In the country for just two weeks now, American trainer and certified champion breeder Freddie Roach thinks and feels that he?d already seen a lot.
In the province of Davao, where he stayed with Manny Pacquiao for a dozen days, Roach had a little of almost everything, from cockfighting to trying out some local dishes to a quick visit at a local hamburger chain.
“Oh, this is my first time in the Philippines and it?s been great. But I haven?t seen much of Manila yet because we just came in yesterday,” said Roach, easily recognizable with his Clark Kent pair of eyeglasses.
Roach said he loved every fish cooked and served to him in Davao but admitted that he?d fallen sick twice in a short span, saying it could be the water.
But Roach isn?t really complaining, adding that he had great fun when Pacquiao, during a short break in training, brought him along in a cockfight.
“I knew Manny had fighting cocks and so I bet on them. But I lost P5,000 or something like $100,” he said laughing. “I guess I just bet heavily on the wrong ones. I was winning for a while but it?s okay. It was an experience.”
“Then I went to a hamburger restaurant but had chicken. Yes, it was Jollibee. I just couldn?t find any McDonald?s,” he added.
The famous “balut” or duck embryo, a local delicacy that has made a lot of stomachs turn in the popular reality show Fear Factor, should come next, whatever it might cost him.
“You have to tell me that it?s great,” he said after being told by veteran sportscaster Ronnie Nathanielsz that he hadn?t touched one in his 40 years of staying in the Philippines.
Roach said he would try it anyway ? but not before the fight, of course.
The American visitor said he?s also seen how Pacquiao has taken his coming fight against Thailand?s Fahsan 3K Battery seriously.
“In Davao, I stayed in Manny?s house and 90 to 95 percent of the time he?s in bed by nine in the evening. And that?s the good thing with staying in his house,” he said, adding that at one time, Pacquiao asked permission to play some pool.
“Yes he played pool once but he was home early. He was home at 10 in the evening. And that?s all,” he said, hoping that things would stay the same here in Manila.
