Amid all the hoopla created by the sudden departure of Manny Pacquiao from Los Angeles back to his native Philippines, none other than his trainer, Freddie Roach, said it is much to do about nothing.
Pacquiao was in Los Angeles last Friday for a news conference promoting his rematch with Marco Antonio Barrera that will take place Oct. 6 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. He then was supposed to travel to Sacramento to watch seven of his Filipino ountrymen take on seven Mexican counterparts in the second World Cup of Boxing at ARCO Arena on Saturday. But Pacquiao never made it there, instead beating feet back to the Philippines.
Rumors abound. One had Pacquiao and Roach getting into a verbal dispute. Others centered on personal issues that may have been too much for Pacquiao to deal with here in the states.
“The rumor about me and him having an argument, that never happened,” Roach told us Monday night, the day before he left for the Philippines to join Pacquiao.
Roach said that the original idea was for Pacquiao to fly to Sacramento with him and Oscar De La Hoya, Pacquiao’s co-promoter. De La Hoya promoted the World Cup under his Golden Boy Promotions banner.
“But then he decided he was going to drive up the following day to see the Filipinos fight,” Roach said. “But he had personal problems, so instead he flew back to Manila.”
Roach did not elaborate on the nature of those problems, but he did say that he was not worried about the effect they might have on Pacquiao’s training, which is now going to take place at the new outdoor gym of Pacquiao’s longtime friend, Rex Salud. It is located in Cebu, one of the provinces of the Philippines. Roach said this is better than Pacquiao trying to train in Manila, where outside influences would be much more prevalent.
“We had talked about training there (in the Philippines) in the past a couple of times for the first half of the camp, but we had decided against it,” said Roach, who normally trains Pacquiao out of his Wild Card Gym in Hollywood. “Now things have changed where Manny wants to train there for the first half of the camp and then come back to America. So I just said, ‘Let’s train for the first four weeks in the Philippines and then come back to America the last two weeks, train one week at Wild Card and then one week in Las Vegas.’
“This is a brand new training camp that Mr. Salud has. Cebu is not as crowded as Manila, so there will be less distractions there. They talked about training in Manila, but I said no to that. We can’t train in Manila, there are way too many distractions there.”
Indeed, Pacquiao is a high-profile individual in his homeland. As arguably the best fighter in the world pound-for-pound, he is a national sports hero in a country fanatical about boxing. He also recently ran for office, and he made a movie. But Pacquiao will be facing a Barrera whom he stopped in the 11th round in November 2003. And anyone who knows Barrera knows that he has a knack for coming through when the pressure is on. Thus, Pacquiao had better be focused.
Whereas it appears Pacquiao will have to stay strong and not let distractions get in the way of this rematch, it was Barrera who had a fistful of problems prior to their first fight nearly four years ago.
Among other things, Barrera had managerial problems, and he was forced to leave his Big Bear camp because of tremendous fires there.
“I expect a big surprise from Barrera,” said De La Hoya, who may co-promote Pacquiao, but he is Barrera’s only promoter. “When people count him out, he always comes back and wins and wins impressively. So I think Barrera is going to pull out a surprising victory. He’s been waiting for this fight since they fought and it’s been many years. I can understand the problems he had when he faced Pacquiao the first time. They were real distractions and you lose focus. I think this time around, he’s going to be much better. We all know that when he trains and he’s focused, he’s the best 130-pounder out there.”
Bob Arum co-promotes Pacquiao, thanks to a recent out of court settlement with De La Hoya. He has respect for Barrera, but the way he sees it, there is little chance Pacquiao will lose.
“I think Barrera is really going to be up for the fight and I think that people will be able to see a real battle, toe-to-toe. You know, a great, great fight,” Arum said. “I think there’s only one winner and that’s Pacquiao. But Barrera has always been known to rise to the occasion when he’s counted out.”
The prediction here is that Pacquiao will again stop Barrera inside the distance. But only if Pacquiao keeps his mind on the task at hand. If he lets his personal situation get in the way, it could be him that is counted out – by the referee.
Roach, however, is just the trainer who can prevent that from happening. A tireless worker, Roach said that he is more than pleased about the sparring he has been able to arrange for his protege. There will be two local fighters from the Philippines, and Urbano Antillon (19-0) and Jose Armando Santa Cruz (25-2), two very tough fighters from Mexico living in the L.A. area. They are set to join Roach and Pacquiao on Thursday in Cebu.
“We will do,” Roach said, “what we have to do.”