Roach sees decline in Pacquiao's performance in training -- Eastside Boxing

By Vitali Shaposhnikov, Eastside Boxing

Recently the master trainer of Manny Pacquiao, Freddie Roach, stated that thus far this has been the worst training camp ever. Freddie talked about the fact that Manny’s head is elsewhere: political business, show business, and of course everything in-between. Roach showed his disappointment that Manny skipped a day of training for his November 13th showdown with Margarito, to meet with the president of Philippines. Such statements could be purposely falsified, or simply true. While this may seem simple on paper, its aftereffects are dire.

Despite what Freddie said about Manny, my imagination doesn’t allow for any belief that Pacquiao is anything but 100% ready to face Antonio in two weeks. When Roach arrived to the Philippines a few weeks ago, he stated that Manny looked tremendous. I remember Freddie talking about Manny’s unparallel stamina and general physical state. He couldn’t stop talking about the fact that Pacquiao got right into it on the pads, and showed no rust or evidence of any time off.

Now, either Freddie changed his opinion or noticed a decline in Manny’s time investment and determination, or Freddie simply expects too much from the congressman. If it is in fact Freddie’s overwhelming demands from Pacman, this is not anything we should worry about. In this case Pacquiao will come prepared as always, and will dominate his opposition just as we are used to seeing. With the fanatical amount of effort that Manny used to put in (and maybe still does), it seems possible that Freddie Roach was spoiled by it and lost the feel for Manny’s time and energy investment.

It is just as probable, that Manny’s political career got the better of him, and all of a sudden there became much less time for boxing. Politics is not a stagnant practice: it absolutely requires meetings, speeches, and dictates scheduled appearances based on someone else’s timetable. With all that and the entertainment responsibilities (Jimmy Kimmel, Halloween at Manny’s place in Hollywood, etc) a big piece of the Manny “Pacman’ Pacquiao could be lost to anything and everything but boxing.

Personally I believe that Manny is a very determined and focused individual, and that his preparations for any and every fight never fall short of anything. I think he will come ready and set to win his bout on November 13th in Dallas. And if Roach is right in seeing some minor shortcomings popping up in Pacquiao’s boxing and his time being taken away by different nuances, than maybe Manny should ponder hanging up his gloves sooner rather than later. I’m only hoping that Pacman can close his career (win or lose) with a Mayweather Jr. fight, or trilogy!

Thanks for reading.

Source: eastsideboxing.com