Tweet
The carnival-like atmosphere that existed during Manny Pacquiao's last training camp at Freddie Roach's Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, California, will cease to exist as Manny Pacquiao prepares for his September 10th fight at the Staples Center versus Hector Velazquez.
In short, if you are not Pacquiao, a part of his training team, a sparring partner, a fighter who trains at Wild Card on a regular basis or an approved member of the media, getting into Roach's gym will be about as difficult as breaking into Ft. Knox.
'Lil Manila' has been shut down for the good of Pacquiao, and the large throngs of his fans and supporters will not be allowed into the gym between one and three in the afternoon while he works.
"Manny was performing for the audience and not for me and I want him to perform for me because this is what this fight's all about," explained Roach. "And we're in a big fight with Velazquez; the thing is, if we don't win here, there's no future. So this is a pivotal point in Manny's career and so that's why the gym's empty. It was beautiful yesterday, we had room to breathe."
A win against Velazquez sets up a return bout against Erik Morales, to whom the 'Pac Man' lost an exciting unanimous verdict to in March. While he fought valiantly, his trainer believes his boxer wasn't completely focused in on the fight.
"It was very distracting," said Roach. "With Murad Muhammad, he wanted some expense money and the guy couldn't come up with it. Then Murad sent his babysitter here to sit here and watch Manny everyday. He was a nice guy and all that but we really didn't know him. I don't know if he's spying for the other team for Christ's sake. Because Bob Arum, in my opinion, controls Murad."
Well, that could be a bit of a far-fetched conspiracy theory being laid out by Roach, but it was clear that Pacquiao was being pulled in many different directions
leading into the bout with Morales.
"You had the situation with the hotel rooms and the ticket situation with the family and so forth," continued Roach. "I mean, that's the last thing you want a fighter to worry about."
Roach and the team of Pacquiao's advisers - Nick Khan, Keith Davidson and Shelly Finkel - even contemplated moving the camp to Arizona and the Central Boxing Club, where Roach trained Mike Tyson last year.
But in the end, having to uproot other fighters that he trains was simply too much of a logistical hassle.
"Basically, yes," agreed Roach, who has adjusted the training schedule of his other boxers to clear out the afternoon for the Filipino superstar. "That's why I decided to close down instead. And when I said closed, I mean closed. And everyone got thrown out yesterday," he said on Tuesday afternoon, just a few minutes before Pacquiao walked in. "The Philippine reporter was pissed at me and to one of Manny's friends, I said, 'Hey, you have no business in the gym right now. You can wait in the parking lot.' So some of the people are going to be upset about it, but if they really want Manny to win, they'll be happy with it."
Enforcing the rules will be the job of Rob Peters.
"I've been friends with Freddie for about 15 years and we were talking about how to solve the situation and this is what we came up with," said Peters on the steps leading into the gym.
On Monday afternoon, Peters had to shoo away a few folks that came to see Pacquiao.
"They were really surprised," he said. "I know there were a couple of writers that weren't expecting it. So it's a new situation for everybody, but from our point of view we're not worried about what they're thinking about because all we're thinking about is September 10th."
His job in essence is to play 'bad cop' to Roach's 'good cop'.
"If it needs to be, yeah," said the easy-going Peters. "If there has to be a bad guy, it should be me."
"He and Justin (Fortune) are the bad guys," says Roach, who is relieved that he no longer has to play doorman at his own gym. "So no one will get to me to ask me, because I'm too easy. I told them if my mother comes, throw her out too."
And nobody is happier about the new edict than the no-nonsense Fortune, who is Roach's top assistant at Wild Card. In the past, he has made it no secret that Roach's open-gym policy was simply too open when it came to Pacquiao.
"Everyone's happy," says the Aussie, "the pros are happy, Manny likes it because he gets to move, no one takes up all the equipment. He has room to move. We still have pros and licensed fighters that have fights coming up that still train," said Fortune, alluding to Brian Viloria and Vanes Martirosyan, who also fight on that September 10th card.
But there is a downside, because of the two hour window when the gym is shut down, Wild Card becomes overcrowded in the hour or two leading up to one. On Tuesday afternoon, every heavy bag, speed bag, double-end bag, and virtually every single square inch in the gym was being utilized.
The gym might as well have had a 'no vacancy' sign posted at the front entrance.
