foreigners swarmed the gym, and disturbed Manny’s training regimen which cost him dearly in his first fight with Erik Morales. Pacquiao himself concedes that you cannot be one hundred percent at this point in your training because you will be burned out by fight night. But he will, as always, virtually kill himself in the gym because the hopes of a nation and people as well as his wife and family ride on his fists of fury. And knowing Pacquiao as we do, he wont let them down. That;s why he is, a national treasure. -- END. PACQUIAO: THE SAGA CONTINUES, PART I. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.  |
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