Roach OK with Pacquiao training in Baguio
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 21 Dec 2010
Baguio, yes. Manila or Cebu, no.
Pound-for-pound King Manny Pacquiao's chief trainer Freddie Roach the other day said he is amenable for the eight-division champion to start training anew at the country?s summer capital for his next fight but definitely not in Manila or Cebu City.
?Yeah, Baguio is still acceptable to me and I told Manny that already simply because there will be less distraction there than in Manila and Cebu where we had bad experience before,? Roach told this writer in an interview before departing back to the United States Sunday at the Makati Shangrila.
?Besides the typhoon session here is over and the weather will no longer be interrupting his training,? the four-time ?Trainer of the Year? awardee, who was in the country along with Top Rank?s top honcho Bob Arum to join in the celebration of of Padquiao?s 32nd birthday bash held Friday in General Santos City, explained.
Roach added, he is even amenable to spend the first four weeks of Pacquiao?s build up program at the Pines City like when he trained in his fight against Miguel Cotto last year and in his last ring appearance early this year against Antonio Margarito.
The next four weeks he said will be in the U.S. ? three weeks at the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles and the last week in Las Vegas.
While Pacquiao?s next opponent remains undecided, Roach said the probable candidates has been reduced to Shane Mosley and World Boxing Council welterweight king Andre Berto even as he ruled out Juan Manuel Marquez, who he said has priced himself out.
?Marquez is asking for a 50-50 sharing of prize money, which we, of course, wouldn?t agree. Look, he was the one in need to fight Manny and yet he is the one demanding for purse sharing,? he lamented. ?No way we will agree to that.?
For the 50-year-old 1976 U.S. OIympic team alternate Roach, Mosley is most like the guy his ward of 10 years will be facing atop the square jungle on May 7 at the MGM Grand in Las Vecgas.
?Negotiation is still underway, but as far as getting the best deal in terms of profitability, it would probably be Mosley,? he said as he broached on Mosley?s marketability.
Roach said that while those opposing Mosley based their opposition on his latest lackluster opponents, this is because he was facing fighters of lesser notes.
?But against Manny, you will a different Mosley. He will be at his best. He will be Manny?s toughest opponents than that crazy one I don?t know who,? he said obviously in reference to unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr. the entire boxing community wants to see the Filipino boxing hero fight.
Roach?s opposition for Cebu as site of Pacquiao?s initial preparations was borne to the sad experience the boxer had during his second fight with Marco Antonio Barrera where the trainer nearly walked out after finding out that people close to the Pacman had been fetching him almost nightly for good time.
Having been elected Congressman proved to be an added distractions to his training against Margarito as he frequently came late for his training at the Elorde Boxing Gym in Quezon City.
Typhoons and his frequent visit to Manila to attend to his commitment as a lawmaker, likewise turned his preparations in disarray even as the training camp was moved to Baguio that Roach and conditioning training Alex Ariza expressed disatisfaction on the way training went.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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