Today, boxing message boards and media have been buzzing about some recent problems that have arisen in the training camp of Manny Pacquiao. The Filipino superstar took the day off after contracting a slight virus. Before that, Pacquiao also had to take some time off to recover from a slight foot injury. Cause for alarm? Hardly. This only reveals that the Manny Pacquiao show is rolling along as usual.
Following his surprise TKO over Oscar De La Hoya in 2008, Pacquiao became one of the biggest names in boxing. With that name came the scrutiny of every single move he made. Every training camp becomes the same story. Manny doesn’t look good. He won’t listen to Freddie Roach. There’s too many distractions in the Philippines for him to train properly. And yet every time, Pacman still goes out there and dominates whoever’s been placed in front of him.
A good example was the hoopla going into his November 2009 fight with Miguel Cotto. In September of that year, Roach was blasting Pacquiao advisor Michael Koncz in the media over miscommunication on when training camp would begin. When Pacquiao did finally come to camp, that reports weren’t good. Roach threatend a few times to head back to the States because Pacquiao was entertaining too many disractions. Later, Pacquiao was having difficulty keeping up with sparring partner Shawn Porter, and was even dropped hard according to some gym reports. This led many to believe Pacquiao had ventured too high in going to welterweight, and would fall to Cotto in November.
Of course, Pacquiao ended up laying a prolonged beating on his Puerto Rican opponent before ending matters in the 12th round.
By now Freddie Roach knows his fighter very well. Things like Pacquiao missing a day or catching a slight cold are not huge causes for concern. In fact, Roach summed up his thoughts on Manny’s progress quite well earlier today on fightnews.com.
“We’ve had it before and the hardest part is keeping him in bed so he can recover a little quicker because he wants to work,” he explained. “He’ll make up for it. It’s really not a problem.”
October is a very slow month for boxing. Outside of V. Klitschko-Briggs and Bute-Brinkley, there are no high-profile fights on TV. That means expect to hear a lot more information, no matter how irrelevant, from Manny Pacquiao’s training camp for the next 5-6 weeks.
Beats, Boxing and Mayhem 