TRAINER FREDDIE Roach had no specific instructions to Manny Pacquiao before heading back to Los Angeles on board a Philippine Airlines flight late Tuesday night.
Instead of the master leaving behind a to-do list, it was the other way around as Roach said it was Pacquiao who told him what he intended to do in the weeks ahead.
“Manny told me that he?d be there (at the Wild Card in Hollywood) 10 weeks before the (Nov. 18) fight with Erik Morales,” said Roach. The Filipino boxer also promised Roach that he?d already be in shape when he reports to the gym.”
According to Roach, he would be working out with the Filipino fighter behind closed doors at a gym adjacent to the Wild Card. “Hopefully it would be at the new gym.”
The new gym is just next door and on the same floor as the Wild Card where Roach is set to relocate from an apartment.
“Soon, I would be living there with (Australian conditioning coach) Justin (Fortune). Justin is a good chef and we would be staying there. He?s the one who loves to cook, while I am the one who likes to clean,” said Roach.
Roach said while Pacquiao was able to beat the gutsy Mexican Oscar Larios with six weeks of training, that would not be enough during the rubber match with Morales, nicknamed “El Terrible”, set at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas.
“He assured me that he?d train longer,” said Roach, who graded Pacquiao?s performance against Larios a six (in a scale of 1 to 10). “Manny could have done better.”
After getting severely hurt in the third round, Pacquiao clawed back and sent Larios down in the seventh and in the 12th and final round en route to a unanimous decision before roaring fans at the Araneta Coliseum over the weekend.
Once Roach gets back to the Wild Card, there will be no respite as other fighters under his wing await his input in preparing for their own fight sin the coming weeks and months.
Topping the list is Hawaii-born Filipino Brian Viloria, the reigning World Boxing Council (WBC) light-flyweight king who figures in a 10-rounder on Aug. 10 at The Orleans in Las Vegas.
Also being trained by Roach are super-bantamweight champion Israel Vazquez of Mexico and a sprinkling of Filipinos led by the unbeaten prospect Rey “Boom Boom” Bautista, who is scheduled to see action on Sept. 16 in Las Vegas.
