s Manny Pacquiao gets into the heart of his training camp in Baguio, Philippines, things seem to be going well. There are the usual glowing reports from his trainer, Freddie Roach, and others who surround ’the Pac Man’ on a daily basis. It seems to be full steam ahead as he prepares for Miguel Cotto on November 14Th in Las Vegas. As usual, there were the usual worries about the physical and mental being of the Filipino icon, coming in.
Because while Manny was being Manny throughout the summer, Cotto had gotten a head start of about a month, as he began his training camp in early August in Tampa, Florida. Pacquiao’s face looked round and soft a few weeks ago in Los Angeles on September the 14Th, where a three-city press tour wrapped up. His somewhat portly figure was an indication that he hadn’t seen the gym since his electrifying stoppage of Ricky Hatton back in May. As for Cotto, he looked as though he was already in fighting trim.
When asked why he began his camp so soon, he answered,” Because we think we feel better this way.” Cotto didn’t spend much time away from the gym, having fought on June 13Th, when he decisioned Joshua Clottey in New York.” We started early because we think this is good for us.”
When Pacquiao was asked what he had been up to recently, his reply was,” Doing movies. My movie.”
But during the press tour that saw the two fighters go to New York, Puerto Rico and then Los Angeles, Pacquiao was said to have started his roadwork. While Cotto may have gotten a head start in training, his handlers believes that will be overcome.
” Y’know what? We have an eight week training program, it always works for us,” said Roach, at the Beverly Hills Hotel, where the final press conference was held.” Manny’s doing his conditioning, running, playing basketball like he always does. It’s just going to be the norm. Manny Pacquiao, after seven days in the gym, he’s almost ready to fight. He responds so quickly. If I do over eight weeks with Manny, he’d go over-the-hill. It would be too much.”
That opinion is backed up by Alex Ariza, the strength-and-conditioning coach for Pacquiao.
” You know how Manny trains and the intensity and how hard he pushes himself. Honestly, with any other fighter, yeah, I would be a little concerned( about the starting point) but with Manny it’s not really a short camp,” he says.” I know people want this longer camp. As hard as Manny pushes himself and the level of intensity that he has, anything longer, I would be really concerned about him over-training and losing focus.”
To them, Pacquiao isn’t just your average, run-of-the-mill vehicle. A sedan that can be taken on the road everyday. He’s a high-powered sports car that needs to honed and finely tuned, who’s usage needs to be monitored. While he looked a bit pudgy, they insist that Pacquiao is no heavier than usual.
” He weighs 152, right now,” insisted Roach, couple of weeks ago.” He’s ripped already.”
But one concern that Roach had was the geographic location of this training camp. Because of certain tax laws, Pacquiao was forced to spend the first half of his preparations for Cotto outside the United States. Roach had preferred they settle in locations based in Mexico or Canada. But Manny wanted the Philippines. And what Manny wants, Manny gets. It’s that simple.
” I chose the Philippines because there’s a good place there that’s a very nice place. The weather is like L.A. and it’s not too crowded,” said Pacquiao. In the past his trainer had lamented that his fighters home country was simply strewn with too many distractions for him to fully focus on the task at hand.” I have no problems with the Philippines,” said Roach, who added,” the only problem I have with the Philippines is the jet-lag and the length of the flight. So I would rather be closer but the thing is, me and Manny sat down and talked. It took us five minutes to work things out. Once we saw each, no bullshit, everything’s cool. We worked it out, we’re going to do four weeks in Baguio, four weeks in America.”
Leading up to Pacquiao’s arrival in America, there had been a lot of talk of a possible rift that existed between the fighter and trainer.” That’s been put to rest,” stated Roach, who didn’t need much time alone with his fighter to get things back on track.” When Mike Koncz gets booed, I smile. He gets mad at me but I don’t care. Once I get Manny in front of me, it took five minutes to sort things out.”
Roach flew out to the Philippines on the 20Th of September, as he had to work the corner of Guillermo Rigondeaux on the 18Th in Miami. But before they left for Baguio, Pacquiao had begun the process of getting ready for what could be the toughest fight of his career.
” We went running yesterday morning at the park,” Ariza said a couple of days after the final press conference.” First thing he said to me was,’ Get all my strength training equipment and have it shipped to the Philippines and whatever we can, get it over there. Call up the company and have it shipped to the Philippines.’ So when Manny says something like that, it just shows how dedicated he’s going to be to this fight, as well.”
So while Pacquiao builds momentum, Cotto has already been hard at work. The key for them is to make sure that he doesn’t leave it in the gym.
” That’s part of my job to make sure that doesn’t happen,” says his strength-and-conditioning guru, Phil Landman.” We have a pretty well structured and planned out 12-week training camp.”
For Cotto, a victory over Pacquiao would go a long way to erase the stench of his loss to Antonio Margarito. But the Puerto Rican star seems to downplay that by saying,” The fight with Antonio Margarito is in my past. I haven’t thought of that since. Now, it’s another beginning.” It’s clear that they look at this upcoming bout as a new chapter in what has already been a storied career.” Miguel’s still the same, but for me, we’re focused on what we have coming ahead of us, we’re not thinking too much about what happened in the past. We’re training hard right now and I see Miguel in a very good place,” said Landman.
Cotto, who most of the time is about as animated as a statue, states simply,” I don’t know what Manny Pacquiao’s thinking or going to do. But I’m going to train and take Manny Pacquiao serious.”
