Pacquiao-Barrera Interviews

On Sunday, his day off, nice and casual; takes it easy. Sometimes he gets up and runs on me because I want him to take a day off and sometimes he doesn’t want to. But like last Sunday he did run again.

But the thing is, you know, Manny, when it comes to training mode, there’s never been a better fighter that trains harder than Pacquiao. And the thing is all these distractions go away even in the Philippines. There’s a lot of people pulling for him yes, I know, but, you know, once we start training camp, we don’t let that get in the way.

Bob Arum: Yes Steve, you see, before he goes to training camp, it’s tough to get a hold of him. He’s busy with everything, doing a million things.

Steve Carp: Right.

Bob Arum: Like Freddie says, once the training camp starts, he’s as dedicated, more dedicated than any fighter that Freddie’s handled.

Steve Carp: Yeah. I guess what I wanted to ask him then - maybe I should clarify this by asking him about, you know, when he’s not training for the fight, when he’s got all these other, you know, things going on in his life, how he thrives in that kind of environment. Maybe that’s a better way of putting it.

Freddie Roach: I can help a little. Yeah, because does, you know, TV shows and movies and so forth. I mean he again is very busy when he’s not fighting and so forth. And he’s getting pulled in a lot of directions and so forth.

He’s a very busy person, but again, I always wait for that day waiting for him to get distracted from his training and when he’s not going to be so disciplined. But that hasn’t happened yet and I don’t think it will happen until his career is over.

Steve Carp: All right. Well let me then try to wrap this up in asking Manny how he handles being a national treasure as he is perceived to be back home. How does he deal with that?

Manny Pacquiao: In the Philippines I have a lot of things to do when I don’t have fights. And I’m busy in my (son) business there and, you know, making movie and making some something that, you know, I do for my family too. That’s what I do during the time I don’t have a fight.

Steve Carp: Yeah but you help a lot of people Manny, not just your family. I mean, people come to your house and you help them and people you don’t even know. And it’s part of, I guess, what your makeup is back home as a national hero. Could you just talk about, you know, why you feel an obligation to give of yourself to the entire country?

Manny Pacquiao: Being as a national treasure and, you know, they call me hero in the Philippines, you know, I earned that and, you know, I’m very humbled that they call me national hero because I have big responsibility to especially to my countrymen and to my (unintelligible). You know, I’m still humble and still simple man and, you know, same as before. There’s no changes with my life.

Frank Garza: Hello. This question is for Bob Arum. Bob with this upcoming fight, the Will to Win and earlier this year we had De La Hoya versus Mayweather, and we’ve got Taylor-Pavlik coming up and later on in the year Mayweather-Hadden, is there anyway that anyone can ever say right now that boxing is dead? And if we’re having this all within one year, what more can we expect in the future?

Bob Arum: Well, we can expect great fights. I mean, promoters now want to put on the best fights. The fighters want to put on fights against be best opponents. One of the fights, there’s so many good fights; you’ve left out a number of fights.

There’s Kodo and Mosley in November. There’s Guzman and Soto in November. There are some great fights for the rest of the year. And I really believe that next year is going to be better.

I think people in boxing have a wake-up call and not looking to put on fights between a top fighter and a secondary fighter. The best should fight the best. And if the best fight the best, boxing is the most exciting, entertaining sport bar none.

Frank Garza: Is this in response to the UFC? That’s, it’s kind of like answering the question of competition. The best thing that the promoters could do was to go head to head with the UFC and put on the best bouts necessary and let the chips fall where they fall?

Bob Arum: No I think it was more fundamental than that. I think that there was a feeling that why not do fights that performed at a certain level and without much care as to who the opponents were, et cetera, because there wasn’t any longer any real big money in the sport of boxing.

And then Oscar’s fight with Floyd Mayweather, which set all kinds of records for revenue now, woke everybody up. Said hey, we keep putting big fights, good fights on, we’re going to hit the jackpot with some tremendous attractive shows.

Because we’re going to bring back people and they’re there. They’re there to buy the pay per view as witnessed 2.1 million people buying the pay per view of De La Hoya-Mayweather.

So I think it was the result, the financial result, in De La Hoya-Mayweather that gave everybody in boxing the incentive to start making great matches to build up huge events.

William Trillo: Manny, what’s the difference in you mentally and physically in the first fight with Marco and this fight coming up?