"It's a nightmare," concedes Fortune. "It's packed before one, but after one it's nice. So we get people to come back. What can we do? Otherwise, we'll have 400 Filipinos in here. It's too many fans, too many spectators."
"There was never less than a dozen people around him," continued Fortune. "Everyone boosting his ego, telling him that Morales wasn't that good, he was easy. C'mon, it's Morales."
But while he might get the privacy and solitude he needs, perhaps he will lose that special connection he enjoyed with the fiercely loyal fan base that adores him. But then again, it's hard to keep your fans happy if you don't win fights.
"When he had Barrera there was Buboy and Jerry and that was it," said Fortune of the training camp that took place in the early fall of 2003. "He destroyed Barrera. With (Juan Manuel) Marquez, there was just people everywhere. Morales, it was like a zoo in the house. It's too much of a distraction; he can't concentrate, and he can't train as well as we want him to train."
Ironically, Barrera himself had perhaps his most turbulent camp leading into that bout with Pacquiao. Many trainers will tell you that when boxers are evenly matched, oftentimes it's the fighter who has the better training camp that will come out victorious.
As he strode in each day to prepare for Morales, he would be bombarded with autograph and photo requests from his fans, who would often camp out near the gym hours before his arrival. It would take a good hour - hour and forty-five minutes for Pacquiao to get from the front door to his dressing quarters (which can't be more than 15 yards from each other) as he accommodated every request from his rabid following.
Today, he simply walks in, shakes a few hands, goes into the dressing room and is taped up and ready to go within minutes.
With his recent emancipation from Murad Muhammad, he looks like a fighter at ease.
"Yeah, I'm happy," says Pacquiao. "Finally, no bothers."
As for the closed gym, "My coach did this idea."
He would add, "I'm very focused on my next fight, I'm very concentrated."
You get the sense that whether there were four people in the gym watching him or 4,000, he'd work hard. After all, he only has one speed - fast. But Fortune, a former heavyweight back in his day, knows how he wanted it as an active fighter in training.
"Nobody except fighters," he bristled. "I didn't like people just sitting there, watching and criticizing us, especially when they're not fighters."
Peters is confident that Pacquiao's fans will cooperate for the good of their hero.
"I think so; I think there are going to be certain people that will show up and haven't heard the news. But I think they will respect his privacy, and especially the longer that we do it, they'll listen."
crackboxing.com
In short, if you are not Pacquiao, a part of his training team, a sparring partner, a fighter who trains at Wild Card on a regular basis or an approved member of the media, getting into Roach's gym will be about as difficult as breaking into Ft. Knox.
'Lil Manila' has been shut down for the good of Pacquiao, and the large throngs of his fans and supporters will not be allowed into the gym between one and three in the afternoon while he works.
"Manny was performing for the audience and not for me and I want him to perform for me because this is what this fight's all about," explained Roach. "And we're in a big fight with Velazquez; the thing is, if we don't win here, there's no future. So this is a pivotal point in Manny's career and so that's why the gym's empty. It was beautiful yesterday, we had room to breathe."
A win against Velazquez sets up a return bout against Erik Morales, to whom the 'Pac Man' lost an exciting unanimous verdict to in March. While he fought valiantly, his trainer believes his boxer wasn't completely focused in on the fight.
"It was very distracting," said Roach. "With Murad Muhammad, he wanted some expense money and the guy couldn't come up with it. Then Murad sent his babysitter here to sit here and watch Manny everyday. He was a nice guy and all that but we really didn't know him. I don't know if he's spying for the other team for Christ's sake. Because Bob Arum, in my opinion, controls Murad."
Well, that could be a bit of a far-fetched conspiracy theory being laid out by Roach, but it was clear that Pacquiao was being pulled in many different directions
leading into the bout with Morales.
"You had the situation with the hotel rooms and the ticket situation with the family and so forth," continued Roach. "I mean, that's the last thing you want a fighter to worry about."
Roach and the team of Pacquiao's advisers - Nick Khan, Keith Davidson and Shelly Finkel - even contemplated moving the camp to Arizona and the Central Boxing Club, where Roach trained Mike Tyson last year.
But in the end, having to uproot other fighters that he trains was simply too much of a logistical hassle.