But the question is, is Pacquiao taking Cotto as serious as he needs to in the wake of his dominant performances versus a faded Oscar De La Hoya and an over-matched Ricky Hatton?
” Without a doubt,” said Roach,” once we get int he gym he’s a workhorse. I expect him to be the same as always. When Manny Pacquiao’s not that workhorse anymore, I’ll tell him to stop fighting.”
Ariza, now a veteran of Pacland, is used to the turmoil and tumult that surrounds the fighter.
” I’ll be honest with you, if everything was going smooth and there weren’t any distractions and it was all just perfect and smooth sailing, I would worry. I’m telling you, that would bother me. But with everything going on with this and us rushing, to me, that shows me we’re on the right track. Everything is good because there hasn’t been a time since- and this is my fourth or fifth fight with Manny- that we haven’t had something or some kind of controversy or something out of the ordinary.
” Once he gets those blinders on, it’s all about boxing.”
NOW WHAT?
So where does Paulie Malignaggi go from here, now that it looks like the rematch with Juan Diaz will not take place on December 12Th? Well, it looks like his promoter, Lou DiBella, was doing everything he could to salvage that match-up.
” I informed Richard Schaefer that if HBO wanted to put more money in the license fee, if he could direct that to Diaz and it would get the fight made, we would accept what was already on the table for us,” he explained.
Unfortunately, their options are limited. It’s either ’the Baby Bull’ or bust for 2009.
” I’d go to Paulie- and I doubt Paulie’s going to want to fight- but I’ll offer him a chance to fight a stay-busy, but I doubt he’s going to want that. I think he’ll wait for a big opportunity and hopefully one will come,” said DiBella.” The problem is, I don’t believe he’s going to get a Marquez fight, a Diaz fight and most of the fights he’s going to want, I don’t think are necessarily going to be there for him. But Paulie’s a big name with a lot of talent. Frankly, right now, I think there will be more interest in Paulie’s next fight then there will be in Juan Diaz’s, if it’s not with Paulie. We’ll see.”
GHOST BUSTIN’
It was an interesting Wednesday in regards to one Robert Guerrero who may or may not be going back to Goossen-Tutor or may or may not be staying with Golden Boy Promotions. In the early afternoon there was a press release sent out by Goossen-Tutor stating that they had won their appeal and had regained Guerrero’s promotional rights. Guerrero left the company last year- believing that his contract with them had expired- and had to go through an arbitration process to eventually get his freedom.
Later on in the afternoon, a press release was sent out by Team Guerrero that stated,” Promotional Rights to Robert Guerrero Remain with Golden Boy Promotions.” Which pretty much speaks for itself.
It’s clear that there is going to be a fight, here.
What I found eye-opening was that the Los Angeles Superior Court Judge, Robert H. O’Brien said that in regards to the original arbitration ruling made by the California State Athletic Commission,” The award was procured by corruption, fraud or other undue means.”
I’m told this could get ugly.
What’s interesting now is just what happens to that December 12Th, ’Boxing After Dark’ date, after Diaz-Malignaggi II fell apart, the hope of Golden Boy was to have Guerrero face Rocky Martinez in that nights main event. A source tells me that there were some attempts to revive Diaz-Malignaggi but as of now, that doesn’t seem likely.
Will ’the Ghost’ who was dormant for much of 2008, disappear once again as he is in the middle of this tug-of-war?
THE MAIN EVENT
As some of you know, I cut my teeth covering boxing in the late ’90’s with a boxing talk show, ’the Main Event’, which at one time aired for three( yes, three) hours on Sunday night on AM1150 and was devoted to nothing but ’the sweet science’. Ah, yes, those were the days, long before Maxboxing was ever hatched.
Folks have asked me if I would ever get back into radio or do another show devoted to boxing. Well, because of the modern technology that exists, the answer is yes. I have downloaded Skype( think about how far I’ve come in the recent months, new Blackberry, Twitter and now this), and all systems are go for the revival of ’the Main Event’ which will run live every Wednesday night at 6 pm, Pacific, for one full hour. And then will be archived and podcast in various forms.
You’ll get my thoughts and opinions of yours truly, along with special guests( it looks like Larry Merchant will be my first guest) and we’ll also take your calls. We’ll have more info in the upcoming days.
MORE FLURRIES
Just in case your forgot( or really didn’t care), David Tua( remember him?) takes on Shane Cameron this weekend in Australia….I don’t have the numbers, but more than one person tells me that the Klitschko-Arreola broadcast, which included the Mayweather-Marquez rebroadcast, had the highest HBO rating of the year….What’s interesting is that if Vitali does fight on December 12Th, as planned in Europe, it will not be on HBO( Or maybe that can be the new ’BAD’ main event….Kevin Johnson is still among the leading contenders to face Klitschko on that date…..Speaking of HBO, I highly recommend Thomas Hauser’s newest piece.I have a distinct feeling he will not be included in any of their new documentaries…..I read on Mediatakeout.com that DMX, yeah, DMX is thinking about starting a boxing career. OK, there are simply way too many punchlines here to take advantage off.,….Seriously, Pamela Anderson is broke?….Seriously, after hearing about USC running back Stafon Johnson, will you just go with dumb bells when working out your chest?….Please, if you’re experiencing technical difficulties with your Maxboxing account, let me know by emailing me at [email protected]…..Twitter.com/stevemaxboxing….
