On August 10th, after attending a press conference in Beverly Hills to announce his October 6th rematch versus Marco Antonio Barerra, Manny Pacquiao was expected to make the quick jaunt up to Sacramento to support his fellow Filipinos in Golden Boy’s latest edition of the World Cup. The Pinoy punchers all happened to be trained by a familiar face to Pacquiao, Freddie Roach.
But instead of taking the short flight up north, he took a much longer trip back home to the Philippines, it was said, to take care of ‘personal business’.
Roach, who was expecting to see his fighter that weekend and then begin preparations for the rematch at his Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, was not pleased by the developments. A day after the World Cup, he would be on his way to retrieve ‘the Pac Man’.
“He flew back there and everyone was scrambling a little bit and asking what’s going to happen and so forth,” explained Roach. “So I got on a plane and went there, mostly to get him, work out there a little bit and then bring him home here for most of the time.
“But then we sat down and talked about it and I said, ‘Manny, why don’t we just train here in Cebu; I don’t want too much traveling back and forth,’ and Wakee Salud (his advisor) had just opened up his brand new gym and it was hot there. It was a great facility and so we decided to stay in the Philippines.”
Pacquiao would arrive back to the States on Saturday night. By Monday afternoon, he was back at work at the Wild Card.
“It’s harder than here and it’s hot,” Pacquiao would tell Maxboxing after his Tuesday afternoon session that included eight rounds of sparring. “It’s a good training camp.”
He looks to be on weight with less than two weeks before his showdown with Barrera. While Southern California was in the midst of a brutal heat wave a few weeks ago, the humidity still paled in comparison to that of the Philippines, which is located in Southeast Asia.
Word was that his ‘personal problems’ surrounded the little lady at home, so perhaps training over there was the only option.
“I think so,” agreed his trainer. “The thing is, he’d be close to his family and he saw them on the weekends. They’d fly in, the wife and kids, and he just felt like he wanted to be at home for that one. At first it was a little bit hard to control the crowd for the first week. I got mad and went off a little bit and once they saw that I was serious, they respected my request.”
There were reports that Roach was none-too-happy with the carnival atmosphere that surrounded their early days at Salud’s gym.
“Oh, I was pissed,” said the normally placid Roach. He nearly blew his stack when cameras kept rolling after they were ordered to be shut down. “I just told them, ‘Y’know what? You guys won?t turn them off, get out.'”
Roach was not about to let history repeat itself.
“When he lost to Morales the first time, I let the people come in for that fight,” he recalled. “I thought it would motivate Manny to train harder. But it was a mistake and I learned a lesson there. I wasn’t going to let that happen again.”
For all the chaos and turmoil that has surrounded him in the past, one thing the Filipino icon has consistently exhibited is the unerring ability to block out all those distractions once he steps through the doors of the gym. This day?s sparring could be best described as workmanlike – he turned it on when he wanted to but was mostly in cruise control. His smile was apparent throughout the day and he joked around easily with his handlers and the few that were allowed to stay for his workout.
The only thing that’s really getting to him is jet lag.
“Right now, he’s still adjusting to the time zone, like I am also,” said Roach. “But within a week, with the good work schedule that we’re having and staying up through the days and not taking naps, he’ll adjust quicker. Me and Manny have both traveled quite a bit, so we know how to adjust a little better than rookies do.”
While he was virtually whistling while he worked on this day, there were reports of discontentment from Pacquiao as he wound down his training camp back home. Rumors of him being unhappy with his take home pay and threatening to pull out of his bout circulated quickly.
When asked about them, Pacquiao would respond, “Well, those rumors were not true. I’m happy with my purse this coming fight. We didn’t have problems about our purse, also about the negotiations. There is no problem, I don’t know where they came from.”
“I was with him everyday. I took him running every morning, we stayed in the same hotel together, never once did he ever complain about anything about the fight,” commented Roach. “Everyday we trained like the fight was on. The fight was never in jeopardy of not happening, at least not in our minds at least. Then when I read reports that the fight?s going to be cancelled, I had not idea where they came from. It wasn’t coming from Manny, that’s for sure.”
These unfounded rumors incensed Bob Arum, who promotes Pacquiao with Golden Boy Promotions.
“It does a disservice to Manny. There wasn’t one iota of truth about it – not one!!! Manny is an honorable guy, and when he makes a deal, he makes a deal. He never even alluded to this, It?s total nonsense.”
Arum has a point; just look at what Pacquiao went through with one Murad Muhammad.
