Wild Card lock down put Pacquiao back on track -- 8CountNews

By Brad Cooney, 8CountNews.com

Let us be real here, Freddie Roach was not at all happy with the training camp in The Philippines. The distractions and extra outside of the gym activities that Pacquiao was engaged in did not make Roach happy, and he pulled no punches about it. Roach went on the record several times to express his displeasure with Manny's focus, and put it right out there that he thinks this is the worst camp that they have ever had.

When the team landed back in Los Angeles, the distractions continued. Pacquiao was whisked off to Las Vegas to show is support for Senator Harry Reid (D) who recently was re-elected in Nevada. Both Roach and Ariza voiced their displeasure with the trip right on HBO 24/7.

Recently when 8CountNews arrived in Los Angeles, we quickly learned that access to Manny Pacquiao wasn't going to happen, at least not while he was training Trainer Freddie Roach politely informed us that he had to lock the entire media core out of the gym because he was not really happy with where Manny was at in his training. Of course once Roach informed us of this, we respected it and moved on down the road to Oxnard to cover the Margarito camp. We got to Oxnard, and team Margarito welcomed us like family. We saw a very focused and relaxed Tony Margarito. We saw a focused team, and a determined and confident team. Will this be enough?

The lock down at the Wild Card seems to have really helped because the latest reports are that Pacquiao is back on track. This of course does not bode well for Antonio Margarito. With that said, Margarito trainer Roberto Garcia went on the record with 8CountNews and told us that he hopes that Pacquiao has the best camp possible. Garcia explained, "We don't want no excuses from them when Tony Margarito defeats Manny Pacquiao."

Even if Pacquiao had the worst camp of his career, he still will be a very tough challenge for Margarito. I'm not sure how they will deal with Pacquiao's speed. The speed of Manny will be a very difficult mountain for Margarito to climb. Yes Tony has size and strength, but speed kills.

Recent reports from Wild Card Gym paint a better picture for Pacquiao. Freddie Roach is a lot happier with the past few days, so by November 13th the fans should see a 100 percent focused and in shape Manny Pacquiao.

Source: 8countnews.com