"Basically, yes," agreed Roach, who has adjusted the training schedule of his other boxers to clear out the afternoon for the Filipino superstar. "That's why I decided to close down instead. And when I said closed, I mean closed. And everyone got thrown out yesterday," he said on Tuesday afternoon, just a few minutes before Pacquiao walked in. "The Philippine reporter was pissed at me and to one of Manny's friends, I said, 'Hey, you have no business in the gym right now. You can wait in the parking lot.' So some of the people are going to be upset about it, but if they really want Manny to win, they'll be happy with it."
Enforcing the rules will be the job of Rob Peters.
"I've been friends with Freddie for about 15 years and we were talking about how to solve the situation and this is what we came up with," said Peters on the steps leading into the gym.
On Monday afternoon, Peters had to shoo away a few folks that came to see Pacquiao.
"They were really surprised," he said. "I know there were a couple of writers that weren't expecting it. So it's a new situation for everybody, but from our point of view we're not worried about what they're thinking about because all we're thinking about is September 10th."
His job in essence is to play 'bad cop' to Roach's 'good cop'.
"If it needs to be, yeah," said the easy-going Peters. "If there has to be a bad guy, it should be me."
"He and Justin (Fortune) are the bad guys," says Roach, who is relieved that he no longer has to play doorman at his own gym. "So no one will get to me to ask me, because I'm too easy. I told them if my mother comes, throw her out too."
And nobody is happier about the new edict than the no-nonsense Fortune, who is Roach's top assistant at Wild Card. In the past, he has made it no secret that Roach's open-gym policy was simply too open when it came to Pacquiao.
"Everyone's happy," says the Aussie, "the pros are happy, Manny likes it because he gets to move, no one takes up all the equipment. He has room to move. We still have pros and licensed fighters that have fights coming up that still train," said Fortune, alluding to Brian Viloria and Vanes Martirosyan, who also fight on that September 10th card.
But there is a downside, because of the two hour window when the gym is shut down, Wild Card becomes overcrowded in the hour or two leading up to one. On Tuesday afternoon, every heavy bag, speed bag, double-end bag, and virtually every single square inch in the gym was being utilized.
The gym might as well have had a 'no vacancy' sign posted at the front entrance.
"It's a nightmare," concedes Fortune. "It's packed before one, but after one it's nice. So we get people to come back. What can we do? Otherwise, we'll have 400 Filipinos in here. It's too many fans, too many spectators."
"There was never less than a dozen people around him," continued Fortune. "Everyone boosting his ego, telling him that Morales wasn't that good, he was easy. C'mon, it's Morales."
But while he might get the privacy and solitude he needs, perhaps he will lose that special connection he enjoyed with the fiercely loyal fan base that adores him. But then again, it's hard to keep your fans happy if you don't win fights.
"When he had Barrera there was Buboy and Jerry and that was it," said Fortune of the training camp that took place in the early fall of 2003. "He destroyed Barrera. With (Juan Manuel) Marquez, there was just people everywhere. Morales, it was like a zoo in the house. It's too much of a distraction; he can't concentrate, and he can't train as well as we want him to train."
Ironically, Barrera himself had perhaps his most turbulent camp leading into that bout with Pacquiao. Many trainers will tell you that when boxers are evenly matched, oftentimes it's the fighter who has the better training camp that will come out victorious.
As he strode in each day to prepare for Morales, he would be bombarded with autograph and photo requests from his fans, who would often camp out near the gym hours before his arrival. It would take a good hour - hour and forty-five minutes for Pacquiao to get from the front door to his dressing quarters (which can't be more than 15 yards from each other) as he accommodated every request from his rabid following.
Today, he simply walks in, shakes a few hands, goes into the dressing room and is taped up and ready to go within minutes.
With his recent emancipation from Murad Muhammad, he looks like a fighter at ease.
"Yeah, I'm happy," says Pacquiao. "Finally, no bothers."
As for the closed gym, "My coach did this idea."
He would add, "I'm very focused on my next fight, I'm very concentrated."
You get the sense that whether there were four people in the gym watching him or 4,000, he'd work hard. After all, he only has one speed - fast. But Fortune, a former heavyweight back in his day, knows how he wanted it as an active fighter in training.
"Nobody except fighters," he bristled. "I didn't like people just sitting there, watching and criticizing us, especially when they're not fighters."
Peters is confident that Pacquiao's fans will cooperate for the good of their hero.
"I think so; I think there are going to be certain people that will show up and haven't heard the news. But I think they will respect his privacy, and especially the longer that we do it, they'll listen."
crackboxing.com