By Chris Williams: Freddie Roach is speaking out of both sides of his yap lately. On one hand, he’s saying that this is the worst training camp ever for his fighter Manny Pacquiao, and few people would disagree with that. Pacquiao has skipped training sessions, worn himself out with basketball games, visits to politicians, long weekly drives runs outside of training. And yet, Roach says “There’s no way [Margarito] has trained harder than us [Pacquiao], and it will show on the 13th.” I don’t know of anyone that thinks Pacquiao is out-working Antonio Margarito in training. Margarito has worked like a mad man sparring, running and chopping wood. Why is Roach talking about “Us”? The last time I checked, it’s Pacquiao who’s doing all the training and the one that looks disinterested. I love the way that Roach always includes himself in the picture when talking about Pacquiao.
I don’t know how Roach could even begin to say that Pacquiao has trained harder than Margarito. Pacquiao looked totally disengaged during this training camp, as if his mind is on something else and not focused on boxing for some reason. I think Roach is just flapping his gums to hear himself talk, because he’s saying different things. He’s probably right that it’s the worse training camp ever for Pacquiao, but then to say that he’s trained harder than Margarito. Man, that really takes the cake.
I suppose this is a way to give himself some credit it or something that he’s kept Pacquiao in line, but you only have to watch one episode of HBO’s 24/7 Pacquiao/Margarito series to see that Pacquiao isn’t out-working Margarito or even coming close to doing that. No matter what Pacquiao is doing, he doesn’t look like he’s putting out 100% effort. When he’s working the mitts with Roach, he doesn’t look like he’s going all out and instead is listening to Roach talk endlessly about this and that. If I was Pacquiao, I would have told Roach to shut up so that I could concentrate. And in the sparring sessions, Pacquiao is getting dripped regularly by Michael Medina and Amir Khan. In between rounds, Roach isn’t even jumping Pacquiao’s case the way I would be.
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