By Dave Lahr: With only a month to go before their mini-mega fight at the Cowboys Stadium, in Arlington, Texas, Manny Pacquiao has reportedly become ill with a virus that’s getting in the way of his training for his bout next month against Antonio Margarito on November 13th. Depending on how long this illness lingers, it could mess Pacquiao up much worse than you can imagine. His trainer Freddie Roach said in the past that having blood taken from Pacquiao for random blood tests would mess him up for three days.

Well, getting ill could likely be a lot worse than that if this thing lingers, and you got to expect that Pacquiao won’t be at full strength for awhile if it really is a virus. The illness is affected his sinus, and that’s going to hurt Pacquiao’s breathing. Pacquiao has got a month to get his act together for Margarito. Hopefully, he’s not going to use the illness as an excuse if Margarito destroys him or if he struggles and looks bad against the Mexican fighter.

That’s the problem with getting sick while in training camp. Fighters often use that as an excuse to explain why they got whipped. Will Pacquiao do the same when/if Margarito whips him like a child? Pacquiao has been in with some fighters recently who were coming off of serious beat downs. Margarito is one of them, but I think he’s past the beating from Shane Mosley and is going to really like Pacquiao’s brawling style. It’s going to suit him a lot better than Mosley, who did a lot of clinching in their fight a year ago. If Pacquiao comes right at Margarito for this fight, it’s going to be like a lamb coming to a lion for a slaughter. And if Pacquiao has lost something from this illness, it’s going to be even easier for Margarito to beat the pulp out of him.