Margarito Kicks Off Training

Manila, Philippines — Antonio Margarito formally begins training camp at the TKO Boxing Gym in Las Vegas, roughly 10 weeks before he clashes with Filipino pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao on November 13 in Dallas.

Margarito’s trainer Robert Garcia is in Sin City to work the corner of a rising lightweight star Brandon Rios for a fight set this weekend and he has instructed the 5-11 Mexican to do light workouts in preparation for the tough grind that is set to commence Monday in Oxnard, California.

“We’ll do some work here then starting next week it’s going to be training proper,” said Garcia, who will work Margarito’s corner for only the second time after the fighter decided to drop Jaier Capetillo owing to the handwraps controversy that led to his one-year suspension.

Garcia said Margarito is not the type to bloat in-between fights and he expects to breeze through training camp with ease.

“Margarito is a hard worker and is always in good shape even if he doesn’t have a fight scheduled,” said Garcia, who is upbeat about his fighter’s chances of scoring a major upset at Cowboys Stadium.

Pacquiao, meanwhile, is still taking it nice and easy, still attending to his demanding job as Saragani congressman.

But Pacquiao expects to kick off his eight-week training camp on September 20 with Freddie Roach and strength coach Alex Ariza.

Reports say Pacquiao will now instead train in Metro Manila so he could attend sessions at Batasang Pambansa but Roach feels it would be better if they set up camp in Baguio City.

“The last time I talked with Manny when he was here last week, he said we’ll be going to Baguio for training camp,” said Roach.

Roach said it’s not a good idea to train in Manila owing to numerous distractions in the Big City.

Nick Giongco, Manila Bulletin