A fighter like Manny Pacquiao comes to just the right point in his training and physical perfection to do what he did to Marco Antonio Barrera. Pacquiao came from the small island of Mindanao in the Philippines with an intense fighting spirit, great hand speed and power.
But the sharp sword that he was had to be tempered just so for that night. Sharpened too finely, and the edge would be lost. Not enough was unthinkable. Nothing less than perfection would do against a great champion like Barrera.
Freddie Roach works on the master plan, the strategies; he?s the battlefield general. It?s up to Justin Fortune, his conditioning coach, to forge Pacquiao into the slashing blade that will cut tirelessly. But to hammer out such a weapon, steel must be worked beyond endurance. And, Fortune pushes fighters beyond where they thought they could go.
