By Dave Lahr: Robert Garcia, the trainer for two-time welterweight champion Antonio Margarito, is very impressed with the effort that Margarito is putting out in training camp for his preparation for his November 13th fight against Manny Pacquiao at the Cowboy Stadium, in Arlington, Texas. Garcia, speaking to the Manilatimes.net, said “I’ve never seen a fighter train this hard. He’s pushing himself to the limit and we can expect him to be in his best shape ever for his fight with Manny Pacquiao. Last week we were doing eight rounds every other day, but on the last day of the sparring, Tony wanted an extra round so we went nine rounds. Next week we’re ready to go 10 rounds.”

This isn’t good news for Pacquiao, who recently missed a day of training for a virus infection and he then reportedly blew off another gym workout to meet a political figure. With all the basketball games that Pacquiao is playing in between training, you have to wonder whether his trainer Freddie Roach really has control over the Filipino star or not. It looks like Pacquiao isn’t entirely motivated for this fight for some reason. Could it be that Pacquiao is overlooking Margarito, and thinks that he has the fight in the bag?

This kind of reminds me of the Rocky movie when Rocky was killing himself in training in an icehouse, while Apollo Creed, dressed like a politician, was asking for more coffee. Margarito could become the Filipino assassin on November 13th by wiping the deck with Pacquiao and sending him home to the Philippines beaten up. It would be a good lesson I think. Pacquiao would then work the way that Margarito is working now and try to avenge the defeat. We would then see an even better fight unless Pacquiao is too far gone from the beating in this fight.