Freddie Roach Shuffles the Deck
 By Steve Kim, MaxBoxing (June 9, 2012) Doghouse Boxing (Photo © German Villasenor)
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The hay is in the barn as far as sparring goes for Manny Pacquiao as he
prepares for Timothy Bradley this Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las
Vegas. The last rounds of sparring for this camp took place last
Saturday afternoon at the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood,
California. But there was a significant change this time around,
regarding just who was in the ring with Pacquiao. Some familiar faces
like David Rodela, Raymundo Beltran and Mike Dallas were not brought in
this time around.
The
reason was very simple; familiarity did not breed contempt with the
“Pac-Man,” who had a rather flat performance against Juan Manuel Marquez
last November.
"
We
needed fresh guys,” said his noted trainer, Freddie Roach, last
Thursday, on what would be their second-to-last sparring day. “He was
getting too used to them and Manny’s kinda compassionate and I wanted a
little bit harder work. I got a couple of Russians and they don’t speak
English. If Manny complains they can’t understand him and they keep
boxing, it’s worked out very well; I think.”
The
bottom line is that Roach felt these sparring sessions in the last camp
or two had devolved into glorified pillow fights between friends. While
sparring is not supposed to replicate the intensity and danger of a
real fight, it has to be hard work. Roach believed he had a fighter who
wasn’t getting what he needed out of these scrimmages. “They were so
used to each other that no one was going to get hurt,” he stated. “The
Russian guys, right now, they’re trying to get that $1,000 bonus [for
knocking Manny down].”
Roach
added, “I don’t believe in just getting a guy in there and going
through the motions. It’s gotta be more competitive to bring out the
best in a fighter and that’s why I brought these guys in.” There’s no
doubt that, in the trainer’s opinion, the sparring his charge had in the
lead-up to his third go-round with Marquez didn’t get him nearly sharp
enough to face the ace counterpuncher. “I think so; it showed in that
fight and the thing is, that’s a major reason why we switched it up and
obviously the distractions and so forth didn’t help anything.”
So
in came the likes of Ruslan Provodnikov, Syrab Shidzev and Kevin
Hoskins, among others. Fresh new faces designed to break the monotony
that may have set in the past few camps.
And it’s been Provodnikov, a world-rated junior welterweight who has provided Pacquiao with his best work.
“He’s
the number one guy,” confirmed Roach, who then takes a dig at the man
they’ll be facing on Saturday night, “and I think he’s better than
Bradley. Matter of fact, Bradley should think about fighting him next,
not Manny Pacquiao. He can’t beat my second-best guy.”
So did Roach ever fall into the trap of taking it easy on sparring partners he knew, back when he boxed professionally?
“No,
I tried to kill them every day,” he said, laughing loudly at the
thought. “Steve Delgado was a welterweight; I tried to kill him. We were
roommates; he said, ‘Why are you trying to hurt me?’”
To this, Roach said he replied, “Well, you’re bigger than me.”
ROACH VS. ARIZA
So
just how is Roach getting along with Pacquiao’s
strength-and-conditioning coach, Alex Ariza? If you’ve been watching
“24/7” on HBO, you’d say that if this were a marriage, they’d be
sleeping in separate beds and preparing the divorce papers. Roach said
on the most recent episode that Ariza will not be in the corner come
fight night (although that might be Pacquiao’s decision when it’s all
said and done).
“The
thing is, I just spoke the truth. He shook my hand yesterday; I told
him I was throwing the first pitch out [for last Wednesday’s Dodgers
game] and he gave me some advice on how to throw the first pitch out.
There’s no problem,” stated Roach, a couple of days before the third
episode of “24/7” was aired. “I’m never going to let my fighter see any
tension in the camp, that there’s something wrong, because Manny’s the
most important thing and that’s what we have to worry about. So there’s
not going to be a fist fight or anything like that in the Wild Card or
anything like that. If Manny wants Alex here, that’s his choice and he’s
going to be here.”