So the fight is on (at least from Pacquiao’s perspective) and Barrera will get a chance to avenge the thrashing he took back in 2003. Since that time, it seems that Pacquiao has only gotten better, while Barrera has gotten, well, just four years older.
“I see Barrera is getting a little slower than before. But we don’t want to be overconfident for this fight. I need to put my name on top, to give a good fight,” said Pacquiao. “He expects to win this fight, I expect to. I hope we’re going to give a good fight to the people.”
Before their initial meeting, it would be fair to say that Barrera was a distracted fighter, from previous medical conditions being revealed to his training camp in Big Bear having to be evacuated because of raging fires and even kidnapping plots against family members that were uncovered.
Now, it seems that the shoe could be on the other foot. Barrera seems to believe that Pacquiao was a bit lucky and fortunate to catch him under such circumstances.
Interestingly enough, Pacquiao admits, “Well, every fighter, we need to get lucky.” It was his way of saying that boxers need to capitalize on good fortune and press advantages that come their way.
OK, but can he get ‘lucky’ again?
“Maybe,” he would say with a laugh.
But in truth, Pacquiao is a streaking fighter, one that is considered to be one of the very elite in the sport. Barrera is one that is perceived to be fading and is coming off a decision loss to Juan Manuel Marquez in March. For the rematch, Pacquiao is a solid favorite.
And because of that, Roach has had to do as much work psychologically as he has physically with his charge.
“I told Manny, ‘A lot of people are telling you that this is an easy fight for you. We’ve heard that before, just like the first time we fought Morales. We thought that was going to be an easy fight. But there’s no such thing. If this guy has one more fight in him, we’re going to find out.'”
Roach is very aware of Barrera?s track record.
“He’s pulled it out a couple of times before. I mean, he’s come back from the dead after Junior Jones, Morales, he’s come back to beat a lot of people and you can’t underestimate the guy. And we haven’t. We’re in great shape for the fight. I expect him to be at his best.
“But I don’t think his best will be able to compete with Manny.”
PETER PRINCIPLE, INDEED
I know it’s always going to be en vogue to bash the sanctioning bodies (and they give plenty of reason to justifiably do so) and their ‘interim’ titles (and that’s also justified) but in the case of the WBC giving that distinction to heavyweight Samuel Peter, I think they are spot on.
Yes, many times these ‘interim’ belts are just boxing’s version of a ponzi scheme and spurious at best, but in this instance, that is exactly how and why it needs to be utilized.
You have a champion in Oleg Maskaev, who, for the longest time, has either been unable or unwilling to defend the title against someone who did everything asked of him to earn his mandatory status. Then when they finally get his name on the dotted line, he pulls out. Well, why should Peter suffer to this degree and why should the WBC title be frozen like a popsicle?
Maskaev has not lost his title, Peter?s next bout will be a title bout (and he gets to make a living, which is even more important) and when it’s all said and done, when Maskaev is ready to fight again, he’ll have every chance to fight for his championship.
Now, I’m not excusing the WBC for the role they played in this quagmire (and no, not the horn-dog on ‘Family Guy’) by placing the ’emeritus’ status on an undeserving Vitali Klitschko and almost allowing Maskaev’s manager Dennis Rapapport to weasel out of their mandatory, but here, they absolutely did the right thing.
DECEMBER DOINGS
On December 1st, while Showtime has a doubleheader featuring Vernon Forrest and Antonio Tarver, Bob Arum will be going through with the pay-per-view show from Albuquerque, New Mexico that he had hoped to put on Showtime.
“We’re doing that fight where they play basketball, ‘the Pit’, and Chavez Jr. is fighting Ray Sanchez, Jorge Arce will be on the card, maybe Ivan Calderon on the card and Orlando Salido,” said the promoter.
But Arce will not be facing Martin Castillo quite yet.
“Because HBO said that they wanted us to save that fight and do it next year so it could be on HBO,” Arum explained. “And we agreed, because it’ll be part of a doubleheader with Chavez and Alfonso Gomez.”
Two weeks later, two young titlists, Jorge Linares, the WBC featherweight belt-holder, and Edwin Valero, the WBA jr. lightweight ruler, will be defending their titles in Cancun, Mexico. Word is that the show will also be a small pay-per-view show.
FINAL FLURRIES
A good source tells me that the November 17th bout between Humberto Soto and Joan Guzman could end up at the Borgata in Atlantic City….Speaking of ‘Family Guy’, their version of Star Wars was brilliant…. I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait for Cal-Oregon this week; that’s a classic Pac 10 shootout….I’m taking Pavlik over Taylor this weekend……
