“The best experience of my life”: Glen Tapia speaks from within Camp Pacquiao -- Examiner

By Chris Robinson, Examiner.com

Just a few months ago Passaic, New Jersey’ Glen Tapia was relatively unknown to much of the boxing world. Despite sporting an early 7-0 record with 5 stoppages, the 20-year old junior middleweight prospect garnered local exposure from working with former champions Joshua Clottey, Kendall Holt and Paulie Malignaggi yet figured to be a while away from getting serious buzz on a national scale.

That all has changed in the past month, however, as Tapia has been in the news on a daily basis because of his involvement in seven division champion Manny Pacquiao’s camp in Baguio City in the Philippines. Pacquiao is currently preparing for a November 13th clash with Antonio Margarito that will take place at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas and Tapia was brought in as a chief sparring partner with hopes that he could emulate the Tijuana fighter’s pressing style and physical strength.

Tapia reached out to me early Sunday morning, which would have been late Sunday night his time, and spoke with much exuberance in his voice and appreciation of everything the last few weeks have meant to him. Learning curves in the sport of boxing are around every corner and it’s obvious that Tapia is soaking up the experience for everything it is worth.

Read below to see what the young fighter had to say about interacting with Manny Pacquiao, sparring the dynamic southpaw, learning from Freddie Roach, taking in a new world and much more…

The best experience…
“It’s been the best experience of my life. I got a warm welcoming from the people first of all. And Manny Pacquiao is a great person. I’m just here studying, studying, and studying. I’m just hoping I can one day be one of the greatest. I’m just studying him and Freddie to see what they do.”

Breaking the ice with Manny Pacquiao…
“The first time I met him it was in Manila. He just broke the ice when we talked and he was so cool. I don’t know what it was but he said something like ‘What, did you come here to beat me up?’ and I just started laughing. We started laughing with each other and we started talking and it was great. He just broke the ice from the start. I could just tell that he was a humble, cool guy. I wasn’t star struck or nothing it was just a great experience.”

Life in the Philippines…
“Everywhere I go is just different. I could go to the mall, I could go downtown, and it’s like everybody knows me. The funniest thing was when I was in McDonalds and I’m just sitting there and I was watching TV and I see myself on the screen. I was doing an interview and everybody started going crazy. Everybody is nice and everybody treats me good.”

From Manila to Baguio…
“The first few days were in Manila and we were in the New World Hotel over there. It was so hot and it wasn’t just hot, it was humid. And we’ve been over here in Baguio City for two weeks now. It’s good over here. A little cooler over here and it’s good for running when we go to the top of the mountains and it’s been good for that.”

Handling business…
“Me personally, he’s Manny Pacquiao and everything but I think about it like this; I’m there for business. I have to go in there and give him the best work and the hardest work. He’s a world champion but it’s not about going to the game, it’s about staying in the game. I feel like I’m supposed to give him the hardest work the whole time. I actually woke him up a little bit because I gave him hard, hard work and he was like ‘Wow’. The next time he came back and he really got me back.”

What people have been talking about…
“It’s not like sparring an average lefty. He’s not like a lefty or a righty. He moves to the left, he moves to the right. You aren’t fighting a lefty or a righty. He just gives you different angles every time. He’s never in front of me. He’s always pops and moves, all the time. He has some pop. It’s like crazy power but he has a lot of pop. It’s what people have been talking about. I felt power in there. It’s the second week of sparring and we have been going at it. We’ve been having slugfests.”

Locked down…
“It’s been cool. Freddie doesn’t’ complain about anything or say ‘Manny can do what he wants’. But when it comes to training he trains very hard. With the people, during the first week there were some people in there but when the sparring started they wouldn’t allow nobody in there. Now it has been more shut down. It’s been locked down.”

Learning from Freddie Roach…
“Freddie is cool. He’s really nice to me. How he trains and how I work out, he knows where my mind is at. He knows that I’m not just trying to be a world champion; I’m trying to be one of the best world champions. He likes training with me, hitting the pads with me and teaching me. He tells me that I learn quick so he has been teaching me every day. It’s crazy because he’s showing me things I haven’t seen before and it just opens me up. It’s a blessing to be here.”

The arrival of Amir Khan…
“He came two days ago. I talked to him when he came and yesterday too. I talked to him when he came in and he’s a cool guy. He’s trained like one time with us but I really didn’t’ train with him yet. He’s not here for sparring but he’s a cool guy.”

His next fight…
“I’m going to leave a little bit earlier. I’m going to leave the 21st to New Jersey. I’m going to be leaving a little bit earlier than everybody to get ready for my fight on October 30th. Hopefully I can get this guy out of here quick so they can put me on the show on the 13th and I can have a double header. Why not, ya know?”

Highlight of my life…
“This is always going to be a highlight of my life. Always. Even if I make it big, like Manny Pacquiao one day or even better. That is my goal and I’m not going to stop until I reach my goal. Even if I reach that goal this is still going to be one of the biggest highlights of my life. Because he gave me the opportunity to come over here and train with him and learn from him. He’s one of the greatest.”

Chris Robinson is based out of Las Vegas, Nevada. He can be reached at Trimond@aol.com

Source: examiner.com