"Goodnight Margarito," Freddie Roach Says

“I think that Margarito’s defense is terrible; he’s slow," says Roach. "Pacquiao's going to be too fast and Margarito's defense is going to be too poor, and we will dominate him.” (File photo courtesy of Top Rank/Chris Farina)


MANILA, Philippines — As Manny Pacquiao and his team bid the Philippines goodbye, his trainer Freddie Roach shared what could be his final wish for his ward’s nemesis come November 13.

“Goodnight Margarito,” says the 50-year-old famed trainer as he capped Pacquiao’s session at the mitts, as seen during the primer of HBO Boxing’s “Pacquiao-Margarito 24/7.”

“He (Margarito) says you’re scared of him,” Roach eggs Pacquiao on one part of the program. “Make him cry. Make him cry.”

Pacquiao and Roach, along with other members of their team, have just landed in Los Angeles, California where they will resume training camp anew, less than three weeks before the fighting congressman from Sarangani faces off against his biggest opponent ever, Antonio Margarito of Mexico.

“I think that we will knock Margarito out along the way,” Roach says in an interview quoted by the Boxing Scene. “I think that Margarito’s defense is terrible; he’s slow... Pacquiao's going to be too fast and Margarito's defense is going to be too poor, and we will dominate him.”

Junior middleweights Vanes Martirosyan and Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. are expected to provide Pacquiao with more action during their sparring sessions at the Wild Card Boxing Gym, which will start soon.

Roach and conditioning coach Alex Ariza shrugged off rumors that they are having a terrible camp in Baguio City, something that prompted Top Rank big boss Bob Arum when he recently visited Pacquiao in more than a week ago.

“You’ve got to put things in perspective,” Ariza said in a story posted by Ted Lerner on The Ring Blog. “Manny’s sparring with kids who are twice as big as he is. Look at Medina. That’s a 175-pound kid right now. The other kid is 6 feet. Amir is 5-foot-10, he’s the fastest 140 pounder in the division and he’s at 150 right now. Manny’s got his hands full with some really, really tough sparring. Getting the range, getting used to these guys trying to bully him, that’s what it takes. You’re not going to have easy, great, 100-percent sparring. You’re not going to get pay-per-view sparring out of Manny in the middle of camp.”

“We’re still having a little bit of difficultly measuring these big guys that we’ve been sparring with,” Roach said, echoing Ariza’s statements. “It’s a concern. But it’s getting better.”

Over at Oxnard, also in California, Antonio Margarito has revealed that he’s totally focused on trying to win back the people’s trust and confidence and forgetting about his troubled past that has seemingly become bigger that what it really was.

“People can think what they want. May people believe I didn’t know anything; others don’t believe me,” Margarito tells the HBO crew during the filming of their presentation at the Robert Garcia Boxing Academy. “I can’t change the way people think, but I didn’t know what was in the infamous wrappings. The important thing is that I’m back.”

“When it happened, I was all alone; I asked myself a thousand questions,” Margarito revealed, referring to his 16-month layoff from boxing after having his license revoked by the California State Athletic Commission.

Setting his eyes on the bigger prize ahead, Margarito is all set to get back on track and regain his lost pride on top of the ring.

“This (fighting Pacquiao) is the moment to prove to the people that I don’t need any unfair advantages to win my fights. I’ll prove to the boxing world that I can win and I’m back.”

Pacquiao will eventually say goodbye to boxing — Roach
Despite the successes that he has had with Pacquiao during their nine-year journey together, Roach admits that he is anticipating the day when his prized boxer will come to him to say that he’s “calling it a day” to focus on his newfound career as a champion of his people.

“He loves his job — he misses his job as a Congressman. His mind was on Congress for the first few weeks of training and you could tell,” Roach reveals. “He’s so proud to be a politician, and he walks the walk.”

“He loves being a Congressman and trying to improve his country, and I feel that eventually, yes, we’ll lose him to politics.”

Sources:Boxing Scences The Ring Blog