Of
the months they spent preparing for this fight, Roach says, “We had a
great camp. Manny’s been very focused- a lot more focused- lot less
distractions; sparring’s been very good.”
SWIFT BOATING
Now
that it’s Pacquiao fight week, it’s this faction’s turn to explain to
the public why it bears no fault that a fight with Floyd Mayweather is
still yet to be consummated. Last week, Kevin Iole penned this story on
Yahoo! Sports on how a 50/50 financial split was agreed upon long ago by
the two parties: yahoo.com/floyd-mayweather-and-manny-pacquiao-nearly-agreed
Bob
Arum told Maxboxing, “See, he’s now stuck. [Mayweather]’s saying, ‘That
was then; this is now.’ Well, before the end of 2009 going into 2010,
he had appreciably better numbers than Pacquiao because the
Mayweather-[Oscar] De la Hoya fight did double [the average] before.
Since then, Pacquiao’s numbers have been better. I know what the
[Victor] Ortiz number was. We’ve done better; we’ve done more
pay-per-view buys from the beginning of 2010 to 2011 and we haven’t had
the 2012 fight yet. We’ve done more pay-per-views then they have; we’ve
done bigger gates, sold more tickets. But the point is, all of that is
irrelevant because like Joe Frazier said, when people said to him, ‘How
can you ask for the same amount of money [Muhammad] Ali is asking for
because Ali is more popular?’ He said, ‘Let me ask you one thing. People
want to see Frazier and Ali fight, right?’ [A] reporter said, ‘Yes.’ He
said, ‘Without Frazier, there ain’t no fight.’”
Eventually, they went on to split the money down the middle and engaged in the “Fight of the Century” on March 8th, 1971.
“When
it’s so close and so forth, this isn’t like a Pacquiao and Bradley or
Mayweather and even a Cotto. It’s not like that,” explained Arum. “Those
aren’t parity fights. This is a parity fight. The only reason why he
has now brought this up after two years of everybody accepting it as
50/50 is because there are no more issues. He relied on the testing
issue- and it’s not true- we’ve said, ‘OK, we’ll do the testing but cut
it off at two weeks before,’ and Al Haymon agreed. [Golden Boy CEO]
Richard Schaefer agreed; everybody agreed but Mayweather wouldn’t do
it.”
Perhaps
Arum is saying this now as he braces for an event which has the very
good possibility of not doing the usual numbers associated with a
Pacquiao pay-per-view event. Regardless, you get the sense that unless
it’s 50/50, you will not see Pacquiao and Mayweather in the ring
together anytime soon.
And
speaking of the testing issue, just which organization would be used in
the event a fight between the two titans is agreed upon?
“This
would be the only issue on testing procedures; it doesn’t matter if
it’s VADA or USADA, the testing,” said Arum. “But we would insist that
whoever did the testing, it would be under the supervision of the Nevada
Athletic Commission so that all reports or all excuses were made to the
commission and so forth. Because otherwise, it’s just cowboys and
Indians, people without any legal authority.”
(And that’s the last and only time Pacquiao-Mayweather will be discussed under this byline this week.)
ODDS
I’ve said that Bradley is a live dog in this fight. Here are some odds sent by Bovada (www.Bovada.lv) on the fight. Uh, this is just for entertainment purposes only, of course...
MGM Grand, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States
Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao -450
Timothy "Desert Storm" Bradley +325
Manny Pacquiao vs Timothy Bradley
Over Rounds O 9½ (-280)
Under Rounds U 9½ (+190)
Manny Pacquiao vs Timothy Bradley - Method of Victory
Manny Pacquiao By Decision or Technical Decision 11/10
Manny Pacquiao by KO, TKO or DQ 8/5
Timothy Bradley by Decision or Technical Decision 11/2
Timothy Bradley by KO, TKO, or DQ 9/1
Draw 25/1
TIX
Like
I mentioned before, as tough as Bradley might be, you just wonder if he
causes any buzz as the B-side in this equation. And perhaps now,
Pacquiao himself is feeling the backlash from the public who want to see
a certain fight (that I promised not to bring up again for the time
being).
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