By Chris Williams: With the latest hubbub made of Manny Pacquiao’s Canadian advisor Michel Loncz reportedly talking about cutting the salary of Pacquiao’s his trainer Freddie Roach, I think Loncz has a point. He’s paid to look after Pacquiao’s welfare and make sure that he’s getting the best deals and the most for his money. Naturally, he’s just doing what he is being paid to do to get Roach at a lower price. Frankly, if Pacquiao wanted to save a lot of money, he should look for another trainer entirely.

Roach is a great trainer and all, and has worked wonders for Pacquiao, but I don’t know whether Pacquiao really needs him at this point. Pacquiao has already learned a great deal from Roach and I wonder if there’s anything more he can teach him, aside from strategy.

It kind of reminds me of the television series Kung Fu, starring David Carradine. A little orphan boy named Kwai Chang Caine is accepted into Shaolin monastery by the monk Master Chen Ming Kan. As Caine is being interviewed, Master Kan says, “When you can take the pebble from my hand, it will be time for you to leave.” Caine then attempts to grab the pebble out of Master Kan’s hand, but ends up grabbing nothing but air. But, after years of training in Kung Fu, learning all there is from the different teachers in the temple, Caine comes back to an older Master Kan and is able to snatch the pebble out of his hand this time. Caine is then allowed to leave the monastery, because there’s nothing more for him to learn.

This could be the situation for Pacquiao and Roach. He’s learned a lot from Roach, but I don’t know that there’s enough more for him to learn to justify paying him big bank. In the U.S., companies often out source to find cheaper workers and save money for the company. It’s sad but it’s a fact of life. It may be time for Pacquiao to find another trainer at a cheaper price. If there’s not much more for him to learn from Roach, then he might be better off looking in another direction towards a trainer that he could get at a 1/10th the cost.

Saving money is important and I don’t blame Loncz one bit if he’s looking out for Pacquiao in this way. If he was my advisor, I’d be pleased that he was looking to get a better deal with Roach. That’s what he’s supposed to do. However, it might be time for Pacquiao to look in another direction towards a trainer that he can learn new things from, while at the same time get a better deal.

There’s plenty of respected trainers out there who can teach different things. I know that Pacquiao is a big admirer of Bruce Lee, the famous Martial arts film actor from the 1970s. Lee didn’t train with just one person. He believed in learning from all styles of fighting and adopting it into his own style.

He, above all, would likely see it as a benefit for Pacquiao to be able to learn new things from a different trainer. For me, beyond the money issue with having a big named trainer like Roach, I would want to learn from a different trainer once I felt that I had learned all I could from my long time trainer.