While Manny Pacquiao grins, and betrays not a hint of butterflies, trainer Freddie Roach is a tiny bit more on edge than usual, as he’s been dealing with the brouhaha which erupted on Wednesday, when a video showing Team Margarito mocking his Parkinson’s tremors made the rounds.
The trainer admitted the video hit him in the gut. “I was a little angry. I wanted to fight them at first, of course I’m a little too old,” he said, chuckling. “I was very upset at first, I had trouble sleeping, thinking what to do about it. I thought it’s best to take the high road, chalk it up to experience. They made a mistake, went too far…but I think they should apologize to world and not just me.
“They went a little bit too far, tried to get under my skin but they’re attacking a group of people not just me has Parkinson’s. They apologized, they made a mistake, I accept it, let’s get to the fight. I will not let it get to me or my fighter, my fighter is smart and will stick to the game plan. They went a little bit too far, but we can all do that at times. I don’t think they meant any harm in it.
“We’re right where we want Manny to be, we’re a hundred percent,” he said, when asked if Manny is in tip top shape. Pacquiao ran for about 20 minutes this morning, and will do around four rounds on the mitts with Roach, and they’ll walk through the gameplan.
But Roach said he’s not expecting a tough fight. “He’s not even close to Morales or Marquez or De la Hoya. You can beat him down the middle as Shane Mosley did, he’s not too hard to figure out,” he said. “We’ll jump on him quick cause we know he’s a slow starter. I do feel he’ll quit along the way,” said Roach, predicting a stoppage win, and a shutout at that. “I think he will quit.”
Freddie being Freddie, that is, totally unafraid to talk the talk he was willing to back up as an active fighter, he threw a barb at Margarito. “Do I think he’s a cheater yes,” he reiterated. “I don’t rate him as a great fighter, we’ve fought better, he’s just bigger, and that’s not going to help him. You’ll see the best manny Pacquiao yet on Saturday night, I feel.”
When asked what come next for Manny, especially if Mayweather doesn’t accept the challenge, Roach said the team would consider 160 pounds. “Paul Williams, the winner of that fight, is that too big for us? I thought this is too big for us at one point, 160 might be next, maybe we will go to nine world titles. But let’s take care of Margarito first.”
If Manny gets Money, Freddie said, he’d like to see him win, and call it a day, the proverbial icing on the cake. And just like the fighter, he answered the same batch of questions he’s been hearing day after day, hour after hour, patient as a saint.
