On Wednesday morning, Freddy Roach opened the doors to the Wild Card Gym for the first time since Manny Pacquiao began preparing for his comeback fight against Hector Velazquez in late July.
However, only representatives from the media were allowed inside for the boxer’s first open workout of this training camp. Gone were the throngs of Filipino fans who packed the Wild Card before Manny’s last fight with Erik Morales and turned most of their hero’s sparring sessions into one big party.
“I told them that if they really are Manny’s fans and want him to win, stay away,” Roach says.
The Pacquiao-Velazquez super featherweight fight will kick off an HBO World Championship Boxing doubleheader airing live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Sept. 10. In the co-feature, Erik Morales will take on 1996 Olympian Zahir Raheem in a lightweight match-up. Both bouts are scheduled for 12 rounds.
Should Pacquiao and Morales win, they are expected to step into the ring for their eagerly anticipated rematch in January 2006. Apparently, the contracts have already been drawn up.
Velazquez, from Tijuana, sports a record of 42-10-2 and is known for his durability. Aside from an accidental headbutt suffered against Robbie Peden four years ago (which forced their bout to go to the scorecards early), Hector hasn’t been stopped in eight years. So Roach expects his fighter to get quite a few rounds in.
Team Pacquiao is also using this tune-up to right all the wrongs that took place last March, when Manny lost a unanimous decision to Morales.
For example, Murad Muhammad, Manny’s former promoter, is gone. He’s been replaced by Gary Shaw.
Also, the silence in the gym when Manny trains now is almost deafening, because Roach instituted a closed-door policy from day one. “This way, we can work on what we need to work on and not have to worry about too many spies,” he jokes, with just a hint of healthy paranoia.
And, if Morales-Pacquiao II is made, Roach says there won’t be a similar glove controversy that dogged their first meeting. Reyes gloves will be used. “In fact, it’s already in the contract,” he adds.
Before giving the media their first look at the latest version of Manny Pacquiao, though, Roach shared his thoughts Tuesday on Manny’s managerial change, the importance of eliminating distractions and how eager they are to get another crack at Erik Morales.
Here’s what Roach had to say, in his own words.
“Training’s going very well. I had to close the gym down for Manny because he had too many distractions last time. When we were preparing for the Morales fight, the Filipino fans loved to show up and watch him work out. But I noticed Manny started performing for them and not for me. I want him working on technique, not just putting on a show for his fans.”
“Against Morales, I know we didn’t fight the best fight we could. After the first round, the game plan kind of went out the window. Manny fought on pure guts. He’s a much better fighter than he showed that night.”
“Throughout this camp, we’ve been working on Manny’s complete game. We want him to be more effective and not just look for the homerun punch. I also want him working the body a lot more. I don’t think we worked the body enough with Morales last time. So, if Manny does that in this fight, maybe it’ll carry over into the next fight. Overall, though, we’re just working on making him a better fighter – a more complete fighter. And it’s going well.”
“It’s in Manny’s nature to be aggressive. He’s a puncher. That’s one of the best things he does, so we’re not going to take that away from him. But Velazquez doesn’t get stopped too often. So, we’re ready to go 12 hard rounds.”
“The Murad Muhammad deal is over. He’s not in the picture anymore. In my opinion, no one is stealing from Manny now. Manny is in complete control. He knows what he’s making, and there are no distractions. Manny will get a suite if he wants one. He won’t have to share a ‘shit’ room with six people anymore.”
“Bob Arum promotes Morales, and he was protecting his man. So we needed a promoter to protect us and make sure everything was right on our side. We chose Gary Shaw to be the man. We worked out a very good deal for Manny. We’ve got a two-fight deal with him. And I think it’s going to be to our benefit, of course.”
“The Morales fight was very rough. Fights like that can take something out of you. But I think it took more out of Morales than it took out of us.”
“Losing sucks. I hate it, and I’ll take responsibility for it every time. Maybe I didn’t do my job correctly and let too many distractions get in the way. But, we have a good team now and everyone is on the same page. I think it’s going to make a big difference.”
“Manny and I have talked about it. We know 126 is probably his best fighting weight. And we can go back down to that weight, because Manny makes it easily. But he wants Morales. So we’re going to stay at 130. I do know 130 is as high as we’ll go.”
“This tune-up fight is good because it gets Manny back in the gym – gets him back in the mode of training for a big fight – and we don’t have to rush into anything. Right after this fight, though, we’ll take a week off, and then we’ll get right back into the Morales mode.”
“Hector Velazquez has a style similar to Erik Morales. Of course, he’s not the same caliber. But he’s somebody we definitely can’t take lightly. We’re not going to walk over this guy. So we’re really training hard for this fight. We know there’s no rematch with Erik without a win over Velazquez.”
“I’m looking for Manny to use the same skills he showed against Barrera. That was definitely his best performance. We had a good game plan that night, and we stuck to it. That’s what we haven’t done in the last two fights. He fought a perfect fight against Barrera. He fought the best guy in the world that night, and he beat him pretty soundly.”
“I expect the best out of Manny on Sept 10, because I know what he can do if he just puts his mind to it.”
