By Chris Williams: Just like with his last two training camps, trainer Freddie Roach is very pleased with how his fighter Manny Pacquiao (54-4-2, 38 KO’s) looked in his first day of training with him on Monday at the Wildcard Gym in Los Angeles, California.
Pacquiao’s adviser Michael Koncz told Philboxing.com “[Roach] is very happy at the condition Manny showed iup in and he’ll spar six rounds on Tuesday.”
Pacquiao, 33, is getting ready for his December 8th fight with Juan Manuel Marquez at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. This will be the fourth fight between them and Roach is hoping Pacquiao will be able to knock Marquez out this time to remove any doubt about who the real winner should be. This comes after Pacquiao has won two fights over Marquez that the boxing public largely disagreed with. Pacquiao was also given a draw in his first fight with Marquez in 2004 that many in the boxing public thought should have gone to Marquez. Even if Pacquiao can beat the nearly 40-year-old Marquez now, it won’t remove the taint from the three prior fights when Marquez was in his prime. Beating him now is kind of meaningless given his age. Pacquiao is 33 and Marquez is 39.
The weird part about the last fight between Marquez and Pacquiao, besides the controversial win Pacquiao was given, was how Roach had been saying how good Pacquiao was looking all throughout his training camp. But after Pacquiao performed horribly and got the questionable win, Roach started talking about Pacquiao having family problems that could have distracted him from his training. It seemed like a poor excuse from Roach to try explain away the fact that Pacquiao had once again been out-boxed by Marquez.
Now we’re already hearing from Roach about how good Pacquiao is looking, and I’m wondering what the excuse will be if Pacquiao fails to look good in this fight. It can’t be family problems because he already used that one. New shoes? Nope, can’t be that one. Leg cramps? He already used that one. It’s endless I guess.
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