by James Slater – Though his last few weeks in camp in his native Philippines have been surrounded by the outside chaos that typhoons and storms have been creating, pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach says his charge has not been affected; even though the natural disasters forced a move from one training camp to another.
30-year-old Pacquiao, training of course for his huge November 14th fight with the mighty Miguel Cotto, has managed to remain focused in camp, despite the fact that he had to be moved and despite the fact that over a thousand people died due to natural disasters in The Philippines recently..
“Pac-Man,” who will head to America this weekend, has enjoyed a training camp that has, according to Roach, got him into “perfect” condition for Cotto.
“He is right where I want him to be, perfect,” Roach told AFP after a recent sparring session had been completed by his star fighter.
And Roach insisted the move of camp, from Baguio to Manila, did not affect his warrior, either mentally or physically.
“We didn’t let it affect our training,” he said. “We worked right through it and never missed a day. It’s been a really good training camp. He’s been focused from day one, throughout.”
Reportedly, Pacquiao will embark on two weeks of further training in Los Angeles, so as to complete his work for the eagerly anticipated Las Vegas showdown with the once-beaten Puerto Rican star.
In the past, good or great fighters, after having lost a fight, have blamed the loss on their having to switch training camps due to outside influences such as fires and floods and storms. Marco Antonio Barrera, for one, at least partly blamed his 2003 loss stoppage loss to Pacquiao on the fact that raging forest fires forced him to move from his Big Bear training camp. All fighters are different at the end of the day, and going by what Roach has had to say, this kind of disruption has not bothered his great fighter.
But then Freddie would say that, wouldn’t he? Only time will tell if Roach is bang on with what he says, or if the moving of camp HAS bothered Manny unduly. Come fight night it’s likely all this will have become a well forgotten issue, but if Pacquiao were to lose would he use the disruptions he’s endured as an excuse as to why he lost? Again, only time will tell.
Of course, what the southpaw dynamo will be trying to do once the first bell rings in Vegas next month, is to turn Cotto into someone that resembles the victim of a natural disaster! Will Typhoon-Pacquiao be able to wreck the mighty Cotto?