Only the date has been set for Manny Pacquiao?s next fight but trainer Freddie Roach already has a timetable in mind when the Filipino puncher reports for training camp.
Told that Top Rank big boss Bob Arum has penciled March 15, 2008 as date for Pacquiao?s 2008 debut, Roach told the Bulletin yesterday that he wants to spend eight solid weeks with Pacquiao regardless where they are going to set up camp.
“If he wants to train in the Philippines, I will go there and be with him,” said Roach after another hard day?s work at the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, California.
But there?s a catch.
“We will train for one month there (in the Philippines) and train for one month here (in the States),” said the bespectacled cornerman.
Roach noted that while he and Pacquiao did well in five weeks of training in Cebu in preparation for the Oct. 6 rematch with Marco Antonio Barrera, the 47-year-old former fighter believes that there was not enough time for Pacquiao to adjust to the time zone.
Pacquiao and Roach arrived in Los Angeles on the evening of Sept. 26, exactly two weeks before the Barrera bout and Roach deems it “too short” for a fighter to get rid of the ill-effects of jet lag.
Arum hasn?t announced the name and venue of Pacquiao?s next fight and will only do so once he confers with Pacquiao and Roach although the result of two major fights involving the world?s top superfeatherweights next month could decide who will win the Pacquiao sweepstakes.
Battling it out for the right to challenge Pacquiao are Juan Manuel Marquez and Rocky Juarez, who are facing off on Nov. 3 in Arizona, and Humberto Soto and Joan Guzman, who are slugging it out on Nov. 17 in New Jersey.
Waiting for a call from Top Rank is David Diaz, who Arum said, has agreed to stake his World Boxing Council lightweight crown against Pacquiao.
Being eyed to host a Pacquiao fight are Las Vegas and Macau, according to Arum.
