By Eric Thomas: Things don’t appear to be going well in the Pacquiao camp. Trainer Freddie Roach wants to train Manny Pacquiao in Mexico, where there would be less distractions from Pacquiao’s adoring boxing fans. However, the word is that Pacquiao wants to train in Baguio, Philippines instead, preferring it because it’s safer than Mexico which is plagued with kidnapping and murders as of late.

The ideal situation would be for the training to take place in the U.S., but that’s not possible because Pacquiao would have to face heavy taxes if he stayed in the U.S. for a full eight weeks of training, because he’s already spent a huge amount of time in the U.S in the past three years and this would result in him having to pay a lot in taxes.

Roach reportedly isn’t happy, and has threatened to quit the Pacquiao camp for a number of reasons, some of which has to do with Pacquiao delaying the start of his training camp. Also, Roach says he hasn’t had a conversation with Pacquiao in two months, which is kind of unusual because the two are close.

Roach just wants to get the training started because he wants to get Pacquiao ready for Cotto and he’s concerned about the fight. Pacquiao, though, isn’t feeling Roach’s urgency, and seems to intend on going about his training camp like he always does by training for eights and no more than that. Pacquiao has a good gauge of what it takes to get in shape and doesn’t seem at all worried about needing more time to train for Cotto.

As of now, it looks as if the training will take place in Baguio, unless Roach has his way and somehow persuades Pacquiao to travel to Mexico and train there. Its likely Roach will be okay once the two get together and start training. It looks as if Roach has suddenly seen how dangerous Cotto is and wants to make sure that Pacquiao isn’t upset. Many boxing experts are predicting that Pacquiao will beat Cotto likely by knockout.

However, this is a big step up opponent for Pacquiao, who has had things relatively easy in his last two fights against Ricky Hatton and Oscar De La Hoya, because both of them went down quietly without landing too many punches. Cotto is a different type of fighter than those two and is capable of taking punishment.

On the occasions that Cotto has been hurt in fights, more often than not he comes roaring back to get a stoppage. The one exception to that was his 11th round TKO loss to Antonio Margarito last year. However, before Cotto was stopped in that fight, he dished out an enormous amount of punishment to Margarito, and it was only because of Margarito’s ability to take a lot of shots that he was able to come back and win in the end.

If Pacquiao is forced to take that kind of punishment, he may not be standing by the 10th round. Roach must now be seeing how good Cotto still is and is worried for Pacquiao.