While all eyes were on the two fighters, Manny Pacquiao of General Santos, Philippines, and Marco Antonio Barrera of Guadalajara, Mexico, there were a lot of things going on with other personalities connected to the main draw.
On the day of ?Will to Win,? BALITA caught up with three important personalities closely associated with Manny Pacquiao: Bob Arum, Chairman of Top Rank; Ana ?The Hurricane? Julaton, aspiring Filipino American boxer, whose highly anticipated pro debut was cancelled at the last minute; and Coach Freddie Roach, who is credited with whipping Pacquiao into top form.
Oct. 6, 12:20 p.m., Mandalay Bay press room
One-on-one with Bob Arum, Chairman of Top Rank, co-presenter of the Pacquiao-Barrera fight:
BALITA: ?How would you describe your relationship with Manny??
Arum: ?Very, very good. I love Manny. He?s very charismatic. He?s a very warm-hearted person. It?s a pleasure being around him and being with him and promoting him.?
BALITA: ?How long have you known Manny now??
Arum: ?It goes back to the time when he fought Juan Manuel Marquez. I don?t know how many years ago that was but I?ve known him ever since then and I?ve always admired him. He?s a fine young man.?
BALITA: Do you get excited every time he has a fight?
Arum: ?Of course! But I get even more excited when I watch him fight because he?s such an exciting fighter.?
BALITA: ?What can we expect from future fights??
Arum: ?Well, first he has to win this fight tonight. And if he wins this fight tonight, he has to decide. Does he want to stay and fight at a 130 pounds or does he want to go to a 135? If he goes to a 135, I?d like to match him with David Diaz, the WBC champion, and if stays at a 130, then he can fight the winner of Marquez and Juarez or the winner of Soto-Guzman. So we?ll see. First things first. Win the fight, take a couple of weeks to regroup, then we?ll sit and talk.?
BALITA: ?Any predictions on tonight?s fight??
Arum: ?I think it?s going to be a really interesting fight, very, very competitive. And I think Manny is going to wear him down and win by knockout in the 10th or 11th round.?
(Editor?s note: Pacquiao won with a unanimous decision after a 12-round bout.)
Oct. 6, 3:30 p.m., via phone
Interview with Angelo Reyes, Manager, and Fil-Am boxer Ana ?The Hurricane? Julaton, who was slated to be part of the Pacquiao-Barrera undercard but whose name did not appear on the final line-up. Interview with Reyes:
BALITA: ?Why is Ana not on tonight?s undercard despite the previous media hype? Can you give us a background??
Reyes: ?Ana was scheduled to fight a girl who?s ranked number 11 in the world. Coach Freddie [Roach] allowed it. He said no problem. The reason why is that had Ana beaten the girl, it would have been equivalent to when Pacquiao beat Barrera the first time and Ana would have automatically gotten the title shot next year.?
?Everything was okay, the contracts were signed. And yesterday [Oct. 5] during the weigh-in Ana stepped on the official scale in front of the press and she weighed in at a 121 pounds. In contract, it said for a 122. The other girl weighed in at a 128 ? pounds. At that point, Freddie and myself and everybody said, ?We can?t do that. That?s just ridiculous.??
BALITA: ?How did people take it? How did Ana take it??
Reyes: ?She talked to Manny about it and he was really sad too.?
?She was crying a lot yesterday.?
Interview with Julaton:
BALITA: ?We heard about your none-inclusion in the undercard. How are you??
Julaton: ?I?m okay.?
?I?m still disappointed.?
?A lot of people are coming up to me and saying, ?You know, it happens. It wasn?t meant to be. Maybe next time.? A lot of people have been really supportive.?
?He?s [Manny Pacquiao] been really supportive with everything too. A big reason why I got put on the card was because of him. He made a lot of calls and made sure that he talked to a lot of people to make sure that I was on the fight card.?
?I feel that we?re ready, I?m ready to go. We have an extra couple of weeks to work on new stuff. Hopefully it all works out.?
Reyes shared that Julaton will be seeing action will have two things coming up in the next few weeks: a fight on ESPN in two weeks or on Showtime in three weeks.
Oct. 6, 11:00 p.m., Mandalay Bay press room
One-on-one with Freddie Roach, Manny Pacquiao?s coach, after the fight. Pacquaio defeated Barrera in the 12-round match by unanimous decision:
BALITA: ?What is the best thing about being Pacquaio?s coach or trainer??
Roach: ?I like hard work. Whenever I push him, he responds so greatly. He?s a good worker.?
?It?s a lot of fun. Going over there, being famous in the Philippines. They call me ?idol? now. And I say, why do you call me idol? And they say, ?Cause you?re my idol. I say ?Oh my God.? [Laughs.] They treat me really well. It?s hard to come home after being over there.?
BALITA: ?Do you think that his [Pacquiao?s] fame gets in the way of his training there??
Roach: ?Nah, not so much. I mean, we had a pretty good training camp over in Cebu. I?m just wondering now what we are going to do the next fight. Because we had a good fight so he?s probably going to want to go back there again. I think we?ll come back a little bit earlier this time. The 14 days, maybe 3 weeks to get used to the time changes. It does throw you off a little bit, these 16 hour differences. But overall, I was very happy with the training camp in the Philippines.?
?The Philippine people, once I tell them I need privacy and so forth, and I let them know that I meant what I said, they respected it. And it was no problem.?
?Manny trains very well over there. But I think he?s maybe a little bit sluggish tonight. He couldn?t slice, not consistently.?
