By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao’s training at the Wild Card Gym has been delayed by another day while challenger Joshua Clottey’s training which began last week has been disrupted after his trainer was temporarily refused a visa by the US Embassy in Accra, Ghana.
Trainer Freddie Roach who flew back to Los Angeles from New York aboard a private plane along with Pacquiao, Filipino trainer Restituto “Buboy” Fernandez, Pacquiao adviser Michael Koncz, lawyer Franklin “Jeng” Gacal and Bulletin boxing writer Nick Giongco told the champion to take a rest after a grueling two-stop press tour which opened at the Dallas Cowboys $1.2 billion stadium on Tuesday followed by the Madison Square Garden event the following day.
Pacquiao was supposed to start training at the Wild Card Gym on Thursday (Friday in Manila) but Roach asked him to take a day’s rest before buckling down to the grueling training regimen he is normally used to.
Clottey appeared to have even bigger problems and was reported heading back to Ghana to resolve the issue of visas for trainer Godwin Nii Dzanie Koet and assistant trainer Daniel Clottey whose US visas had expired last November.
Clottey was to begin intensive training for his March 13 showdown with Pacquiao and his trainer in a conversation with Nathaniel Attoh of Joy News described the snafu as “very frustrating.” He was quoted as saying “an officer looked into the documents I had with me and he just wrote something that they were going to do their investigation and give me a call. I don’t know what investigations they want to carry out.” Daniel Clottey, on the other hand, was reportedly flatly refused a visa.
