By Eric Thomas: It looks as if Freddie Roach’s prayers have been answered because his fighter Manny Pacquiao emerged today saying that he’ll be starting training this week for his November 14th bout against Miguel Cotto. Roach, the boxing trainer for Pacquiao, was upset about Pacquiao taking it easy and not beginning training for his fight against the tough Puerto Rican fighter Cotto.
You can’t blame Roach for being a little nervous about all this because Cotto has already been training since the start of August and is very determined to beat Pacquiao. Hopefully, Pacquiao isn’t taking the Cotto fight for granted because Pacquiao isn’t that great of a talent that he can just walk over bigger, more powerful fighters like Cotto with ease.
Pacquiao feels that eight weeks should be enough time for him to train for the Cotto fight. Let’s hope so for Pacquiao’s sake. He’s seems kind of a little too confident for my taste. Pacquiao should have probably followed Cotto’s lead and started training already. Roach is concerned with the training location. He doesn’t want to train Pacquiao in the Philippines because of all the distractions that there would be for Manny.
Pacquiao’s a huge star over there and would have tons of media people following him around 24/7, which could cause some headaches for Roach as he tries to prepare Pacquiao for Cotto. The location for the fight still has to be determined, though, because Roach is adamant about not wanting the training to take place in the Philippines.
The Wild Card Gym, in Los Angeles, California, would be a great location because of the availability of sparring partners. However, a more remote location would be preferable to avoid the huge press that will likely converge on Roach’s gym once training begins.
One good thing that Pacquiao has going for him in terms of training is that he always stays in shape year round and won’t have to take any weight off for the fight. With him, it comes down to basically getting his timing and conditioning in order and getting the game plan from Roach. Once Pacquiao has all those items in place, he’ll be ready to move forward for the fight.
Roach reportedly has a fight strategy already put together for Pacquiao. One can only assume it will be an attacking style, because Cotto has looked vulnerable in fights against Antonio Margarito and Joshua Clottey when being pressured and hit with combinations. Those fighters were a lot bigger than Pacquiao, though, and were accustomed to being hit by hard punches like the kinds that Cotto typically throws.
Roach’s game plan may not work in this case if it involves Pacquiao going right at the teeth of Cotto’s offense. Pacquiao needs to be more subtle in his attacks to avoid getting hit with the hard combinations from Cotto. Pacquiao isn’t suited for an inside war against Cotto, because Miguel is a much better fighter on the inside than Pacquiao and would give him big problems with Cotto’s ability to throw body shots.
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