Distractions in Pacquiao camp persists
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 02 Nov 2010
LOS ANGELES, CA (via Pera Padala)? Even the vast body of water that divides his country and the United States failed to cut down the distractions that have been affecting Manny Pacquiao?s preparations for his coming World Boxing Council super-welterweight title fight with Mexican Antonio Margarito.
This, chief trainer Freddie Roach must have found this out a week after transferring Pacquiao?s training camp from Baguio City to his famous Wild Card here.
Days after arriving here, the Congressman from Sarangani province in Mindanao travelled to San Diego to coach his team in a game there.
The 31-year-old seven-division champ was scheduled to appear in the Jimmy Kimmel?s show Monday night (Tuesday morning in Manila), such appearance in the popular program where he belted out a song each in his first guesting.
Another television appearance is scheduled this Sunday at the ?60 Minutes? where he has been a familiar figure each time he has a fight coming.
Count the hordes of US.-based Filipino fans that troop to the Wild Card gym at the heart of Hollywood each day in the final two weeks of his preparations that remain Roach nightmare.
And to think that Roach himself had breathed a sigh of relief on the day Team Pacquiao left Manila thinking that, at long last, the ?Pacman?, who is facing probably his toughest foe in the ?Tijuana Tornado, had freed from the many disturbances that hounded the first four-week of his training.
There was the foot injury caused by playing basketball that cancelled his first sparring day and a mild case of flu that cut off the entire day of training session.
Then his frequent visit to Manila in the course of his duties as representative of his province in the Lower House. All those, Roach taught, would have been water under the bridge by now.
These led the 50-year-old former miler-turned trainer to describe his current preparations as the ?worst? since establishing his partnership with the world?s pound-for-pound king 10 years ago.
Distractions or no distractions, Roach still believes though that the remaining two weeks of preparations can still produce the results he wants ? make Pacquiao in tip top form so that comes Nov. 13 (Nov. 14 in Manila) at the huge Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, he will emerged the winner as when he did in his last 13 fights.
?Distractions always marked our preparations in the past and we managed to overcome them. We still can in the last weeks before the fight,? Roach said in a telephone interview last night from his residence.
?As in the past, I don?t think Manny will let distractions affect his performance,? he said obviously by way of allaying fears expressed by many of Pacquiao?s seeming overconfident. He knows Margarito is bigger and heftier than he is.?
?He knows what to do. He knows our plan and strategy. Our job right now is to recover his fighting condition. To make him bigger and stronger without losing his speed. And I think we?re still on track,? he said.
?The key is how the boxer trains. The key is in diet and discipline, in determination and drive, Roach said.
(File photo above - Amir Khan, Pacquiao and Roach in Baguio)
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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