Bad Weather Hindered Pacquiao Prep — Roach

“Once Manny starts running in the hills, he’ll get better,” said a pensive Roach, lamenting the fact that Baguio did not live up to its promise of giving the world’s pound-for-pound king the morning roadwork that he badly needs.


MANILA, Philippines — Once Manny Pacquiao gets back to his old routine of running up the hilly portions of Hollywood next week, those frequenting the Wild Card would soon see Freddie Roach flashing that toothy grin of his.

“Once Manny starts running in the hills, he’ll get better,” said a pensive Roach, lamenting the fact that Baguio did not live up to its promise of giving the world’s pound-for-pound king the morning roadwork that he badly needs for a Nov. 13 clash with Mexican bully Antonio Margarito.

Because of the pouring rains brought about by a storm, Pacquiao’s morning run has been affected and although there were times when the Filipino showed up despite the showers, it was not enough, according to Roach.

Still, Roach is happy that Pacquiao is getting better each passing day.

Bob Arum had earlier expressed his concern a few days ago and the Hall of Fame promoter said it would be better if Pacquiao flies to the US at the soonest possible time.

And the soonest will be on Saturday night.

As a consolation, Pacquiao’s sparring sessions on Tuesday with Glen Tapia, Michael Medina and the new addition Amir Khan were much better than the last time Pacquiao banged bodies with his sparmates.

“The sparring with Amir woke him up,” said Joe Ramos, one of Pacquiao aides.

Team Pacquiao is going down from Baguio to Manila Thursday afternoon and the final two days of training will take place at the Elorde Gym in Quezon City.

Meanwhile, all is well over at Margarito’s training camp in Oxnard, Californa.

A huge 5-1 underdog, Margarito boasted that since he is sparring heavily with legitimate junior-middleweights (154 lbs) and even middleweights (160 lbs), he is confident that even Pacquiao’s best shots would not enough ruffle his feathers.

I don't want to get overconfident. That is a question I ask myself too,” Margarito said in an interview that appeared in fightnews. “I have been sparring with junior middleweights and middleweights and they can’t hurt me so I don’t think he can either but I don't want to be too confident regarding his power, I have to be ready.”

Source:www.mb.com.ph(By NICK GIONGCO
October 20, 2010)