Bob Arum went to the Philippines this week to watch his prized boxer, Manny Pacquiao, train for his Nov. 13 light middleweight title fight with Antonio Margarito in Dallas.
What the 79-year-old Hall of Fame promoter found was a typhoon ravaging the island country and a distracted fighter who was "lagging behind" in his training schedule for a fight a little more than three weeks away. Neither scenario left him feeling particularly good.
"There are so many distractions here in the Philippines that, while (trainer) Freddie (Roach) believes he will be OK once we get him to Los Angeles, his preparation — for Manny — leaves something to be desired," Arum said. "When he hits the mitts, he demonstrates his quickness. But when he's sparring, whether it's because he's adjusting to bigger guys, taller guys, or whether he really hasn't got the conditioning to fight at full speed the way he always does, I'm not sure."Arum said Roach didn't seem to be worried about Pacquiao's progress. And Typhoon Megi, which killed at least 13 people and destroyed thousands of homes, mostly skirted Baguio City, where Pacquiao trains.
"Freddie believes that when he gets to the United States, that speed element will come," Arum said. "And I must say when he sparred on Saturday, while most of the time he didn't demonstrate that quickness ... there were times when he sparred within the round — it wasn't sustained — when he just unleashed dozens of punches that the partners couldn't answer."
Whenever Pacquiao trains in Baguio or Manila, where he will work out today and Friday before jetting to Los Angeles to finish his training at Roach's Wild Card Gym, the popular figure and congressman in his home country gets pulled in several directions.
"Last night, somebody got it into their heads that the country club would provide a big party for the HBO people (filming 24/7, which premiers Saturday at 10:30 p.m. ET), the sparring partners, for all of us. And somebody committed Manny to go," Arum says. "The weather was horrid. I said, 'Don't bring him out in that kind of weather.' But they brought him to this party at 10 at night."
Margarito, training in California, will be anything but a pushover, said Arum, who also promotes the disgraced Mexican.
Margarito was suspended in the USA for a year after being caught with illegal hand wraps during his fight with Shane Mosley nearly two years ago and has fought once since then, a 10-round decision against Roberto Garcia in Mexico in May.
"He is absolutely convinced that he's going to beat Manny," Arum said. "He's a warrior and has super confidence in himself, but he really believes he's too strong, too tough for Pacquiao."
Margarito is so confident he made an all-or-nothing deal with the clothing company Affliction. Margarito, who has had a long association with Affliction, proposed that if he beats Pacquiao, he'd be paid a five-figure fee. If he loses, he gets nothing.
"I have full confidence that I am going to beat Manny Pacquiao, and this deal with Affliction reinforces that confidence," said Margarito, a three-time world champ. "I appreciate that they are willing to continue to support me for this fight. I will be taking their money home, too."
Tom Atencio, Affliction's chief of sports marketing, said he had no problem giving Margarito another chance. "There's only two people who know what happened. The guy that wrapped his hands and him," he said. "Who am I, who is anybody to judge?
"I don't think it's a bad thing to give somebody a second chance. At the end of the day, if he wins, he's going to be a hero again."
Arum thinks Pacquiao will be challenged.
"The only way he beats Margarito is to out-speed him and attack Margarito with both hands," Arum said. "(But) I think Margarito is the kind of fighter that has trouble handling speed."
Source: usatoday.com
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