Manny Pacquiao: For me there’s no difference from the first one to this coming on October 6.

William Trillo: Freddie my question for you there’s no question in my mind that Marco’s gloves were skinned when he fought Juarez in his rematch in Vegas. Are you planning on taking a good look at that when he’s wrapping up for this bout?

Freddie Roach: Yeah I am. The thing was when he fought Morales the last time and he was the winning glove, his wraps were so big, they had to cut the gloves to get the wraps inside. And I think that’s - obviously if you think about it, you know, he had to actually cut the gloves to get your hand inside, something’s a little dodgy there.

So, you know, I’m going to make and issue of the hand wraps and I’m going to make sure that he wraps legally. That’s all I want.

William Trillo: Great. Bob, last question. Who do you expect to see filling the house more, Philippine contingency or the Hispanic contingency?

Bob Arum: Well, I - it’s hard - well, it’s not hard for me tell. I think there’s a tremendous outpouring from the Philippine fans. I think they’re buying tickets. At least the tickets that are being sold out o our office are primarily tickets being bought by Filipinos. But, we’ll see. We’ll see.

I think when Erik and Manny fought, it was, you know, 60-40 Mexican to Filipinos. I think here it may very well be 60-40 Filipinos to Mexicans. We’ll have to see. Whatever it is, it’s going to be great excitement. And the fans are loyal fans, both the Filipino fans and the Mexican fans. And it’s going to be an electric night.

And I want to tell everybody, you know, this Saturday in Atlantic City, there’s a great fight on HBO, Jermain Taylor against Kelly Pavlik. And after that fight, HBO is going to do a 30-minute countdown show on Manny and Marco Antonio Barrera. Going to showcase both fighters.

It’s tremendous footage of Manny training in the Philippines and going around in the Philippines. It’s a - Ross Greenburg told me this morning it’s a tremendous 30 minute show. And the countdown show, which will run all week, will - the first premiere of the countdown show will be immediately following the Taylor-Pavlik fight. So look for that on Saturday night.

Fred Sternburg: We’re going to have to start wrapping up because Manny’s got a media workout in about a half hour here in LA. So, if we can have everyone make final statements. Freddie, you know, when you look at the two Manny Pacquiao’s from the first fight with Barrera to now, what do you see in terms of difference between the two fighters?

Freddie Roach: He’s a much more mature fighter now and he’s much stronger at - he’s used to the weight now, 130 is very strong. I mean, you know, he’s becoming more of a complete fighter. And the thing is Manny, again, he’s still learning and we’re trying a few new things and I think you’re going to see the best Manny Pacquiao yet.

Fred Sternburg: Thank you Freddie. Manny, a closing statement from you before we head off to the workout.

Manny Pacquiao: I would like to invite all the people, all my fans, and all the people loves boxing and don’t miss this fight. It’s going to be a great fight. And don’t forget to buy pay-per- view. Thanks.

Fred Sternburg: Bob, anything for your last words?

Bob Arum: Yeah. Marco Antonio Barrera is a very intelligent fighter. And he’s going to fight a much better fight than he found the first time. Because the first time, you know, he didn’t know very much about Manny and he went in there feeling that he was just fighting some ordinary fighter. And of course he learned his lesson.

So he’s going to be a lot better. His plan is going to be better and he’s going to fight a much more intelligent fight.

On the other hand, Manny Pacquiao, as Freddie said, is much, much improved over the time he first fought Marco Antonio Barrera. He’s learning every fight. Freddie has instilled some great, great skills in Manny that he lacked early on.

So, it’s going to be a different fight from the first fight. It’s going to be a great fight. And I am confident the end of the day, the pound-for-pound currently the Manny Pacquiao will still be the pound-for-pound champion in boxing.

Fred Sternburg: Well thank you everybody. Just a reminder, fight week starts next week. We’ll have open workouts of both fighters scheduled on Tuesday.

The final press conference at Mandalay Bay will be Wednesday. The official weigh-in will be Friday at 2:30 pm Pacific time.

October 6 — “Will to Win,” a four fight pay per view extravaganza headlined by the rematch of Manny Pacquiao and Marco Antonio Barrera at Mandalay Bay promoted by Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions.

It’ll be seen live on HBO pay per view beginning at 9:00 pm East coast, 6:00 pm Pacific. Thank you everybody for attending. We’ll have a transcript out to you by tomorrow. And we look forward to seeing you in Las Vegas.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7