After a week in Baguio, Roach happy with what he saw
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 03 Oct 2010
BAGUIO CITY ? After two days and eight rounds of sparring, Manny Pacquiao?s chief trainer Freddie Roach sounded generally happy over the first two weeks of training the reigning World Boxing Organization welterweight champion has undertaken.
?Very much better than we had expected, Roach told this writer following the Pacman?s four-round session with the tall super-welterweight sparring mate Michael Medina, whom the Filipino ring idol nearly sent to the canvass Saturday.
Two days prior, the 31-year-old seven-division champ, likewise, engaged young, 20-year old junior-welter Glen Medina, also in four rounds in his first skirmish atop the ring in nearly seven months since winning via decision over an outclassed Joshua Clottey in Dallas, Texas.
?There still were some bad moves, but there were some good moves, too,? Roach said.? I expected that as part of the first days outside of doing the mitts. Glen was perfect. He fought just like Margarito Thursday.?
?As I said, I picked th4e right guys and both Glen and Michael showed that. Glen was very strong and aggressive, the 54-year-old training legend said.? Michael, on the other hand, provided the height Margarito has. He was a bit starstruck having seen and faced Manny for the first time. But he can give Manny more as days wore on.?
?Manny?s timing was still off a little bit against Glen.. He hasn?t boxed since the Clottey fight. I?m happy with it. I saw a couple of mistakes. Manny got hit a couple of times when he shouldn?t have. And that?s my job comes the third week of preparations. We?ll work it out on the mitts. That?s my job to show him how to defend,? he said.
?He knows the mistakes he made. He?s getting his feet wet, he?s getting back into it. It takes time. That?s why my training camps are eight weeks long. We?ve got seven weeks to go. We?re ahead of schedule. But the best part about today is that Tapia fights just like Margarito, Roach added.
Just like what he said upon their arrival in Manila, Tapia was like a clone of Margarito, whom Pacquiao fights November 13 in Dallas. He?s sloppy at times, but comes forward, comes wide with his punches, but heavy handed and he?s rugged.
?We know how to beat this guy (Margarito).We have a plan A, a plan B, and sometimes a plan C. If we don?t do it here in the gym, we?ll never do it in the fight,? Roach told Ring Magazine?s Ted Lerner. ?We cover all our bases in the gym. Manny understands the game plan and he follows it completely, but sometimes when a fighter gets hit and gets angry, he will exchange. But that?s something I like. That?s in his heart. That?s what makes Manny Pacqiuao, Manny Pacquiao.?
So confident was Roach on how Pacquiao was responding to the training regimen, he gave him permission to fly to Manila Saturday afternoon right after sparring to be with his family in Sta. Rosa in Laguna on the occasion his daughter Princess? birthday celebration.
?If there?s anything that amaze Roach more, it is Pacquiao?s big heart and work ethics, which he said always exceed his expectations despite having been together for nine years.
??He?s been beat the shit out of me each time we train for a fighter. . He hurt me with more shots than usual yesterday (Saturday). And the other day he knocked me down right in my ass. First time in my life. He uses his whole body weight, from his legs. He?s got so much explosion, ? he said in reference to Wednesday?s mitts session.
? He?s so fast, he just like ? wham! He actually explodes on you. And that?s one thing he?s always had. But now he knows how to use it effectively. It?s something we work on every day, but that power of his, I can?t take credit for that. He was born with it.,? he said. He could always knock you out with one punch. I?ve tried to get him to hone that power in a more productive way."
For the next month before the actual duel, the trainer and his boxer two will gradually be tracing the road they were at since they first met, ,hone that incredible power and speed with some of the most-extreme training Roach has lined up in the hope of handing his prized ward, the first man ever to win seven championships in as many divisions, his, probably, hard-to-duplicate, eighth.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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